While the pandemic affected the relationships of brands with consumers, it also led to the temporary or indefinite disappearance of some contact points. Today’s customer profile, which is highly adaptable to technology, has turned to various platforms and has acquired the habit of obtaining its needs, especially from digital channels. So, what should long-standing or new brands pay attention to in the new normal customer experience? In our article, we will detail this issue, which is very important for brands to survive.
Know Your Customer, Listen To Them
The importance of knowing the customer came to the fore once again with the pandemic. In fact, not knowing the customer fully and trying to move forward without creating a profile was a factor that reduced the success of brands before the pandemic. Now we clearly see that it has become even more important, in this context, getting the necessary feedback from the units that are in one-to-one communication with the customer, focusing on the real problems of the customers have become important topics for the customer experience.
Take Care of Your Team’s Happiness
One of the missing points in the customer experience is the motivation and working pleasure of the employees at the desired level. It is very difficult for unhappy employees to create happy customer experiences. In this context, the peaceful and happy working of the internal teams of the brands, without worrying about the future, directly affects the experiences. Despite the establishment of all kinds of infrastructure and systems, it is almost impossible to get the desired customer experience performance from employees who are generally unhappy.
Instead of Attacking Digital Channels, Go With a Well-Planned Strategy
The fact that customers have turned to digital channels due to the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation efforts of institutions all over the world, and has also led to the introduction of channels that they have never entered before. The important point that was missed here was that the experience offered to customers should continue as a holistic cross-channel. In other words, service providers who have a good knowledge of the customer’s experience with the brand with the right omnichannel strategy have come to the forefront over their competitors. In fact, those who forgot that technology is only a tool in experience and stuck to the point of creating a new channel had trouble satisfying the customer base whose demands changed. Those who deduplicate customer data and establish and operate a strong omnichannel structure performed higher in customer experience during this period.
Don’t Ignore the Emotional Aspect of the Experience
One of the mistakes brands make from time to time is to forget that their audience is made up of people. Consumers are made up of profiles that act with emotions as well as logic. It has also become important for brands to establish emotional bonds with customers, especially in difficult times such as the pandemic. Firms’ strong messages such as “We are here, we are with you, we are behind you” have also been effective in customer experience. By turning to brands and platforms that make them feel safe, people took the first steps of a consumer-brand relationship that would perhaps span many years. Frankly, it is not possible to forget the hand extended in difficult times, and it is a fact that those who act in this direction are remembered by the customers.
Always Prepare for a Disaster Scenario
We have seen in the pandemic that even in one day, the situation of companies falling into a brand new business order has come to life. We observed that companies that were not ready to work remotely as a team and infrastructural, including giant organizations, had great difficulties in adaptation. Institutions that can replace physical interaction points with digital services very quickly have survived this process with less damage in terms of customer experience. All these showed the necessity of being ready for good and bad scenarios. Being able to act flexibly from technical infrastructure to team positioning has also brought advantages in customer experiences.
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