Does a mobile strategy that puts customers first need to put employees in limbo? People have been pressing their own elevator buttons for years. Today, with self-service checkout, why do you need cashiers? Does social business really disintermediate employees?

• When airline passengers know information before the uniformed representative at the gate, what happens to the idea of employees as brand ambassadors?  Phillip Easter, director of mobile apps at American Airlines, says the company debated whether to provide airline information to employees before customers with smartphone apps. But for the sake of transparency, the company went ahead and provided real-time data to both, without a lag. 
• Panera Bread, the retail food chain, built a mobile app that allows customers to customize their orders and send them directly to the kitchen. With nobody else in charge of the queue, what happens when 60 customized orders flood into the kitchen?
• Here’s one answer to disintermediation. Sephora, the cosmetics company, acted on the opportunity to make employees more valuable. As soon a a customer using its mobile app walks through the door, salespeople get detailed data about her, including her favorite brands. 

Instead of leaving employees in limbo, smart companies give them new ways to enrich the customer experience. Via SearchCIO - Image source