Customer experience re-imagined: A time of change

SOME people watch things happen, some make things happen, and some ask, “What happened?” As a business organisation, being caught up in the observatory stage of what happened is tantamount to the success of your teams and the bran itself. Hence it’s important to discuss how to avoid being an observer in the line of change.

It’s no secret that some businesses made the point to prioritise efficiency over resilience. This fact will have a significant impact on how some organisations fare in the coming months. There are three different groups of organisations regarding opening up again after the pandemic:

1. Organisations that are reacting to things: This group is changing the customer experience to respond to the crisis, but believe the present environment we are experiencing is temporary. So, their reactions put in place are also temporary.

2. Organisations that are responding to things: Firms who are responding accept that the changes are not going to go away, at least not in the short term, meaning the next year or so. Their responses are more permanent than the reaction group.

3. Organisations that are re-imagining things: The third group is re-imagining stuff because they see an advantage there. Whether these are new ideas or plans they had to make changes later, they make the most of the opportunity this post-pandemic environment presents.

In a previous article, we spoke about the influence brought about by Loss Aversion, how we hate losing things even more than we enjoy gaining them as a phenomenon at work. Loss Aversion also affects the different groups’ tolerance for risk. When times are good, and business is in a growth mindset or at least a good mindset, people generally don’t like uncertainty, with some exceptions. However, when companies are in a loss mindset, which sometimes makes firms more risk-seeking than usual, it opens a door of new, thoughts, new models, and a willingness to try new strategies too.

When you read of airlines predicting a 90 percent drop in revenue for the second quarter of 2020 amidst refunds amounting to the tune of hundreds of millions . . . you will agree with me, how we now manage our business requires new creative solutions that stand out in light of this prediction.

The pandemic is terrible in many ways. However, from a business perspective, the good from all this is its impact forces business to re-examine business, embrace risk, and re-imagine things from a different perspective. Allow me to stress that, the time to change customer habits is when there’s been some form of significant change in the usual for the customer, like the birth of a child, or some other type of change catalyst. The pandemic has been that change catalyst in many cases. Also, there are a few other considerations. Second, the customers are in different stages of the Grief model. In many cases, people are moving into acceptance about the changes to life as we know it. Some are still in denial that the pandemic is real. So, how does your experience reflect and accommodate these various grieving stages?

Furthermore, as a country we are now experiencing a second wave led back to a stay-at-home order and the closing of some non-essential businesses. As a business do we have a plan for it? We know that customers usually want easy things. However, today, that trend has changed, and people are now gravitating toward safe things.

However, that doesn’t apply to everybody; life is never black and white. But people at the moment are leaning toward safety.

So, what do we do with this?

It boils down to six things for you to do in terms of a process or what they would do in the opening up transition:

1. Interpret new customer behaviour. What are customers doing, and what emotions are motivating it?

2. Identify the accelerants that are in your marketplace. How has the pandemic changed how your market works, and have you taken advantage of the opportunities it presents? (Hint: If you aren’t sure, this is a great time to do new research; any recent research isn’t applicable.)

3. Determine if there is a further segmentation. Have the present market conditions created new segments based on experiences during the pandemic?

4. Review your strategy. What are those new strategic objectives that you should be considering or pulling forward from plans?

5. Redesign your journey maps. What nudges to customer journeys do you have that reflect the new normal and the new emotions people have during it.

6. Train employees in managing emotional experiences. How are you equipping your customer-facing teams with skills to manage customers’ emotional experiences?

As a business organisation that re-imagines customer experience which manages customer emotions and providing opportunities for new customer behaviour, you will build excellent memories that bring them back for more.

The views given herein are solely for information purposes; they are guidelines and suggestions and are not guaranteed to work in any particular way.

◆ Robert Gonye is a business growth expert and influencer. He writes in his capacity. Comments and views: Robert@realgrowthsolutions.net Twitter handle: Robert_Gonye.