In our last blog post, we dove into the 3 types of users you will encounter whenever managing change, particularly technological changes. If you haven’t done so yet, be sure to check out Part 1 of this 2-part series (approx. 3-5 minute read).
Once you’re aware of the 3 user types to look out for during a period of tech change for your software, the clear next step is to learn strategies to implement during this time that ensure both your team and your users all experience a smooth, successful transition over to your new system. There are 5 ways you can do so:
1. Adequate training should be made readily available.
Your primary focus when ensuring smooth on-boarding for all users during tech updates is to make sure adequate training is readily available. Consider it from your users’ perspective: nothing slows your team down more than encountering questions or problems while navigating a new system… and not having anyone to quickly reach out to.
2. Restrict any training sessions to 1-hour… max.
For group training sessions, try to keep them under an hour — anything longer can cause team members’ eyes to glaze over and tune you out. This lack of retention is a drain on your team’s time and resources as it means you’ll probably be teaching the same concepts more than once to the same people.
3. Offering tech support should be required, not optional.
Some vendors may section off tech support as an optional service… but it really isn’t optional (that is, if you want users to continue using your system rather than abandon it out of sheer frustration). Providing tech support is critical for both your users’ success as well as your own, making it a clear win-win offer.
4. Always have individual 1-to-1 help on standby.
Self-directed learning by means of video tutorials, blogs and a searchable knowledgebase will be sufficient for your more proactive users. With that being said, at some point most users will need to talk in realtime to an actual human about issue(s) they are experiencing. So in addition to initial overview training for customers’ entire teams, be sure to always have individual 1-to-1 help on standby as well.
5. Ensure the old system is no longer accessible to users.
Finally, ensure that access to the old system is not available once you launch the new system. The consumer behaviour here is fairly simple — if your users can use the old system that they already know, they will almost certainly revert back to the system they find comfortable rather than venture into the unknown.
Managing technological change isn’t always the smoothest experience for either party, but by adhering to these strategies, both you and your users will experience a far more positive, easier transition to your new system.
