How a Lack of Automation Hurts Companies

At home, we don't think twice about ordering car rides from Uber and, well, pretty much anything from Amazon. And we usually consider such sites and apps easy to use, with relatively fast delivery of services or products. However, the widespread consumer adoption of automated online ordering hasn't migrated to the workplace, according to a recent survey from ServiceNow. The resulting report, "Today's State of Work: The Service Experience Gap," indicates that most managers still use manual methods to order work-related services (such as IT support), even though they turn to Websites and apps to do their personal shopping. The most common manual tool of choice on the job is email, which results in time-consuming processes that interfere with productivity. "Today, online consumer services are easy to use, delivering products and services quickly and efficiently," the report states. "Most companies have a maniacal focus on the experiences of their customers, pulling out all the stops to build both satisfaction and loyalty. They realize that it is very easy for a customer to take their business elsewhere. [But] companies aren't applying those same principles to their internal-facing experiences. The workplace still relies mainly on email, first popularized in the 1990s. … In effect, workers have to leave their 21st century lives at the door when they go to work." A total of 2,400 global managers took part in the research.