How to measure the performance of digital adoption?

Increasing productivity, improving revenue, or greatly enhancing employee engagement… When you implement new software in your company, you naturally expect positive feedback.

Depending on the type of software, the return on investment is measured by various benefits achieved (or not), including:

• Simplification of data management/updating;
• Reduction in support or training costs;
• Improvement of user experience and business processes.

However, to measure the performance of software, it must be well adopted. Despite all your good intentions, it may happen that the results are not as expected or that your team is not receptive to this new digital solution. Employees resistant to change or simply overwhelmed, a non-intuitive interface, or user journeys that are not optimized enough are all factors that can hinder the adoption and engagement with the new software.

To fully benefit from your investment, it is essential to facilitate the adoption of new practices and equipment by your employees. Here is how to measure and improve it.

Step 1: Clearly communicate the software’s objectives

Successful digital adoption doesn’t just depend on using software, but on the engagement of your employees, their belief in these new tools, and a true digital culture.

For your employees to fully adopt a new digital tool, they must understand its added value and the benefits they will gain. Clearly explain the goals of the new initiative, highlighting how using the tool will help increase productivity and save time. Ensure that the link between the tool and the objectives is clear to promote digital adoption. Gaining your employees’ buy-in will significantly increase their engagement as well as their willingness to succeed with your software.

Step 2: Understand usage to engage solutions

Once communication is established, it’s important to understand how your employees actually use the tools. They are the ones who will enable a sustainable digital transformation, so stay attuned to their usage patterns and business challenges. You can assess your team’s performance based on specific usage indicators and qualitative data.

For instance, suppose you have implemented a new CRM tool to manage customer relationships. In this case, you can:

• Evaluate the Average Response Time (ART), which is the time it takes for your company to respond to a customer;
• Determine the number of steps required for employees to find the necessary information, a crucial step to understand and optimize the user journey;
• Estimate the number of customers an employee can handle within a defined period;
• Assess the resolution rate at first contact. You can even calculate the average duration of a phone call that resolved the customer’s issue.

These observations will allow you to identify bottlenecks and adjust support accordingly.

Step 3: Evaluate your data

In addition to these qualitative observations, quantitative measurements are crucial; it is important to refer to them to see the priority areas that need addressing. These data allow you to track progress towards your clearly defined productivity goals. For example, continuing with the CRM software scenario, you could compare the average number of customer requests handled over a given period, or the time spent processing a customer request, against the goals you aim to achieve with your new software.

Do not hesitate to set up surveys, focus groups, or even suggestion boxes, to enable more in-depth user feedback and help identify challenges and potential issues. Involving the user can only encourage digital adoption!

63% of companies with more than 20 employees feel they need support to assess the return on investment of their digital tools.

Source: ‘Baromètre Croissance & Digital 2022′ by IPSOS