As the dust settles on the COVID-19 shock and recovery is in sight, the ‘New Normal’ is now the reality, and new trends in Customer Experience are emerging.
More than ever, a radical focus on Customer Experience will be the vital ingredient for growth and recovery. Across industries, understanding the customer experience and what drives loyalty in the New Normal is key for brand success.
Resonate’s analysis has demonstrated three key strategies for brand success going into the New Normal. To succeed in the New Normal, brands should build great customer experiences by preparing for the shift–to-online to impact CX in a big way, understanding new customer personas to drive CX, and using customer interaction touchpoints as the secret weapon in the New Normal. Following these strategies with an empowered VoC program will create a roadmap to industry-leading customer success and growth in the New Normal.
Broad and radical online adoption is here to stay.
The New Normal shift-to-online service offering is well engrained in business knowledge. Businesses understand the importance of offering channels beyond brick-and-mortar in the post-COVID environment, however Customer Experience success in this period is increasingly uncertain. Customer facing businesses have habitually experienced low online CX ratings: NPS and CSAT trends for online offerings sit on a much lower level than in-person provisions. In the post-COVID customer environment, this difference can no longer be a fact of life: the same radical attention to in-person customer experience by industry leaders must be adapted to online services. The specifics of this adaption depend on each brand’s unique consumer base. The only way to adapt is through effective listening and VoC insights driving better online customer experiences.
Prepare to compete with disruptors for customer wallet share.
A period of turmoil such as the COVID-19 era leads to significant disruption. The acceleration of the digital renaissance in customer service and volatile investment conditions means established companies will be fending off disruptors more than ever. While these will provide significant platform and product challenges, the major competition from disruptors in the New Normal will be for customer’s loyalty. The significant changes in lifestyles and expectations mean customers are more willing to reconsider their consumption choices. Many customers now make radical consumption switches as they approach their baskets with new priorities. Through the COVID period, customers have exercised caution that is disconnected from traditional blue-chip safety. Rather, customers will consider an increasingly wide range of options in order to find the best customer experience.
Pivot to great online and mixed channel customer experience.
Market leading companies have decades of knowledge in creating great in-person customer experiences. They have developed unique and exciting ways to become market leaders with their CX brand and understand the drivers of CX experience in-store. In the online New Normal, this experience can be ignored. It’s replaced by a delivery driver who disappears as soon as they’ve knocked, missing items, or automated phone calls. Likewise, service providers struggle to provide the same levels of customer experience over video calls and automated chat that they can in person.
In order to retain their brand image and strong customer experience, companies must pivot to online and mixed channel services while maintaining the core drivers of their unique customer experience. The first step here is to methodologically transpose each facet of the company’s unique brand offering to new post-COVID channels. In order to succeed in this space, however, a granular Voice of Customer program is needed to develop market-leading customer experiences in the New Normal.
