Dealing with uncertainty: the importance of human experience

As a managed services provider, we know all too well that outsourcing is traditionally seen as a cost-cutting exercise. It’s a view that’s changing fast as companies seek partnerships to improve their access to talent, increase agility, and optimise the IT experience for workforces that are now largely remote.

Delivering on the benefits of outsourcing requires more than just a spreadsheet – the human experience matters if your company is to get the most from its technology investment, and your users are to reach their full potential.

At Acora, we’re already evolving our customer service offering to deliver a more human experience.

While continuing to meet technical and functional needs as a managed services provider, we’re aiming to address the human needs that will bring us closer to our customers; and help you achieve your business goals.

Covid-19 places us on battle footing

The human experience was tested to the full throughout the Covid-19 outbreak, as we faced the first global pandemic in decades whilst attempting ‘business as usual’. Uncertainty was inevitable, and fear of change was replaced by the need to act rapidly and decisively.

Even within an organisation such as Acora, IT preparedness plans were stretched to the limit. But we began to work through the problems and, like our customers, rapidly shifted our thinking – and with it our support.

We experienced a 100% increase in support calls on the first day of lockdown; 1,000’s of new device requests in the first few weeks; multiple rapid remote working projects (chiefly enabling remote access and Microsoft Teams deployments with complete security); and we managed numerous critical IT systems on-site in full personal protective equipment (PPE) .

Although flooded with requests, as an IT partner it’s our role to alleviate burdens, whether day-to-day or during times of crisis. And supporting our customers during the pandemic brought the human experience to the fore.

Trusting our core values

The importance of honesty, accuracy, promptness and personal communication were crucial in elevating the human experience over these tough months.

Acora was overwhelmingly able to maintain personal relationships, thanks to our established approach of aligning a consistent team and individuals to our clients. This gave us confidence that we truly understood their needs and concerns.

We were also open and honest with clients, since moving an entire workforce to homeworking is by no means straightforward, and the user experience becomes variable and harder to control. Building trust during a time of pressure and ensuring transparency helped to ensure we made successful transitions for our customers.

Lessons learned and progress

Like all companies, we have learned a lot during the pandemic. Chiefly that even our reliable service provision can be stretched by immense change – but also that it can be strengthened by making our customer relationships as human as possible. This has put the focus on our own services and solutions, as we evolve them to provide an even better human experience.

We are collating rich sentiment analysis, user preferences and other data to boost our understanding of the workforce’s perception of IT. Our investments in tooling will help to monitor and improve the end-to-end digital experience as part of our service provision to customers. And we have refined how clients can quickly mobilise new technologies and expedite operational change.

Together with training and emphasis on interpersonal skills that give our staff the human touch, we are more prepared than ever to deliver a human experience – digitally and physically – which is simple, frictionless, and personalised.

Read more about Acora’s focus on the human, end-user experience in our Philosophy