With all of the major changes in the service industry — a widening skills gap, workforce turnover, rising costs, to name a few — service leaders know there are many areas of the business that could use some improvement.
In our conversations with leaders across industries, we’ve heard the strong case for technology investments as part of larger service transformation projects. We’ve also seen the numbers that point to how solving persistent challenges will improve service performance and lower service costs.
But yet, even the most trusted service leaders can struggle to get important stakeholders on board. For one, AI adoption is costly — and not just financially. Some companies are also skeptical about how new technology can help them achieve their goals. AI is also spoken about as a complex tool, so end users may fear that it’s too difficult to learn.
In our latest eBook, How to Secure Buy-In for Service Transformation Projects, we debunk the misconceptions and share success stories. Read on to see how savvy service leaders found victory by adding AI tools, as well as how they got there, how they demonstrated success quickly, and how they got buy-in from everyone on the team.
Making the case for AI adoption
- They defined the project’s place in the grand scheme of things — and went the extra mile to explain how service improvements would benefit the entire company. Presenting a proposal to your stakeholders is the first step to getting their approval — but all plans need balance. Include a healthy mix of big-picture thinking, which will help stakeholders see how AI impacts the overarching goals, and add some thoughts on the finer details, which will help them see an actionable plan. Stakeholders need to see how initiatives fit into the larger narrative, whether that’s cost reduction, churn reduction, customer excellence, or another KPI. In the end, you have to define the issues that matter the most to your company, keeping in mind that all goals are interconnected.
- They created alliances across departments. It’s all about bringing the right people on board. Successful service leaders identified a core problem-solving group, made up of executives, committees, end users, and more. This team of creative thinkers considered the company’s long-standing problems, adding their own unique point of view to the problem-solving process. They began to understand their role in AI adoption, leading them to see how their departments could benefit from its success. Simply put: service leaders kept their teams involved throughout the entire journey.
- They showed how AI helps achieve demonstrable results — quickly. Service leaders built credibility by establishing the value of AI, emphasizing how it fixed pain points and solved top priorities. They considered project limitations, keeping an open mind to third-party assistance. Ultimately, successful service leaders built an entire experience around adoption, showing how AI could help improve customer service, reduce customer churn, close knowledge gaps, enable remote work, and more.
Turning skeptical executives to enthusiastic stakeholders
Curious about how the AI adoption process could play out in your organization? Read How to Secure Buy-In for Service Transformation Projects for the blueprint for success.
