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This CX Mini Masterclass looks at the practical realities of managing the customer journey in time of crisis. Interactions during a crisis can be the ultimate moment of truth for the customer, but experiences will only strengthen loyalty if brands have made appropriate adjustments to the journey. Show host and customer experience expert, Julia Ahlfeldt, explores how the customer’s perspective changes and what businesses need to do in response. If you’re looking for insight, guidance and practical ideas on how to modify customer experience in times of unprecedented uncertainty, then this episode is for you.
CX in times of crisis
The world is currently facing an unprecedented global health crisis in the form of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Over the course of the last week, the spread of this virus has skyrocketed in Europe and the US. It’s become a global pandemic, travel restrictions have been put in place, industries such as the travel sector have had the rug pulled out from under them, global stock markets have tanked and businesses are scrambling to respond.
Some businesses face total shutdown during government lock-down, but many others such as pharmacies, retailers and grocery stores are still providing essential services. B2B services providers are pivoting to change how they support customers whose workforce is now either operating on reduced capacity or working from home.
This crisis will (hopefully) pass, but one thing is guaranteed, this time of uncertainty is not the first and it won’t be the last. CX leaders and practitioners need to be prepared to jump in and redirect customer journey management when the unexpected happens.
Adjusting customer journey management
Interactions in times like these can be the ultimate moment of truth for a customer. It’s an opportunity for brands to demonstrate their loyalty to the customer in a time of need, but it’s also a moment when the relationship is especially susceptible to damage. The key to success is for brands to listen and respond quickly. There will likely be aspects of the customer journey that need immediate attention and change.
Regardless of the nature of the crisis at hand, there are several aspects of CX management that are especially important. CX leaders should consider these when deciding how to guide changes to customer journey management.
Changing priorities
When a “new normal” arrives, it brings with it a whole new set of needs and concerns. CX leaders need to understand how customer perspectives and priorities have changed. Something that might not have mattered yesterday is now important, and what was top-of-mind yesterday is now on the back burner.
Changing priorities bring about a heightened awareness both in terms of individual behavior and what consumers expect of others. In the case of the coronavirus, health hygiene has been thrust to the front of everyone’s minds. Consumers expect brands to provide experiences in the safest context possible, and they are suddenly scrutinizing the details of cleanliness. Brands need to respond to this new expectation by altering their actions and communication with customers.
Today it’s cleanliness, but the next crisis might bring about a different set of priorities, concerns and expectations. Brands need to be dialed into Voice of Customer Data so they can stay attuned to these changes as they happen and modify the journey appropriately.
The ripple effect of new needs
Brands should also consider how customers’ needs have changed, and what this means for the customer journey they deliver. It might be helpful to ask: what aspects of customers’ lives are they leaning on more now than they used to before? How does this impact the customer experience we deliver?
Taking another example from the current coronavirus crisis, more customers are practicing “social distancing” and living their lives from within the confines of their home. This means they are relying heavily on remote channels of interaction and phone or internet connectivity as their gateway to the world. From a customer support perspective, many organizations can expect a shift in support from physical to digital and phone touchpoints. In response to social distancing, many food delivery providers now offer special drop-off services to accommodate those who need food, but want to limit possible germ exposure or have been infected with the virus and are on self-quarantine.
To spot these changes in needs, organizations can tap into voice of customer data and/or customer activity data to see how patterns are changing, and then quickly respond with the appropriate customer journey management steps.
Deciding which data are important in a crisis is a massive topic unto itself. CX thought leader and frequent show contributor, Stephanie Thum just published an excellent article on measuring CX during a crisis. I’d encourage you to check it out.
Dial up the empathy
A time of crisis presents the opportunity for brands to rise to the occasion and provide compassion through living their values. Ideally, all brands should be doing this every day, but when the world is uncertain, they need to dial it up. When everyone is stressed and tensions are high, it doesn’t bring out the best in people. That’s why during a crisis, it’s time for an extra dose of patience and empathy. More than ever, leaders should encourage teams to put themselves in the customer’s shoes and live the values while delivering the customer journey.
On the flip side, it’s also a time for organizations to pay extra attention to looking after employees, by setting boundaries that protect them, encouraging self-care and giving people the space to just process the human experience of living through uncertainty and change. Richard Branson famously said that brands need to first look after their employees, and that’s never more true than in a time of crisis.
Transcript
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Welcome to Decoding the Customer, a podcast about customer experience and how to realize customer-centric change in today’s dynamic business world. I’m Julia Ahlfeldt, certified customer experience professional, business advisor, and host of this program. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you’re new to the show, welcome.
If you’re a returning listener, thanks and it’s great to have you back. This episode is part of my CX Mini Masterclass series here on Decoding the Customer. These weekly episodes are published each Thursday and designed to be punchy, bite-sized overviews of key customer experience concepts and ideas for how you can help your organization thrive through customer centricity. Whether you’re new to the field of customer experience, are preparing for the CCXP exam, or are a seasoned professional looking to brush up on a few basics, this series will help you improve your knowledge, skills, and performance to stand out as a CX professional.
This is episode 76, the third episode of March 2020. For those listeners who are discovering the show sometime in the future, maybe a year or two from now, I sincerely hope that the coronavirus pandemic is a distant memory. But for those who are listening to the episodes as they’re released, you’ll know that over the course of the last week, the spread of this virus has skyrocketed in Europe and the US. It’s become a global pandemic.
Travel restrictions have been put in place, industries such as the travel sector have had the rug pulled out from under them, and global stock markets have tanked. Businesses are scrambling to respond. For me, this feels just as much, if not more, stressful than some of the other major events in modern memory, such as 9-11 or the global financial crisis of 2008. So today, we’re going to talk about customer experience in times of crisis, how the customer perspective changes, and what businesses need to do.
Interactions in times like these can be the ultimate moment of truth for a customer. It’s an opportunity for brands to demonstrate their loyalty to the customer in a time of need, but it’s also a moment when the relationship is especially susceptible to damage. So if you’re looking for insight, guidance, and practical ideas on how to modify customer experience in times of unprecedented uncertainty, then this episode is for you. If, on the other hand, you are looking to escape thinking about the global crisis and wrap yourself in a cocoon of positivity and customer experience learning, then I’d encourage you to check out any one of the other 75 episodes of the show.
As always, if you happen to be busy folding laundry, making dinner, or cleaning up after your family who’s stuck on lockdown with you, and here’s something that you’d like to remember later, don’t worry about writing it down. You can find an overview of the key concepts we’ve covered today in the show notes for this episode. Which are on my website, juliaahlfeldt.com or decodingthecustomer.com. In times of crisis, our priorities and our perspective changes.
A new normal presents itself, and with that, a whole new set of needs and concerns. What might have been important a day ago no longer matters. And what now matters is something we didn’t care about before. With the coronavirus outbreak, personal hygiene, travel restrictions, and the ability to survive a two-week quarantine, plus figuring out how to manage lives with the new concept of social distancing, have all been thrust to the front of most consumers’ minds.
People are adjusting to these new needs and the ripple effect they will have on everything else. These changes also bring about a heightened awareness, both in terms of individual behavior and what consumers expect of others, which gets to the heart of how customer experience needs to adjust during a time of crisis. Hygiene is a prime example of this. Over the weekend, I went to one of my favorite health food cafes to pick up some food, and while I was there, I requested a glass of water.
I found myself watching the actions of the employee with extra interest and was totally mortified when she grabbed a used glass from next to the register. How could you possibly do this during a global health pandemic? Had I had this interaction two weeks ago, I might not have paid attention to what the employee was doing or even checked the glass so closely to confirm that it was clean. But the time of crisis has changed both my behavior and my expectation of others.
I have upped the ante with my personal hygiene and awareness of germs, and I expect others to do the same. Brands need to be asking themselves, what are customers expecting now that they weren’t before? Are we delivering on this? And if not, what can we change?
Organizations should be tuning in closely to their voice of customer channels to pick up on changing expectations so they can quickly respond. In the case of the coronavirus, hygiene would undoubtedly be a changing expectation that a brand would pick up on. And staff training in this area would be just one of many things that organizations should do to respond to rapidly evolving expectations. Brands should also consider how customers’ needs have changed.
What aspects of their life are they leaning on more now than they used to before? How does this impact the customer experience? Taking another example from the current crisis, more customers are living their lives from within the confines of their home. This means they’re doing more through remote channels and are relying heavily on phone or internet connectivity as their gateway to the world.
This means that many organizations can expect a shift in support from physical to digital or phone channels. Another need that’s come out of the current crisis is the need to create physical distance between ourselves and others. In response, we’ve seen food delivery providers offer special drop-off services to accommodate those who need to eat but want to limit possible germ exposure or have been infected with the virus and are in self-quarantine. To spot these changes and needs, organizations can tap into Voice of Customer Data and or customer activity data to see how patterns are changing.
The topic of which data are important in a crisis is a massive topic unto itself. Customer Experience Thought Leader and frequent show contributor Stephanie Thum just published an excellent article on this. I’d encourage you to check it out and will include a link in the episode show notes. Finally, my last point is that a time of crisis presents the opportunity for brands to rise to the occasion and provide compassion through living their values.
Ideally, all brands should be doing this every day. But when the world is uncertain, we need to dial it up. Everyone is stressed, tensions are high. These situations don’t always bring out the best in people.
It’s time for an extra dose of patience and empathy. A little kindness and a time of need goes a long way. More than ever, encourage teams to put themselves in the customer’s shoes and live the values. On the flip side, it’s also a time for organizations to pay extra attention to looking after employees.
By setting boundaries to protect them, encouraging self-care, and giving people the space to just process the human experience of living through uncertainty and change. Richard Branson famously said, the brands need to first look after their employees, and that’s never more true than in a time of crisis. Whether it’s a time of crisis or not, if you’re looking for help delivering business value through customer centricity, please get in touch. I’d be happy to explore how I can help.
You can reach me via email, tweet, or LinkedIn message. My handle is at Julia Ahlfeldt, and my full contact details are also listed on my website, juliaahlfeldt.com or decodingthecustomer.com. I hope that you’re enjoying the show. Please share it with others who might be interested or head on over to iTunes and rate the podcast.
This helps others discover the show. I’ll be back next week with another episode. Stay safe and healthy in the meantime. I’ll see you then.
Want to keep learning about CX?
If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX podcast.
Decoding the Customer is a series of customer experience podcasts created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and one of the top experts in customer experience management. To find out more about how Julia can help your business achieve its CX goals, check out her customer experience advisory consulting services (including CX strategy, voice of customer and culture change) or get in touch via email.
