With the unprecedented climate that organisations large and small find themselves operating in over recent days and weeks, the role of customer experience led initiatives and audience insight need to become the cornerstone of business decision making.
BAU is no longer BAU and organisations will need to think differently. Despite the troubling time ahead, businesses led by the needs of their customers are in a position to do something special using customer experience to guide marketing, ways of working and the responses to customers.
Pause and consider
The last thing anyone wants is to appear ‘tone deaf’ to the current climate. It’s now time to check those ongoing campaigns and scheduled activity. Evaluate if the tone is right. Question, is the message appropriate? Is it relevant or useful?
What we know might mean a lot less
Organisations that have previously based marketing activity and contact strategies on carefully tested styles and approaches will need to rethink. The feelings and motivations that have been documented in the past may not apply now. Carefully evaluated A/B testing from even very recently is likely to tell you little as it will not reflect today’s needs. The focus for a brand, just a couple of weeks ago may have been on on-time delivery; but customer need is now driven to ensuring delivery of basic necessities and delivery timescales would be a less relevant or important message.
The skills you have and where they sit
The present organisational structures, set up to manage the current channel blend of customers, may benefit from hasty revision. What is likely to change is a shift towards greater digital engagement, as homeworking reduces capacity for phone contact and face to face meetings are completely forgone. It may be that customer service teams need to upskill to support customers on digital channels and digital experts also understand more about the basic needs of customers during this time.
Be in the moment
Marketers and operational leaders might need to go with their gut and make some assumptions. Strategies will need to be one that responds to customer needs and doesn’t require anyone to be looking ahead too far. Businesses may need to marshal your social listening efforts into real time.
Brands fortunate enough to have research communities (where proposition reviews and brand insights are gathered for future activity) should repurpose them for rapid testing of campaigns – allowing customers to guide on the required nuances and sensitivities.
Innovate
The brands set to emerge from these trying times in tact will be those that let the needs of customers take their organisations to new places, with new propositions and new messages. Innovation and diversification are already emerging (think distillers producing hand sanitizer and distance learning providers closing the gaps left by traditional academic environments).
In a time of uncertainty seize the opportunity to do different.
If you’d like some support from the team at Fresh Nous contact us on 01905 780810 or get in touch.
