At the height of the COVID pandemic in spring 2020, toilet paper and hand sanitizer were the hottest items on store shelves. The search for these essential items grew to a fever pitch, with customers lining up for hours and scouring the internet to get their hands on these hot commodities.
As demand skyrocketed and shelves cleared, many states and retailers put price gouging regulations into effect.
But those efforts to help consumers may have actually led to more COVID cases and deaths.
Gavin Roberts, assistant professor of economics at Weber State University, studied the impacts of price gouging regulation during the pandemic.
Typically, price gouging regulation is put in place by state governments during localized public emergencies. Roberts gave the example of a hurricane, which may only affect one or two states. In that case, the affected states may enact price gouging regulation, which says that retailers can’t increase the price for essential items, such as gas, toilet paper and hotel rooms, beyond a certain percentage of increase or what some states call an “exorbitant increase”.
But the COVID pandemic affected the entire world, leading to widespread price gouging regulations like we’ve never seen. Economists widely believe that price gouging regulations cause shortages, which was definitely the case during COVID. Price gouging regulation limits what companies want to sell. If companies can’t make much money, they aren’t as motivated to sell their products, which leads to a shortage of items. Roberts observed that customers increased their internet searches for items like toilet paper and hand sanitizer, which follows the pattern of price gouging regulation. When goods are in shortage, people search for them more.
But the widespread COVID pandemic took things one step further. When customers couldn’t find what they needed online, they searched in person. Price gouging led to a shortage of products and customers rushing to brick-and-mortar stores, right during the push for virus mitigation efforts and a need to stay at home. Roberts’ research shows the rush of customers to stores to buy toilet paper and hand sanitizer led to a wider spread of COVID cases and deaths.
Price gouging regulation is often put in place so that low-income individuals don’t get priced out of essential items. But Roberts believes price gouging regulation isn’t an effective measure in supporting low-income families. We need to take the next step to think about if the policy actually helps those in need. Going forward, he wants companies and governments to carefully consider if the policies and regulations they put in place actually help the people they are intended to or if they cause more harm than good.
The early days of the COVID pandemic were unlike anything we’ve ever seen, largely due to the lack of essential items like toilet paper. The pandemic has caused us to re-evaluate many practices and policies, including price gouging regulation.
*Sponsored by Wix Answers
It's been a year of change for businesses. What’s making this period most challenging is the lack of clarity. But, that’s also where there’s an opportunity to stand out by building trust in your relationships with your customers with agile communication.
Wix Answers takes a new approach to customer support by helping you adapt quickly to know exactly what your customer needs and when they need it.
Go and see for yourself today at WixAnswers.com.
_______________
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
Of all the industries to break into, the beverage space is among the most difficult. The hyper-competitive market and domination from big brands make it incredibly challenging for entrepreneurs to get their products on shelves. But Jordan Schenck has experience and grit on her side.
As the former Head of Global Consumer Marketing at Impossible Foods, Schenck knows how to build a plant-based food brand. She spent nearly four years traveling the world and talking to people about their relationship with plants and played a huge role in the growth of the plant-based trend. She used that experience to co-found Sunwink, a wellness company focused on plant-based drinks.
Schenck says the beverage section is the only area of the grocery store consumers use multiple times daily. It’s a space with hyper-consumption that’s also super high-touch. But Schenck says there’s not much on the shelf that is actually good--it’s dominated by soda and products with ingredients that may claim to be good but actually aren’t that healthy. Schenck and her co-founder started Sunwink because they were excited to be in a high-velocity space and also have the opportunity to make statements and do creative work.
Building such an innovative brand in a competitive industry starts with knowing customers. The Sunwink founders spent a year sampling its many variations in grocery stores. They had to understand what works with flavors, which audiences organically opted in and who would be their easy-win customers. It took grit and determination to show up at grocery stores and convince them to demo the drinks and maybe sell one product on the shelf.
That work paid off. When Sunwink launched, Schenck said it was amazing the amount of nascent demand for a product that is not only beautiful on the outside but also beautiful on the inside.
As the company started to scale online, they did a lot of surveying and constantly asked customers what they wanted to see and what was and wasn’t working. Although Sunwink initially launched primarily in grocery retail, it split soon after the pandemic started and grew in the DTC space. It’s rare to find a DTC beverage company, especially because of the high shipping costs, but Sunwink saw 14x growth on the channel and found creative solutions to lower shipping costs. E-commerce quickly became the primary revenue driver during the pandemic and created a huge community through email and social media.
As Sunwink grows, Schenck aims to spread the plant-based message and show a wider view of wellness. She defines wellness as having your cake and eating plants too. Sunwink is vocal about the fact that wellness isn’t about perfection and how incredible your yoga backbend is—it’s about your journey as an individual to find wholeness. Yes, you can have the cocktail and the donut and drink plants. Schenck says it’s about the little moments of taking care of yourself.
Schenck hopes to continue Sunwink’s success and build a brand around plant-powered wellness. Her goal is to create a brand that has cultural resonance about caring for your body and caring for your planet. She’s breaking down barriers as a female entrepreneur and showing the power of plants for total wellness.
*Sponsored by Wix Answers
It's been a year of change for businesses. What’s making this period most challenging is the lack of clarity. But, that’s also where there’s an opportunity to stand out by building trust in your relationships with your customers with agile communication.
Wix Answers takes a new approach to customer support by helping you adapt quickly to know exactly what your customer needs and when they need it.
Go and see for yourself today at WixAnswers.com.
_______________
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
It’s something all customers have faced: they have a problem or question, but the only way to resolve it is to wait on hold with the contact center or fill out a contact request form. The process is long and frustrating.
Modern customers want another approach to solving their problems. Knowledge management is a way to connect the dots and keep communication lines open with customers. Instead of companies holding all the answers, knowledge management shares resources like articles and self-service portals so customers can solve their own issues and provides a platform for communication across all channels.
Naomi Rozenfeld, VP of Revenue at Wix Answers, says effective knowledge management is all about meeting customers where they are.
Up until recently, knowledge management was difficult for many companies to talk about. Rozenfeld narrows it down to two main challenges: a lack of executive support within the company and technology limitations with support divided into silos that created a fragmented experience for customers and employees.
But over the past year, COVID has accelerated the need for self-service knowledge management. As the world was shutting down, companies realized that customers still needed support. Instead of waiting and reacting to customer issues and questions, companies need to proactively answer customer questions and provide resources.
Customers want to be in control of their service. Rozenfeld says knowledge management is now a need, not a want. She believes that what’s going to win business over for future transactions is how quickly a company can resolve an issue or how easy it is for customers to resolve their own issues.
Rozenfeld calls it the iceberg effect, or the idea that for every one person who opens a ticket or contacts the care team, there are nine people who don’t. That 90% of customers who don’t get in touch leave frustrated. Effective knowledge management provides resources and helps all customers, especially the vast majority who don’t want to have to spend time reaching out to a company.
Effective knowledge management starts by addressing the two main challenges. Rozenfeld says companies must have an executive sponsor to understand the impact on revenue and the company. CX managers and change agents need to make sure leaders understand why they need to invest in the tools to enable customers to solve problems on their own.
The second challenge is around technology. Companies need to stop looking at support through silos. Rozenfeld says silos and unconnected channels create gaps for customers to fall. But when channels are tied together and speaking the same language, the customer only has one entry point. It doesn’t matter where they started or how they communicate with the brand. Customer interactions are simplified and the agent can see the entire path instead of only having a view of one part of the problem.
Knowledge management is on its way to becoming a cornerstone of the modern customer experience. Meeting customers where they are and proactively providing great service creates empowered and satisfied customers.
*Sponsored by Wix Answers
It's been a year of change for businesses. What’s making this period most challenging is the lack of clarity. But, that’s also where there’s an opportunity to stand out by building trust in your relationships with your customers with agile communication.
Wix Answers takes a new approach to customer support by helping you adapt quickly to know exactly what your customer needs and when they need it.
Go and see for yourself today at WixAnswers.com.
_______________
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
In a sea of celebrity brands, how can a company stand out and attract customers?
It comes down to being passionate, innovative and empathetic.
Many celebrities are only involved with their brands as far as simply putting their name on a product, but Bruno Mars’ rum brand SelvaRey is different. He spent three years redesigning the SelvaRey packaging to create a stylish and eye-catching bottle and is passionate about the brand and its products.
That passion and innovation extends to the entire team and is what attracted CMO Brielle Caruso to the brand.
Caruso joined the company six months ago, making her the first female Asian American CMO in the U.S. wine and spirits industry. Caruso has helped build numerous brands and knows what it takes to stand out.
Marketing is really about communicating and building relationships. Caruso believes communication means everything and that brilliant communicators must have strong observational awareness. It’s impossible to be a great marketer without being a great listener. At SelvaRey, that means listening to customers and understanding the context of what they are looking for. In her career, it means actively listening to her team members and building real connections.
Over the past six months, SelvaRey has launched four new products, some of which sold out in days. Part of Caruso’s job has been to educate customers about rum and break down stereotypes and showcase the wide range of products. Listening to customers led the brand to release products at different entry points.
Marketers are often taught that it’s all about themselves—about sharing their message and pushing their products. But Caruso believes that people who step back and listen, not to respond but to understand and add empathy, become better leaders.
With that empathy and listening comes humility. Caruso says it’s important to be grounded, which she does by writing down her goals and gratitudes. Especially after a difficult year, she believes it’s important to reach out to people and check in on them instead of assuming everyone is fine. Building those relationships and being humble helps marketers stay focused and grounded, which only adds to their success. In a world full of ego and self-promotion, truly caring about other people can help you stand out.
Many women in male-dominated industries face the challenge of being the only woman in the room. But Caruso has learned that her unique assets are valuable and important and that she needs to speak up to represent female customers. Women drink alcohol, so companies can’t just have men creating the strategic goals and marketing. They need a woman’s insight and will listen to the women in the room, even if there’s only one. Caruso believes companies need to push for employees and marketers who are representative of the population who is using the product.
Standing out in the marketing world isn’t always about being the flashiest. It comes down to being passionate, innovative and empathetic. The loudest campaigns may catch customers’ eyes, but lasting success comes to the companies and marketers that know how to build relationships and stay grounded. SelvaRey shows that strong communication can build a winning brand.
*Sponsored by Pegasystems #PegaWorld
It’s almost time for PegaWorld iNspire, the annual conference from Pegasystems. Join them online for free on May 4 from 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time to learn how the world’s most impactful companies are driving digital transformation. They’ll have compelling keynotes, demos, and case studies in a highly interactive virtual format and a few surprises as well. Go to www.pegaworld.com to register for free and check out the full agenda. I’ve attended the last several PegaWorlds in person, and virtual, and I can’t recommend it enough, so go register today! That’s www.pegaworld.com.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
Saying 2020 was a rocky year may be the ultimate understatement. But after the turmoil and uncertainty, customers, brands and investors want to know what the economy looks like in 2021.
According to Fox Business Network’s Charles Payne, there’s reason to be extremely optimistic.
In 2021, consumer savings are near record highs. That, combined with government stimulus money, means that there is a lot of money and the ability to spend it once consumer confidence levels pick up.
Part of the reason to expect economic growth in 2021 is the concept of revenge shopping or revenge travel as the pandemic starts to subside. After more than a year of shutdowns and quarantines, customers are eager to spend money, have experiences and travel. Payne predicts that customers will want to make up for lost time, which will be great for the economy.
Although there has been tremendous job loss and countless businesses closing during the pandemic, new business applications have gone through the roof in recent months. The fact that people are confident enough to start businesses is a good sign for the economy, and consumers will likely give a special effort to support small businesses, at least initially. Small businesses are poised for success, and the economy needs them to thrive. But Payne points out that these businesses don’t exist in a vacuum, and uncertainty and actions taken towards big businesses could potentially hurt smaller businesses. For new small businesses to thrive, they need continued customer support.
The growth of the economy is also tied to the growth of construction and real estate. Over the last year, we’ve seen a growing exodus from expensive cities to less expensive suburbs. Just a few years ago, consumers wanted to rent everything instead of owning, but in today’s world, customers want the control and confidence that comes from owning things, especially homeownership. To rebound after the pandemic exodus, Payne says cities will have to reinvent themselves and become experience hubs. That growth and change could foster new business growth as consumers look to make up for lost experiences.
The economy is certainly changing in 2021, but overall, things are looking up. With consumers eager to spend, small businesses on the rise and a change and reinvention for cities and suburbs, this year will have a lasting impact on the economy—for the positive.
*Sponsored by Pegasystems #PegaWorld
It’s almost time for PegaWorld iNspire, the annual conference from Pegasystems. Join them online for free on May 4 from 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time to learn how the world’s most impactful companies are driving digital transformation. They’ll have compelling keynotes, demos, and case studies in a highly interactive virtual format and a few surprises as well. Go to www.pegaworld.com to register for free and check out the full agenda. I’ve attended the last several PegaWorlds in person, and virtual, and I can’t recommend it enough, so go register today! That’s www.pegaworld.com.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
Technology doesn’t stop during a pandemic.
Because of that, VMware needs to stay connected to customers and showcase its multi-cloud technology.
But in the B2B industry, which is traditionally driven by in-person events and marketing, building relationships and growing leads virtually poses a challenge.
VMware CMO Carol Carpenter stepped into her role in the middle of the COVID pandemic and had to quickly move to virtual marketing. Although there have been challenges, she says B2B marketing during a pandemic has also had some positive impacts.
The root of Carpenter’s marketing approach is communication and data. She aims to over-communicate, both to her team of more than 700 people and to customers and prospects. Her team also relies heavily on data—especially during the pandemic—to track its progress and tailor experiences and marketing campaigns that resonate with customers. Carpenter says being able to understand a customer’s needs, thoughts and values is crucial.
As marketing shifted online, Carpenter’s team unleashed its creativity. Using communication and data as a foundation, it moved traditionally in-person events to virtual venues. VMware has hosted events like chocolate tastings, whisky tastings and concerts with famous musicians. As a bonus, customers and prospects are able to include their families, which adds to the relationship-building.
Moving online has allowed B2B marketers to better engage their prospects and clients. In the physical world, a company can track who attended a dinner and event. But it can be difficult to know if the person was actually engaged or interested in the product.
When things move online, however, companies can track who participated, what they looked at, who they talked to and what they talked about. It provides a much fuller picture of what each person did at the event and allows marketers to follow up with specific questions and comments.
Although in-person events have paused, Carpenter says B2B marketers still have incredible opportunities to build relationships when they focus on communication, data and creativity.
COVID has brought challenges for all industries, especially B2B, but marketers around the industry and at VMware are finding the positive, pivoting and keeping their companies moving forward.
*Sponsored by Pegasystems #PegaWorld
It’s almost time for PegaWorld iNspire, the annual conference from Pegasystems. Join them online for free on May 4 from 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time to learn how the world’s most impactful companies are driving digital transformation. They’ll have compelling keynotes, demos, and case studies in a highly interactive virtual format and a few surprises as well. Go to www.pegaworld.com to register for free and check out the full agenda. I’ve attended the last several PegaWorlds in person, and virtual, and I can’t recommend it enough, so go register today! That’s www.pegaworld.com.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
Loyalty programs are an important part of many brands’ customer engagement strategies, but yesterday’s loyalty programs won’t necessarily be successful today.
According to Francis Hondal, President of Loyalty & Engagement at Mastercard, the recent growth of tech, digital commerce and data have redefined opportunities for brands to serve their customers in the way they expect to be served. Those opportunities have changed even more over the last year with the global COVID pandemic.
One of the biggest trends coming out of COVID is the un-calendarized year, meaning that everything has shifted from when it normally occurs. Things like sports seasons, events and travel are now happening on a different schedule than years past. In response, Hondal says brands need to focus on providing flexibility to their customers. The best loyalty programs adapt to meet customers’ current needs and offer them flexibility and choices.
Hondal gives the example of an airline that changed its rewards program to allow customers to use their airline loyalty points to buy groceries and support local businesses. With fewer people traveling, it was a way for the airline to stay connected to customers and for customers to meet their everyday spending needs with their existing points.
Customers crave optionality. They don’t want to be boxed into using a loyalty program in one certain way. Customers are hesitant to be stuck with just one way of doing things now that they’ve seen just how much the world and their personal situation can change. When brands are flexible, it drives long-term engagement and continues to make the company relevant, even during uncertain and chaotic times.
There are different ways of engaging with customers than typical rewards programs. Flexibility and newness are hot right now, and brands that can tap into those trends can build real connections with their customers.
Hondal says creating an amazing loyalty program starts by understanding consumers, both new and existing. Companies need to use data and have a strong data management system in place so they can stay on top of changing customer demands and trends. She says one of the most important pieces of delivering a seamless customer experience is connecting the dots within the company so that customers have a consistent experience and don’t have to repeat themselves.
In this COVID and post-COVID world of loyalty programs, brands need to focus on contextual connections with customers and connecting with people when it matters most. By truly understanding customers and knowing what they need and when they need it, brands can stay relevant and offer options and flexibility.
Loyalty programs aren’t what they used to be, especially after COVID. By leveraging data and focusing on flexibility and optionality, brands can create and strengthen bonds with loyal customers for years to come.
*Sponsored by Pegasystems #PegaWorld
It’s almost time for PegaWorld iNspire, the annual conference from Pegasystems. Join them online for free on May 4 from 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time to learn how the world’s most impactful companies are driving digital transformation. They’ll have compelling keynotes, demos, and case studies in a highly interactive virtual format and a few surprises as well. Go to www.pegaworld.com to register for free and check out the full agenda. I’ve attended the last several PegaWorlds in person, and virtual, and I can’t recommend it enough, so go register today! That’s www.pegaworld.com.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
The beauty world is full of customers who love to experiment with new products, watch makeup tutorials and spend time finding the best items.
But what about customers who care about their skin and beauty but don’t want to spend the time finding and trying new products on their own?
These are known as casual consumers. They want to try new things but are often overwhelmed or don’t have time for the number of products on the market.
Most beauty companies market to serious consumers, making casual consumers an unserved market, says Ali Edgerton, Birchbox U.S. President. Birchbox was founded in 2010 as a way to provide casual consumers great products without them having to find and experiment on their own. Birchbox was the first subscription box—an incredible accomplishment when considering the thousands of subscription boxes now on the market.
The innovative concept is relatively simple: each month, consumers receive a box with five deluxe-sized samples of beauty products picked just for them. The model works well for casual consumers who want to try new things and get the right products for their hair, skincare and makeup routines, but who don’t want to sort through products on their own. Birchbox has grown into a multi-faceted platform that allows consumers to subscribe for monthly products or simply buy products from the online storefront.
Birchbox meets the modern customer where she is by creating a multi-channel experience that relies heavily on data and personalization. When users first subscribe, they answer a series of questions to set up their profile. Birchbox compares that data to how casual consumers relate to the beauty industry to put personalized items in each box. Customers also have the option to choose a few items on their own.
Data continues after the box has been delivered with a robust review system that allows customers to give feedback for each item and gives Birchbox a better understanding of what is and isn’t working for each customer. As Birchbox collects more data, it provides an increasingly personalized experience.
Birchbox also stays on top of trends that appeal to casual beauty consumers and puts together curated packages separate from subscription boxes. These products are designed to help casual consumers tap into new beauty trends and get everything they need in one place. One of the most popular recent discovery kits includes everything consumers need to fight maskne, or acne caused by constant mask-wearing. Casual consumers would likely be overwhelmed trying to find the best products on their own, so Birchbox makes it easy for them to get everything in one click. And the strategy is working—the kits are in constant demand and are flying off the shelves.
Edgerton says Birchbox uses data to create a picture of what customers want and need. Her greatest satisfaction comes from introducing something to a customer who didn’t know they needed it.
Relying on data to provide personalized experiences and meet customers where they are is a large part of the reason for Birchbox’s success. It hopes to continue its innovative approach to beauty and retail as it sets the example for other subscription models.
To try Birchbox for yourself, Edgerton is giving The Modern Customer Podcast listeners a discount with code VIP50.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
Running the largest adventure park company in the country comes with challenges—especially during a global pandemic.
There’s no playbook for this type of scenario. But Michael Browning, founder and CEO of Urban Air, knows that speed and innovation always win, which fueled his strategy to react to information quickly as it came in.
Reacting with speed allowed Urban Air to not only survive the pandemic but to thrive and find new ways to expand and grow.
Browning encourages his franchisees and staff to stay close to customers and get their feedback. Although the indoor trampoline and adventure parks are aimed at kids, the company views moms as the customers and kids as the users.
When states started opening back up, many customers weren’t sure what was safe. Urban Air surveyed moms to ask what they wanted for their kids’ activities. The more than 3 million responses helped establish health and safety guidelines for an Urban Air environment where moms felt comfortable bringing their kids.
Browning took it one step further. Three hours after a visit to Urban Air, the company followed up with the parents asking if the location met their expectations about cleanliness and safety. Most moms said it definitely did. Urban Air then asked moms to shoot a short video of their experience and put it on YouTube. The company got hundreds of videos of parents sharing their authentic reactions and experiences, which was powerful in encouraging other families to return to the adventure park.
Feedback has been crucial to keeping Urban Air going during the pandemic. It also led to one of the company’s biggest pivots.
While visiting with neighbors at an outdoor happy hour early in the pandemic, Browning heard frustration from parents about kids doing remote school. That frustration led to the creation of the Urban Air Learn and Fly Program, which opened up Urban Air locations for kids to do their virtual schooling with the help of certified teachers. The program was successful in Browning’s home state of Texas until students went back to in-person school.
Again, Urban Air pivoted to meet a need. Browning learned that many parents were unsatisfied with after-school programs and overwhelmed with having their kids home while they worked. The Urban Air After School Program was born. Every day, busses pick kids up from school and take them to Urban Air locations, where they do their homework with supervision and have a chance to play until their parents pick them up after work. The program is being tested in Texas and will roll out to Urban Air locations across the country this fall, making it one of the biggest after-school programs in the country.
And that incredible growth came from pivoting during a challenging time.
Experiential retail is the future of customer experience, but it comes with unique challenges, especially during a pandemic. Urban Air shows that the key to surviving and thriving at any time—not just during COVID—is to listen to customers, invite their feedback and then find ways to pivot to best meet their needs.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
A year ago, most of us were speaking in meetings full of team members or giving presentations to rooms full of people.
But those faces have now changed to boxes on a screen, and our messages have moved from in-person to virtual.
Being an effective communicator is a challenge on its own, but doing it virtually adds even more complications. According to Matt Abrahams, co-founder and principal at Bold Echo Communications Solutions, virtual communication only accentuates the challenges we’ve always had with public speaking. He says being an effective virtual communicator requires overcoming three challenges:
Attention is the most precious commodity in the world today. When people aren’t in the same room as the speaker, it’s much easier for them to get distracted. It’s up to speakers to hold their attention.
Many of these challenges can be addressed by focusing on your audience. Abrahams says too many people are fixated on what they want to say instead of thinking about what would be valuable to their audience. He says speaking without focusing on the audience is like writing a love letter and addressing it To Whom It May Concern.
Before preparing a speech or presentation, take time to reflect on who your audience is and what they need to hear. Once you understand your audience, you can structure your message to be clear and concise. Abrahams recommends structuring your communication to answer three simple questions:
Understanding the audience and following a structure creates a speech that is clear, concise and on message. People are much more likely to pay attention to clear content that applies to them. Doing the work upfront to understand your audience and structure your presentation can help overcome all three of the virtual communication challenges.
Storytelling is also a valuable tool, especially for virtual communication. People connect with and remember stories far more than they remember statistics. Abrahams recommends having a goal for your story and telling it in six words. If you can convey your key point in six words, it can be your starting point for crafting a larger story. The best way to become a great storyteller is to practice and listen to other great storytellers.
Even after the pandemic has subsided, virtual communication is here to stay. Abrahams believes that in the future we’ll see a hybrid approach with both in-person and virtual speeches and presentations. Being a successful communicator in the future will require these strong virtual communication skills.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
Just weeks after Sarah Steinhardt had her first baby, she had to make a quick run to the store to get more diapers. On a New York City street corner, diapers in hand, she started crying. It was at that moment she realized how fortunate she was to be able to quickly get the necessities for her baby when mothers around the country didn’t have the same ability.
That experience led Steinhardt to create Welcome Baby USA, a nonprofit focused on providing at-risk and low-income mothers with the essentials for their baby’s first month of life. Welcome Baby partners with clinics and hospitals across the country to provide boxes with diapers, newborn clothes, a baby carrier, and other essentials that these women would likely not be able to otherwise afford. Mothers receive the boxes during their third trimester so they have everything they need to bring a baby home.
Steinhardt’s career started in broadcast journalism, which opened her eyes to the countless people and stories around the world. In many instances, these mothers and babies don’t have a voice and need advocates to support them and share their stories. Steinhardt says the Welcome Baby box is meant to alleviate stress for mothers who can’t afford necessities and hopefully gives the baby a level playing field in their first month of life that they can move from.
But building and scaling a nonprofit hasn’t been easy, especially during a global pandemic when children face more needs than ever before. When she started Welcome Baby more than two years ago, Steinhardt and her co-founder packaged the boxes in their homes and hand-delivered them to local hospitals and clinics. As the organization grew, it partnered with a company to source, pack, and ship the boxes. But in the early days of the pandemic when supply chains were in chaos, it was nearly impossible to find some of the most important parts of the boxes, like thermometers. Steinhardt said she had to re-think logistics, but the new thinking and partnerships allowed Welcome Baby to scale and grow during a difficult year.
New motherhood can be incredibly isolating, especially for mothers who don’t have basic necessities for their children. Steinhardt hopes her organization can take away some of the stress of having a baby by providing much-needed supplies. Her story shows how women can support each other and make a difference during the most vulnerable and important times in life.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
2020 changed the world in many ways, including a renewed push for racial justice and equality in the United States. That demand must now be echoed in how companies brand and market their products.
With increased calls for racial justice, Kirstyn Nimmo saw how she could bring her marketing expertise and experiences as a Black woman to help brands act authentically and impact racial equality. Nimmo founded Good Worx and consults numerous big brands on social causes.
Branding in the era of racial justice brings unique challenges, but also new opportunities to connect with customers and make meaningful changes.
A recent example of the need for inclusive branding comes from Aunt Jemima. The company, which is owned by Quaker Oats and PepsiCo, has received complaints for years about its branding and inclusion of a racist stereotype on its packaging. Those complaints grew in 2020 to calls for Aunt Jemima to change its name. Quaker Oats and PepsiCo responded by essentially erasing the history and changing the name to the Pearl Milling Company. Instead of engaging in a conversation with its customers and members of the Black community, it appears the company erased any reference to Black culture from its product.
Nimmo acknowledges that this is a complex issue, but also says that PepsiCo missed the mark. Although there was complicated history around Aunt Jemima, it was also Black representation on a popular product, which is important.
Rather than engaging in conversations with the Black community to understand the history and its significance, many companies take the easy route to delete issues. PepsiCo had the opportunity to evolve into a new brand identity that could have highlighted the Black community and its roots instead of just covering it up.
People don’t want to feel uncomfortable, but in this era of racial justice, those uncomfortable conversations need to happen.
Nimmo has three tips for branding in the era of racial justice:
This new era of racial justice is more than a passing phase—it is a lasting push for equality. Brands need to realize the importance of the current issues and listen to their customers from all backgrounds to successfully lead representation and change.
Links to further resources mentioned in the show:
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
It’s a common experience for online shoppers: an item arrives in the mail, either doesn’t fit or is no longer needed and now must be returned.
But the process of making the return is cumbersome and requires printing shipping labels, packaging the item, making a trip to the post office and then waiting up to a few weeks to get the refund.
With all the advancements in customer experience and online shopping, the return process for many companies has stayed the same—inconvenient and outdated.
But an innovative approach to returns improves both the customer experience and sustainability.
David Sobie is co-founder and CEO of Happy Returns, a company that partners with DTC and e-commerce brands to provide streamlined return practices. When a customer needs to return an item from a Happy Returns partner, they start the return online and get a QR code and directions to one of 2,600 drop-off locations around the country. Customers bring their items to the Happy Returns return bar, drop them off without worrying about packaging and get a receipt and an instant refund. That part of the process greatly improves the customer experience.
But Happy Returns’ real work is just beginning. The drop-off centers collect items from dozens of brands and then ship them together in reusable totes to a Happy Returns regional processing hub. There, the items are sorted by store and then bulk shipped back to each merchant to re-sell or use how they want.
The entire process is a win for everyone involved. Customers get a much smoother and faster return experience, e-commerce brands save on return shipping by sending items back in bulk and the reusable totes save the environment from an influx of cardboard and packaging materials.
Sobie had the idea for Happy Returns years ago, but it wasn’t until the partnership of Kohl’s accepting Amazon returns that people came around to the idea and saw what was possible. The idea has taken off recently due to the huge increase in online shopping (and returns) during the pandemic.
This modern approach to the return process shows the importance of prioritizing customers in all aspects of the customer experience, from start to finish. Sobie says that to be successful, companies must have physical and digital systems working together for cohesive software and logistics.
This innovative approach to returns should spread to other companies and showcase the creative ways brands can improve their customer experience and reduce friction.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
E-commerce has seen tremendous growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But with so many customers going online, it’s never been more important for brands to make their products visible.
According to Sarah Hofstetter, President of Profitero, search is the hottest and most important topic in the e-commerce world right now. When customers shop in stores, they tend to browse until something catches their eye. But when customers shop online at places like Amazon, they already have a brand or category they are looking for. Instead of just seeing what’s out there, customers come to buy with an exact purpose and search for a specific brand or type of item. How a product shows up in the search results can make or break a potential sale.
But Hofstetter says it’s more than just showing up high in search results. Companies also need to ensure they have ratings and reviews to back up their standing. They also have to actually have the items in stock that customers are searching for.
Succeeding in e-commerce and search comes down to being able to understand and leverage data and analytics. Marketers and customer service leaders need to know not only how their own products are showing up in search, but also how their competitors approach e-commerce, including what sales they are running and where they land in the search results.
Hofstetter says investing in data analytics for search is crucial to a company’s success. The pandemic has shown the huge growth potential for e-commerce, and even after customers are comfortable shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, a large number will stick with the convenience of shopping online.
Ignoring the potential of search and analytics could leave brands in the dust. E-commerce and data leaders need to show their leaders and executives the impact of inaction and translate it into terms they understand. Hofstetter recommends putting the impact of search into financial terms for the CFO, operational terms for the COO and corresponding language for each type of team or leader.
Search may be an often-overlooked aspect of e-commerce, but it is truly the lifeblood of gathering customers and making sales. Without a strong understanding of search data analytics, brands won’t be able to survive the new e-commerce frontier.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
Before Amazon became one of the world’s largest retailers, it was simply an online bookstore shipping items within the U.S.
But even in its early days, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos had a vision to build earth’s most customer-centric company.
That mentality still holds strong today and is a driving force behind Amazon’s continual success.
Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998, just four years after it was founded. Of his 12 years on the Amazon leadership team, he spent two of them working as Bezos’ Chief of Staff, where he had an inside view of what it takes to build a customer-centric company.
The early days of Amazon weren’t smooth sailing, but instead of focusing on stock price or what the press was saying, Bezos encouraged his employees to look at customer experience data. Focusing too much on stock price was a roller coaster—it could go up 30% one month and make you feel 30% smarter, but then drop 30% the next month and make you feel 30% dumber. Instead, the mentality at Amazon was to stay focused on the customer. Employees knew that if they did right with the customer, things would work out.
From the company’s beginning, customers came first. Bryar tells the story of how the customer service experience became even more customer-centric.
All leaders at Amazon spend a few days every two years in the contact center, listening to calls, responding emails and eventually answering phone calls. On one occasion, Bryar and Bezos were listening in on a call from a customer who had received damaged lawn furniture. The call center agent asked for the product number, and as the customer was looking for it, looked at Bezos and Bryar and guessed exactly which product it was of the millions Amazon sold. The agent was right and explained that they had received multiple calls about that particular set arriving damaged—clearly, there was an issue with the packaging.
Amazon’s typical process for that type of issue was to have the call center agent file a report, which would then be forwarded to the feedback manager for that area. But with the calls coming so spread out, it would be difficult for the manager to notice a pattern and take action to solve the problem.
Instead, Amazon took a page from Toyota’s book to create an Andon Cord. In manufacturing, anyone on the assembly line can pull the cord if they detect a problem. Bezos created a virtual Andon Cord for the call center. If a customer service agent notices multiple calls for the same item, they can press a big red button that immediately removes the option to buy that product on Amazon. Bryar explains that it is better for customers to not be able to buy something no matter how painful the revenue loss is for Amazon than to send a defective product and have to deal with it later. Once the issue is addressed, the product is able to be sold on Amazon.
The idea of the contact center Andon Cord seems simple, but it shows how Amazon is working to operational excellence, even in its early years.
Bryar believes that focusing on customers, especially the example set by Jeff Bezos, is what has propelled Amazon to such great success. The company shows that no matter the industry or size, putting customers first always pays off.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
Nearly a year into the global pandemic, what modern customers are looking for in the brands they interact with has permanently changed.
At the top of the list of customer priorities are health and safety.
Research from Volvo and Harris Poll found that COVID has altered the mindsets of consumers. In an unpredictable world, customers are looking for stability from brands they know and trust, which often translates into safety.
Despite economic uncertainty, Volvo has seen growth and success during the pandemic. According to Jim Nichols, Head of Product, Technology & Brand Communications at Volvo Cars, that’s because people know they can count on the company and its dedication to safety and stability.
In light of COVID, the consumer definition of safety has expanded to be much broader than it was before. Instead of just avoiding accidents, safety now includes giving people their own space away from the germs of others and mitigating an accident to not only reduce the risk but to decrease the severity.
Volvo’s research also found that consumers are now less likely to want to show off their luxury, largely out of respect for people who haven’t fared as well during the pandemic. Although many consumers want to invest in luxury products that prioritize health and safety, they don’t want to be viewed as opulent or over the top. Brands like Volvo that offer understated luxury combined with safety have seen strong growth in recent months.
Understanding that modern customers are prioritizing health and safety without wanting to look luxurious is only half the battle. Companies then need to take that information and apply it to the customer experience to deliver products customers want in a way that makes their lives safer and less complicated.
These measures can be large or small and often involve giving customers options to take care of things from home and without having to put their personal health at risk. Nichols says Volvo ramped up pilot testing for its valet service that has technicians pick up cars from a customer’s home or work, perform the maintenance and then return the car the same day. The customer doesn’t have to change their schedule or sit in a waiting room around other people. These solutions are always valuable to customers, but especially at a time when many people are concerned about their overall health and wellbeing.
Even after the pandemic subsides, the changed consumer mindset will linger. In light of COVID, modern customers want health and safety and are willing to prioritize that over other factors. Brands that can deliver health and safety in ways that make customers’ lives less complicated will continue to see success.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
Everyone who has sat through an irrelevant or bloated meeting knows the pain it can cause. Meetings that are too long, have too many people or wander from point to point can be counterproductive and put a drain on creativity.
And somehow, during the COVID-19 pandemic, people are finding themselves in more meetings than ever before.
According to Steven Rogelberg, author of The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance, the problem isn’t that there are too many meetings, it’s that there are too many bad meetings. He suggests taking a science-based approach to break free from boring meetings and embrace meetings that encourage innovation and creativity.
Here are just six of Rogelberg’s tips to running a better meeting.
Meetings will forever be part of the business world—especially now, when people are separated and working from home. But they don’t have to be boring! With a few simple adjustments, you can lead meetings that get results and encourage creativity and innovation.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
It seems nearly every company today has a loyalty program, but the meaning of loyalty itself is often still a mystery.
Customer loyalty in 2021 looks different than it has in the past and even than how many companies view it.
According to Bram Hechtkopf, CEO of loyalty marketing and technology company Kobie, loyalty is more than just how a customer behaves. A customer who regularly purchases from the same company can appear loyal, but what matters more than the transaction is their emotional loyalty, or how they feel about a brand.
Hechtkopf breaks emotional loyalty into three areas: status, habit and reciprocity. Measuring customers in those three areas, combined with behavioral data, provides companies with the best view of loyalty. That data can be used to drive better personalization and engagement.
Focusing on emotional loyalty goes against how many companies have traditionally viewed loyalty. In the past, loyalty was all about transactions, and the goal of a loyalty program was to get customers to the next purchase.
In 2021, however, loyalty is more than just transactional. Modern brands have to think about the emotional drivers of loyalty. Instead of focusing on just their most loyal customers, Hechtkopf says the best programs cast a wider net to reach out to all customers and then use tiers and gamification to segment customers. These brands build relationships and foster loyalty through more than just points and perks.
Like many aspects of customer experience, loyalty programs have faced changes and challenges during the pandemic. With supply chain strain and economic uncertainty, customers are more willing to try new brands instead of their trusted favorites. Hechtkopf says that brands that have established loyalty programs have seen the most success because they have been able to leverage their programs as their businesses have pivoted. Instead of focusing solely on transactions, these brands have been able to embrace pandemic trends and outperform the competition while still delivering a personalized experience that meets customers’ needs.
The companies that think about loyalty not as a program but as an outcome and enterprise strategy have the most success. Hechtkopf says the companies with the best loyalty programs have executives who realize that loyalty is crucial as more than just a transactional program. To tap into modern customer loyalty, brands need to ensure their loyalty strategy aligns with their brand strategy.
Customer loyalty programs can be powerful drivers for relationships and revenue. But modern companies have to think about loyalty as a state of mind instead of just a program.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
For many people, the days of going to the bank to make a deposit or cash a check are gone forever. Like in many industries, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a major shift away from in-person banking interactions towards digital services.
The challenge now becomes how to pivot to best serve contactless customers.
According to Holly O’Neill, Chief Client Care Executive at Bank of America, the switch to digital solutions was already in play for the company. The pandemic simply moved up the timeline.
Bank of America’s strategy has always been to deliver world-class service in a way that is convenient and easy both in person and virtually. That high-tech, high-touch approach was tailor-made for the current pandemic.
Covid increased the need for companies, including Bank of America, to undergo a digital transformation or speed up their timeline. O’Neill defines digital transformation as making things easy for clients by putting everything they need right at their fingertips. The goal is to make the mobile and online experience so intuitive that clients don’t need to go anywhere else because they have all the information they need right in front of them. And the ultimate goal is to have an experience that is so intuitive it answers questions before customers ask them.
With a banking digital transformation, financial centers serve as a hub for advice and guidance instead of transactions. Everything else, like making deposits and checking balances, can be done virtually.
Pivoting to reach contactless customers means understanding their needs and what they are really looking for. Bank of America leaned into its robust feedback program, which it rolled out a few years ago and has been crucial to understanding constantly changing customer needs.
Each year, Bank of America sends out tens of millions of customer surveys. That information is collected in almost real-time and then sent to bank managers and the employees who are interacting with clients every day. Through a dashboard, these employees can daily changes in customer sentiment and feedback and then help customers in the most applicable ways. That feedback data is used to personalize the experience to give each customer exactly what matters to them, not to their neighbor.
O’Neill says the real winners will be the companies that customize the experience for their clients. That customization comes from leveraging feedback data to pivot and quickly make changes as needed.
The feedback data represents a wide range of customers, making it reliable and usable. Bank of America made a conscious effort to keep the surveys short and simple and deliver them through the mobile app, which has led to a high response rate.
Although the pandemic has brought a major pivot to serve contactless customers, the digital transformation is far from over. O’Neill views building out and improving digital solutions as a continued evolution that will forever be a part of Bank of America. And as it continues to listen to feedback, personalize and deliver seamless digital solutions, the bank will be prepared to meet customers’ needs, even long after the pandemic.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
It’s a common situation for customers: spending time on a company’s app or website and then having to call customer service for help. Even after spending time searching online, the customer still has to wait on hold, log in or prove their identity and then re-explain the situation and wait to get connected to the right person.
In recent years, many aspects of customer experience have been modernized and streamlined, such as the growth of chatbots and AI. However, even with these advancements, most customer interactions have stayed stagnant and without context.
But that won’t be able to continue for long. Modern customers realize the potential of their data and are increasingly becoming frustrated with companies that don’t offer intuitive and connected experiences. Especially in industries like banking, healthcare and hospitality, customers can easily take their business elsewhere if they have a bad experience.
According to Vasili Triant, COO of UJET, customers may start with a brand because of the product or price, but they stay because of the experience.
He says the future of modern customer interactions involves channel blending or meeting customers where they are within a brand’s app. Instead of pushing customers out of the app or website when they need to contact the brand, this modern approach stays within the app to seamlessly pass information to human agents. How a customer uses an app or how they search online provides rich data about their preferences, but brands are throwing that information away when they essentially make customers start over with each interaction.
This approach not only saves the customer time by not requiring them to re-authenticate and then re-explain their situation, but it also makes it easier for brands to personalize the experience. If a customer is looking at a website in English, they shouldn’t have to choose a language on the phone, just like a customer who has already authenticated in the app shouldn’t have to do it again on the phone.
According to Triant, leveraging in-app communication adds a vital aspect that is often missing from customer interactions: context. When a customer calls a company, the agent typically doesn’t have much information about why they could be calling. But by connecting with customers through channels they already use and leveraging that data, agents automatically have context around the interaction and can more easily provide the right solution. Very few brands contextualize their customer experience, but as personalization and the need for convenience grows, customers will come to expect it.
In the smartphone era, customers do nearly everything on their phones. They want and expect a seamless transition from self-service to being able to contact a brand. The companies that can take the step towards modernizing their experiences and offer context around the interaction will lead the way in personalization and customer loyalty. This approach to customer interactions is the future, and companies need to get on board to deliver strong, modern experiences.
*Sponsored by UJET
UJET is the world’s first and only cloud contact center platform for smartphone era CX. By modernizing digital and in-app experiences, UJET unifies the enterprise brand experience across sales, marketing, and support, eliminating the frustration of channel switching between voice, digital, and self-service for consumers. Offering unsurpassed resiliency and the flexibility to deploy across leading public cloud infrastructures, UJET powers the world’s largest elastic CCaaS tenant at up to 22,000 agents globally and is trusted by innovative, customer-centric enterprises like Instacart, Turo, Wag!, and Atom Tickets to intelligently orchestrate predictive, contextual, conversational customer experiences.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
It’s the time of year when everyone is making New Year’s resolutions and setting goals for the coming year.
What do you hope to achieve in 2021? How do you want to improve yourself and your career?
For many of us, it’s been a complicated year and we’re looking for some change and improvement.
But too often we fall into the trap of thinking we have to reinvent the wheel and start completely fresh. If we want to make more money, we have to start a brand new business. If we want to lose weight, we have to go on a crash diet.
But that’s not true—you don’t have to start completely over to find success and happiness.
Instead of setting New Year’s resolutions, I follow the 5% rule. Each day, I try to be 5% better than the day before. I’m not starting over from nothing; I’m building on what I already have and trying my best to improve every day. I don’t have to start over to get healthy or build a successful business. I work with what I have and improve it piece by piece. Over time, the 5% rule ends up increasing and accelerating the changes I’m trying to make.
2020 was a rough year. Instead of beating ourselves up when we don’t achieve our lofty goals, we need to show ourselves grace and kindness. Talk to yourself kindly and do the best you can. Instead of feeling the pressure to create this big, amazing thing over night, the 5% rule lets you try your best every day and make small, incremental improvements.
We don’t need more rules. Instead, we need to give ourselves love and nourishment. We need to check in with ourselves emotionally to really see how we are doing and how we can grow and improve.
Make 2021 your year, but don’t feel like you have to do it all at once. Be kind to yourself. Aim to be 5% better each day and simply do your best. Over time, you’ll find you’ve reached where you want to be and become the best version of yourself.
To keep improving yourself and continue your entrepreneurial journey in 2020, be sure to check out the BYOB Podcast and our YouTube Channel for proven tips and useful advice.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
What’s the word of the year for customer service?
According to business and CX expert Shep Hyken, it’s empathy.
Hyken has years of experience in customer service and is a popular speaker and author. Like all of us, he saw the dramatic challenges businesses faced in 2020 and the pivots they had to make. Businesses and customers are adjusting to their new way of interacting and facing constant change, especially as we head into the new year.
Here are some of Shep Hyken’s predictions for 2021:
Customers Continue To Get Smarter
Today’s customers know what good customer service is. They experience it every day from companies like Amazon and Zappos and have come to expect and demand it from other businesses. Customers are learning from great companies and want that level of service in all their interactions.
Customers Are Becoming Impatient
Modern customers want what they want now. They’ve gotten used to getting their shipments within hours or overnight and now want everything right away. Companies need to meet that demand with quick service and delivery.
Customers Expect Convenience
Today’s busy customers are willing to pay for convenience. A study by Hyken found that more than 67% of consumers are willing to pay more for a convenient experience, and that number jumps to 90% if that experience includes delivery. Convenience matters and goes a long way with customers, and they are willing to pay for that convenience.
Personalization Is Getting More Personal
Customers want an experience that is unique to them. They want and expect companies to know their preferences and experiences. Some companies are going further with micro-personalization that is tailored to each person’s unique experience with specific product recommendations and preferences, not just general genres.
Companies Are Getting Automation Happy
Companies need a strong digital system to compete and deliver great experiences, but so many companies fall into the trap of relying too heavily on automation and not enough on the human experience. Hyken believes some companies get enamored with technology and use it to replace the human experience, which is a big mistake. The best companies create digital experiences but can seamlessly transition customers to humans if needed. There needs to be a balance between human and digital.
Problems Can Be Predicted
In a perfect world, if a problem can be predicted, it can be solved before the customer even knows about it. The most successful companies are continually looking for potential problems big and small and then proactively solving them before customers even realize they have a problem.
The bottom line of delivering great customer service in 2021 is simply to be nice. Customers expect convenience and personalization, but more than anything they want to interact with individuals and companies who are nice. No matter what happens in the future, kindness will always be on-trend.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
Every year, I make predictions for what’s to come in the world of customer experience. After doing this for seven years, I’ve gotten pretty good at predicting trends that really do end up influencing businesses and customers.
But in 2020, no one could have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s been a tough year. Between the pandemic, shutdowns and economic downturn, we’ve also faced environmental issues, a divisive election in the U.S., racial injustice and much more.
These events might not seem tied to customer experience, but we don’t live or work in a bubble—we’re affected by what happens all over the world. And we’ll definitely be feeling the effects of this year for years to come.
With that in mind, here are my five customer experience predictions for 2021:
1 . How We Live And Work Has Forever Changed Thanks To COVID. Nearly every aspect of life and business this year was upended because of COVID. Although a vaccine is making great progress, we will be seeing the impact of the pandemic for at least the next five to ten years. Although most people want to get back to some semblance of normal life, they are hesitant to go back to how things were.
2 . 2021: Year Of The Uncomfortable Conversation. 2020 brought about a lot of uncomfortable conversations on topics ranging from health and safety to layoffs, Black Lives Matter and supporting women and essential workers. These conversations will intensify in 2021 as individuals and companies will have to look inwardly to address these major concerns and help support underrepresented groups that have been hit especially hard this year. Customers will expect companies to take a stand and really make a difference.
3 . Putting Employees And Customers Above Profits. Many companies made huge efforts in 2020 to support their employees and customers, even if that meant their profits suffered. They invested in employee relief funds and increased benefits, while also listening to customers and providing great service. That trend will continue, and the companies that focus on people instead of profits will see great success.
4 . Ecommerce Rose Immensely And Touchless CX Makes Unignorable Leap. Companies were forced to pivot this year as stores were shut down and in-person shopping was limited. Companies across all industries have increased their e-commerce offerings. And now that customers have experienced delivery and pickup, they don’t want to go back to how things were. Touchless CX will make huge leaps in 2021 as brands work to build experiences for customers who feel vulnerable. In the coming year, brands will have to adopt digital models and creative touchless solutions.
5 . B2B Pivot. B2B companies struggled in 2020 because they depend on in-person conferences and networking that was cancelled or moved online. A number of B2B companies have already pivoted to new ways to connect with customers, and other companies must follow suit. B2B companies have to double down on customer experience through digital transformation and using thought leadership to generate leads because what worked in the past doesn’t work anymore.
In many ways, 2020 has set the stage for CX in 2021. As we come out of a difficult year, customers are looking for ease and personalization. They want companies to adapt and make a real difference in society. These trends show just how much 2020 changed us and how we can continue to recover and evolve in 2021.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
After a wild 2020, many companies are looking forward to 2021 and hoping to proactively engage with customers instead of reactively building or changing programs and services.
But just because 2021 is a new year doesn’t mean 2020 is gone and forgotten. The global pandemic and unrest of the year will stick with customers for the long term and greatly influence how they interact with companies going forward. With more virtual events and interactions than ever before, customers want human connection.
The 2021 Deloitte Global Marketing Trends Report highlights seven trends shaping customer experience and business growth in 2021: Purpose, Agility, Trust, Talent, Participation, Fusion and Human Experience. Understanding these trends can help brands drive connection and engagement.
Although each trend is unique and stands on its own, Deloitte CMO Suzanne Kounkel says the trends also work together to support and influence each other. A company that has built strong trust will also likely have a strong sense of participation, for example, while a company lacking in trust likely won’t have as strong of customer participation or human experience.
Of the seven trends, Kounkel says the most important may be purpose and agility. If a company or brand isn’t grounded in a purpose, it’s hard to land any of the other trends. Customers want to see the purpose of a brand and feel trust in an organization. It’s no longer just about making a purchase or doing business—it’s about building real connections with a brand, participating and believing in its greater purpose.
Kounkel says that in a roller coaster year like 2020, it’s important for companies to have purpose as their guiding course. People need to understand why things are being done because how they are being done is changing so quickly. The purpose keeps employees, customers and organizations moving steadily towards a goal or vision, even with the turbulences of chaos and uncertainty.
An organization’s purpose has to start at the top. Kounkel believes most organizations have a purpose, but many companies fall flat because their purpose isn’t embedded or understood in a way that helps the company move forward. She recommends organizations and leaders perform a soul-searching exercise to determine their purpose. Be pragmatic and dogmatic, but do it quickly, because customers expect companies to have strong purposes that resonate in everything they do.
Agility is also a powerful trend going into 2021. The year 2020 showed just how crucial agility is as companies were forced to pivot quickly with little warning. COVID has changed customer expectations, and consumers now expect brands to be more agile than ever before. Now, as we work through the pandemic, brands are starting to get back to doing what they want to do. For months we spent time doing what we had to do, but the agility now in place gives brands more freedom to get back to what they and their customers actually want to do.
A new year brings a new slate. Customers want more connection than ever, and companies that tap into these seven trends can make that happen. Start with a sense of purpose and build those strong connections that will last into the future.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
2020 has been a strange year. Many people coped with the loneliness and uncertainty of lockdowns and quarantines by adding a furry friend to the family. Pet ownership is way up because of the pandemic and has caused the pet industry to pivot and adapt.
As the number of customers has greatly increased, the pet industry has also had to deal with pandemic restrictions and changing health regulations. The only way to survive has been to stay close to customers, adopt digital solutions and pivot.
Brian Garish, president of Banfield Pet Hospital, said that although the way of doing business is now different, the company’s focus is still on building connections with pets and keeping its associates healthy while they continue to give care.
As an essential business, Banfield Hospitals has stayed open throughout the pandemic, but the store had to create new measures to keep associates, pets and clients safe. One of its major changes was introducing curbside dropoff for pets. Instead of owners walking their pets into the store, they now drop them off at the curb where a Banfield associate takes the pet into the hospital to perform the procedure and then brings them back when they are done. To help customers feel comfortable leaving their pets, Banfield built on its trustworthy reputation and increased its communication so that customers are still involved in every step of the process.
One of the most crucial aspects of pivoting during COVID has been digital transformation. Banfield was already working on a digital transformation, but it was greatly accelerated by the pandemic. Now, clients can schedule services and access their pet’s records online. Everything can be done through an online portal or app to remove concerns and make clients’ lives easier and simpler.
The move to digital transformation helps both clients and associates, which then leads to a better experience for the pets. Instead of being weighed down by paperwork, Banfield associates can upload notes digitally to keep owners in the loop. Banfield is also working towards a green initiative to email all paperwork and receipts instead of printing hard copies.
Garish believes Banfield’s digital transformation has been effective because it is rooted in empathy. In his mind, strategy without empathy is wasted. To create the most effective digital transformation, Banfield encourages and facilitates conversations with its clients and its associates.
Digital transformation didn’t come about because it was a trend or an idea executives had—it came from listening to customers and having true two-way conversations. Banfield aims to be part of its clients’ lifestyles, even during a pandemic, but that can’t happen without real dialogue. Those conversations have continued during the pandemic as Banfield keeps in continual communication with its clients and associates about what is and isn’t working and how care can be improved.
Garish doesn’t see the pandemic pivot as temporary. He believes changes made in the last nine months will forever change the company and industry and re-affirm the need to put customers at the center of everything. Instead of a standardized path, customers want individual attention.
The pandemic won’t last forever, but the lasting effects of increased pet ownership will definitely stick around, and Banfield will be there every step of the way.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.