How covid-19 has changed the customer experience

man with mask

The first days and weeks of the pandemic forced companies to initiate significant changes for customer experience. More than a year later, with the risks of exposure still high and despite the fact that the percentage of vaccination is high in a large number of countries, many of these changes have become habits.

And because habits tend to stick, even with vaccines, many industries face a different outlook for the future. So how can a company have that balance for a world that has already changed? Here are some tips for companies looking tailor your long-term customer experience strategies.

Embrace the online customer experience

Since so much of life has changed online and much of it is likely to remain online in the future, it is time to make sure the online customer experience It is designed with the same care as the face-to-face experience.

Before COVID-19, most shoppers made purchasing decisions in store, choosing products based on what they saw, touched, and compared on the shelves. As a result, companies invested in shelf plans, in-store promotions, and point-of-sale merchandising to drive visibility and sales.

Now, a lot of people order online, so the whole decision process is different for customers.

Delivery and pickup have added new steps, and new people, to the customer experience. Stores are now full of employees and contractors placing orders for customers. These buyers are more interested in speed and precision than bargains, so they are not influenced by promotions. All buyers want is that the products are in stock, that are easy to identify, clear and simple.

Recalibrate the in-person experience

There is no doubt that the in-person customer experience has received the greatest impact from the pandemic. And for many retailers, that retail experience was always important. Now even if you go to the store, it is a lonelier experience and it is very different for brand building.

Consumers want to know that a company cares about them, given all the uncertainty that exists right now.

hand washing

Still, it can't be all hand sanitizer and no style, especially for brands that have strong emotional appeal and where customer service tends to be less transactional and more relational. These companies must be particularly creative in brand building.

The best of both worlds

Will customer experience experiments like weekend markets stick around? It is important to remember that a constantly changing environment means constant opportunities to learn and adapt.

Eventually, as the dust of a new post-COVID reality settles, organizations that experimented will have many more tools at their disposal.

For example, education has long been viewed as an industry resistant to change: Teachers determine the information they want to teach, establish an approach to teaching that material, and then deliver it to students in the classroom. The shift to remote learning has changed that. In the process, it has presented new possibilities for the ways that teachers and students interact.

Everyone has been forced to do things they never planned to do and what has been learned is that many of these new techniques allow you to do things that were never possible before - things that in many ways are far superior to what you used to do.


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