A Customer Success Story on How Investing in Training Changed the Game and Enabled Change in a Resistant Environment.
The Customer
This customer is one of the largest healthcare unions in North America. They are committed to defending, safeguarding and preserving worker rights, both individually and collectively. They have a long and successful track record of gains in wages and working conditions in this industry.
The Challenge - Unhappy Users
This customer, at the time of their first implementation, did not have access to adequate admin training or services. Therefore, the solution in use didn't satisfactorily address their needs and users became frustrated over time and developed a negative attitude towards M-Files.
However, eventually, the union brought on new M-Files admins, and they invested in training solutions with a dedicated M-Files specialist. This specialist, James Mayben, was quickly able to determine the problem.
"The new admins were in the unfortunate situation where the M-Files solution that was built by the previous admins was unusable. I could sympathize with the users' stories and why they were frustrated and hesitant with M-Files. It was clear that they needed to improve their solution before re-engaging end users" - James.
This kicked off a new project, where the customer involved their users and their feedback in the design process. However, even with a new and improved M-Files vault that meets the needs of all departments, there was a second problem. There were still users who were hesitant to trust that it would be better than their manual way of doing things. There were 120+ users to train in the new environment, all of whom had different pain points based on the department they worked in. Generally, these users were not happy about the change to their daily routine.
The Training Solution - Listening to the User Pains
James realized that the only way to tackle this resistance was to address it head on. This meant identifying the most hesitant users, listening to their pain, and crafting the training so that it addresses their frustration and their specific solution.
"I had to sympathize and listen to their pain points, and show them the differences between the old, frustrating way and the new, better way. Eventually, once they felt heard and that their feedback was taken seriously, they began to accept the change, not because they were told to, but because they wanted to" - James
James also channeled user feedback from the training to the admins to improve the vault so that it better serves the people using the system.
The Result - Turning Over a New Leaf
"I realized that we were really underutilizing M-Files! I really liked the interaction. It isn't easy these days to sit for 4 hours straight, but [James] does a great job of keeping us engaged… and he also walks us through the difficult challenges. Users are asking how they can better use the system rather than why they would not use it at all. We have turned the corner!" - Customer's Director of IT
There are some key lessons from this customer success story. Namely, it's important to talk with your users, not at them. Also, if there is resistance, it's crucial to tackle that directly, preferably with a specialist. If an organization can successfully identify and address the user pain points, then users will gain trust and confidence in the system.
