What do you do if your client relations team is struggling to adapt to new technology?

I've said this before in another section of LinkedIn that the Client respects a knowledgeable vendor. Actually they even wait for the vendor to advise them. It's been my personal experience in all along my career whenever I've played the Client Advocate/Advisor role. For that to happen, as a client relations team, one has to know their subject thoroughly - it's one of the reasons the firm put you there to demonstrate "stewardship" and that you must do if you have to succeed. Assessing technology skills, coupled with power skills is quite the combination! Sifting through the client's pain area and mapping the right person with the right technology knowledge and skills will avoid a lot of churn down the line for both parties.

Assuming you have the "best of best" talent identified to constitute your Client Relations team from a client relation/soft skill/project execution etc. standpoint, but you feel they lack Technology skills/struggling to adapt to new technology, it would be wise to review what is on their plate currently. Being objective is going to be paramount. Subjectivity will slow your objective achievement down. Will: Do they have the desire to adopt new technologies/spend time & upskill themselves/to demonstrate their newly-acquired learning/how much can you influence them to adopt? Skill: Do they have prior skills - even if basic, can they cross-skill, can we formulate trainings, etc? Do everything to set them up for success. They need to see this.

Clear objective and goal setting must be done. They must know the firm is spending money to ensure their success - investments needs to be a two-way street. Call out a clear roadmap. Define what success would look like - have no ambiguity there. If this activity were a CI/CD pipeline, this'd be where I merge my unit-tested code to the main branch. The pull request needs to be approved! It better be.

This is the CD part of the CI/CD pipeline. If the CD needs to be turned to CD=continuous deployment, then Incentivize. Celebrate adoption, adaptability. The change management must be well thought-of with clear communication to the participants, with reasoning, plan, what's-in-it-for-me question answered. Once the team sees how invested the firm is in their success, they will automatically start aligning and increasing in their technology knowledge and being seen as technology leaders their clients want to see.

The Operate and monitor part of the CI/CD pipeline. Make the technology learning progress visible to all. Foster healthy competition. Make sure the Technology Trainers are equally invested and equally enthusiastic as the team they are training. Seek their feedback on how it's going, how it can be made better. Conduct frequent assessments WITHOUT the fear of ridicule. Frequent progress review. Sessions for teach-back so as to gauge adoption, adaptability and efficacy. Be sensitive towards the progress you see so you can tweak the learning. Reward and recognize frequently. Celebrate team success loudly.

When your client relations team is struggling to adopt new technology, monitoring their progress is crucial. Here is what you can do to help them embrace the changes and track their advancement: Active Usage Metrics:Measure the active usage of digital assets. Compare the number of licenses purchased to the number of users actually using the software.

Struggling with new technology in your client relations team? Here are quick tips: 1. Provide training & support 2. Foster a learning culture 3. Offer incentives 4. Solicit feedback 5. Lead by example 6. Monitor progress 7. Address resistance promptly. Adaptation is key for success! #ClientRelations #TechnologyAdaptation #LinkedInTips