Driving successful employee and customer experiences through organizational change management

Investing in organizational change management enables businesses to enhance both employee and customer experiences. Companies with strong employee experiences are 1.8 times more likely to achieve higher customer satisfaction and retention [1]. Exceptional customer experiences are driven by empowered employees who are enabled to deliver on the brand’s promise. Building such a workforce requires a strategic approach across the entire employee journey, from recruitment to departure.

While employee-focused strategies can be challenging to prioritize, change management bridges this gap by linking employee experience improvements to customer satisfaction and business outcomes, creating a culture that thrives on change.

The critical link between employee and customer experience

Customer experience (CX) is now a key strategic priority for most organizations, with a focus on customer-centricity as a competitive differentiator. However, the ability to deliver exceptional CX has a direct dependency on employee experience (EX), as both are closely connected and mutually reinforcing.

Motivated employees who are equipped with the tools and systems required to deliver their maximum value contribution help create the conditions for customer satisfaction. Organizations must treat both CX and EX with equal rigor. By designing intentional customer journeys and involving employees in the process, companies drive engagement, innovation and satisfaction, creating a unique value proposition that sets them apart.

Why CX initiatives fall short

Despite the growing emphasis on CX and the abundance of tools available to manage it, many organizations struggle to achieve their CX goals. This isn’t due to a lack of understanding about the importance of CX—its benefits are frequently cited. Instead, organizations commonly falter for two main reasons:

1. Misaligned understanding of customer needs: Organizations often lack a clear grasp of what customers truly want, leading to CX initiatives that fail to meet expectations
2. Insufficient operational follow-through: Even with well-defined CX goals, organizations often fail to embed them into daily operations, hindering long-term success

These challenges can be overcome by applying common change management practices. Addressing them requires involving the right stakeholders early to capture insights, understand current realities and anticipate potential obstacles. More critically, organizations must ensure they are operationally prepared to implement and sustain changes.

Overcoming common change management barriers

Effective CX work requires three key phases: the right point-of-view, defining necessary capabilities and ensuring operational readiness. However, many organizations face challenges at each stage:

• The right point-of-view: Organizations often rely on internal assumptions rather than direct customer feedback, leading to misaligned priorities and missed opportunities
• Defining necessary capabilities: Many overlook the employee perspective, failing to address the tools and support needed to deliver seamless customer journeys
• Operational readiness: Insufficient planning and resource allocation can result in disjointed rollouts and underprepared teams

Addressing these challenges demands a balanced focus on both employee and customer experiences, ensuring alignment to achieve meaningful and sustainable change.

The path to building change maturity

Building change maturity requires intentionality, alignment and a shared vision across your organization. By fostering clear communication, understanding cultural dynamics and prioritizing continuous improvement, you can establish a strong foundation for successful and sustainable change initiatives.

How can journey mapping transform customer and employee experiences?

Journey mapping is a key CX tool that highlights how individuals feel during their interactions with an organization, focusing on key touchpoints and critical moments. Unlike process maps, journey maps explore emotional and experiential aspects, offering a holistic view of customer or employee engagement. They help identify key interactions to evaluate and address satisfaction and effort at each touchpoint.

Comprehensive journey mapping extends beyond customers to include employees, providing a holistic view of their life cycle. By mapping both journeys, organizations can align efforts to drive engagement and create meaningful, connected experiences.

Measuring CX success to drive gains

Measuring CX success requires an integrated approach, including both qualitative and quantitative metrics. By leveraging modern systems that support capture of essential data insights, organizations can pinpoint areas for improvement and drive meaningful gains. Key measurement areas include:

• Governance and adoption metrics: Track how well processes and systems are being used and identify responsible parties accountable for alignment with customer experience goals
• Learning and skill development: Assess employee growth, compliance and career pathing to determine if development efforts support both employee and customer needs
• System insights: Use data from tools like search history, training page visits and abandoned pages to identify where employees encounter challenges or seek help
• Performance reviews: Tie employee key performance indicators (KPIs) to CX outcomes, utilizing feedback to broaden understanding and improve performance
• Time to productivity: Measure the speed at which employees reach full productivity after a transformation, a key indicator of implementation success and critical to obtaining return on investment (ROI)
• Employee engagement scores: Conduct regular surveys or pulse checks to gauge morale and understand where employees may be struggling to deliver their maximum value contribution
• Feedback: Encourage leadership to use tools like listening sessions and inbox questions to collect meaningful employee feedback and foster open communication
• Employee behaviors: Monitor indicators such as absenteeism, tardiness or disengagement, as well as positive socialization and volunteer efforts, to assess cultural health

A balanced approach to metrics, combining data-driven insights with qualitative observations, is essential for understanding and enhancing the employee and customer experience.

From managing to leading change

Building a customer-driven culture means going beyond simply managing change — it requires leading it with a clear vision and actionable strategies. The following outlines how organizations can align change management to drive CX success:

• Strategy, goal and business case alignment: Begin by anchoring employee experience as a central part of your CX strategy. Clearly communicate the organization’s strategic and brand plans, emphasizing the role employees play in achieving these goals.
• Organizational readiness assessment: Ensure the entire organization is prepared for the change. This requires helping employees understand how their roles impact CX — including non-customer-facing teams like schedulers or billing staff.
• Employee perspectives and sentiments: Encourage employee input and demonstrate that their perspectives matter. Forming a culture team can work to transition disengaged or resistant employees into champions of change.
• Customer perspectives and sentiments: Use customer input to validate the need for change and identify specific areas for improvement. Addressing these gaps ensures both employees and customers realize benefits from transformation.
• Governance and sustainment planning: Plan for long-term success by embedding change into the organizational culture. Define ownership of the change process, measure its success and establish systems for continuous improvement.

Leading change isn’t just about managing the processes — it’s about creating alignment between people, strategy and operations to deliver impactful and lasting CX improvement that drive business growth.

The path to maturity

The framework for building an authentic brand that supports both employee and customer experience starts with your mission, vision and values — the core elements that define and drive your organizational culture. This culture, in turn, shapes the employee experience, which is increasingly seen as a critical differentiator in a competitive market. The employee experience then influences the customer experience, reflecting the strength and alignment of your internal environment.

An authentic and attainable brand offers a meaningful competitive advantage. Change management acts as the unifying thread, ensuring that each element aligns and is executed effectively.

How we can help

Creating exceptional employee and customer experiences requires more than just intent — it demands a strategic, integrated approach to organizational change. By aligning mission, vision and culture with thoughtful change management, organizations can empower employees, improve customer satisfaction and achieve sustainable growth.

Baker Tilly’s digital solutions team works with organizations to build change maturity, improve operational readiness and design employee and customer journeys that deliver measurable results. Whether enhancing your employee experience to drive engagement or refining your customer experience to stand out in the market, we help you connect every element of your strategy to achieve a lasting competitive advantage.

Ready to take the next step?

This article was derived from the Driving successful employee and customer experiences through organizational change management webinar, watch the full recording below.

Sources
[1] Employee Experience 101, Medallia