From one company to another, you will be hard-pressed to find similar reporting or organizational structures. They always differ greatly. However, in the past few years, many companies have moved to a more focused approach when it comes to their organizational structure, especially regarding front-office roles, back-office roles, and shared-service functions. We can see this trend in areas like finance, HR, and operations.
Typically, front-office roles are those that regularly meet with the company’s external customers or with internal customers from customer-facing teams. That means back-office roles typically stay internal. However, we shouldn’t ignore the importance of these “hidden” roles in engaging with customers and the positive impact they can create. Let’s take a look at a few reasons for this.
Exchanging best practices
When two professionals have the opportunity to meet, they can discuss their business processes and learn from one other. They can talk about which processes or process steps work well for them and which do not. During an exchange on best practices, both of the professionals and their organizations can be enriched by these shared topics.
Expanding professional networks
Every professional should continually build and expand her or his professional network. There are several ways this can be done, such as becoming a member of professional associations, attending industry conferences, participating on social media, etc. For professionals in the 21st century, these things have become expectations. Another great way to expand your network is meeting with peers from customer organizations. Since the two companies already have an established relationship, this is also a good starting point and basis for building peer-to-peer relationships.
Helping the sales cycle
Peer-to-peer exchange also helps the organization’s sales cycle. A peer-to-peer exchange helps build trust and adds communication and interaction channels between the two organizations and supports the organization’s brand and product awareness. This makes a back-office professional a good candidate to indirectly aid the sales cycle.
Getting outside the comfort zone
As back-office professionals’ jobs are internally focused, meeting with peers from external customers can be a very good learning experience. This, in turn, will pull them outside their comfort zone and be an excellent opportunity for personal and professional growth.
All in all, there are many benefits to breaking the strict norms that companies have abided by over the past few decades. The times are changing, and now is the time to start redefining the ways different roles in a company interact with one another and with customers.
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