Staying close to your customers
Why customer experience still matters amid COVID-19 and social distancing.
In stable times, many consumer behaviours come from carrying out familiar activities on a routine basis. These familiar activities give consumers certainty and simplify decision-making.
However, COVID-19 has disrupted these routines. For many, this has created a state of flux, or even panic, because no ‘new normal’ exists and there is a constant need to assess and navigate the environment as it shifts. Consequently, customer priorities, attitudes and behaviours are changing.
In this paper, we set out the three steps likely to be involved in strengthening customer relationships in these changing times, and how they can help to ensure brands develop along with customers throughout this crisis – and beyond:
- Understand: ascertain the influencing factors and understand the impact of the crisis on customers and brands.
- Adapt: identify how to best refocus customer experience measurement and management to meet changing needs and reallocate resources to address what truly matters, in the most cost-effective way possible.
- Anticipate: identify how customers are adapting to changing environments and how new needs and behaviours are formed, to evolve the customer-brand interactions and relationships for the future.
