How can your company come out stronger on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis?
That’s the key question many business leaders are asking themselves, and the answer lies in what you choose to do today.
On a personal level, people are trying to make the most of their quarantine time – for example, by starting a home improvement project, addressing long-ignored items on a to-do list, or taking up a new hobby.
But just as the opportunity exists to leverage the lockdown for personal productivity and enrichment, so, too, does it exist on a professional level.
Even as the country gradually re-opens for business, many people will continue to work from home, somewhat shielded from the frequent interruptions of passerby in the office. In addition, many organizations will continue to see a lull in business activity, as individuals and institutions perpetuate some form of hibernation, be it by staying home more or pulling back on discretionary purchases.
The question then becomes, what will you do to capitalize on the “pause”? How will you leverage the time available to become a better organization, to deliver a better customer experience (CX)?
It’s not an academic question, given data from the last recession which shows how CX-leading companies outperformed their peers. So — to not just survive the crisis, but thrive in its aftermath, here are five ways to make the most of your time in lockdown, and position your business for greater success:
1. Define your post-pandemic customer experience.
While some businesses are affected more by COVID-19 than others, all organizations need to consider how their customer experience might need to evolve, if not be completely redesigned, in a post-pandemic world. (During the last economic crisis, Hyundai Motors put on a masterclass in precisely how to do that.)
Existing touchpoints may need to be tweaked (e.g., shifts to contactless/digital interactions) and new ones may need to be introduced (e.g., visual cues that signal attention to sanitization and cleanliness).
Special attention should be applied to customer experience episodes which may be getting heavy “traffic” during the pandemic (e.g., digital touchpoints, call center interactions, and self-service capabilities). Those episodes may benefit from a current-state assessment, which in addition to revealing quick hit improvements, could also help inform the design of a future-state CX blueprint.
2. Reshape the employee experience to account for WFH.
It’s not just customers’ routines that have been disrupted by the pandemic. Many employees, too, are navigating a new, work-from-home (WFH) world. The implications of this new model are far reaching.
For example, how will you vet, onboard and assimilate new hires? How will you ensure that employees have the tools they need to effectively perform their job remotely? Given that employee and customer experiences are inextricably linked, paying attention to the former is a prerequisite for improving the latter.
One simple way to make progress in this regard is to gather input from the workforce. Front-line staff, by virtue of the frequency of their engagement with customers, are often a great source (if not the best source) for innovative ideas on how to enhance the customer and/or employee experience. You just need to ask them!
3. Turn high customer contact volumes into CX gold.
While some business units may be experiencing a lull in activity from COVID-19, others are experiencing a surge. Many Contact Centers, in particular, have been overwhelmed with customer inquiries, as homebound consumers struggle with self-service options or seek some other type of assistance to help them through the pandemic (e.g., payment accommodations, downgrades to cheaper services, inquiries about contactless offerings).
With every customer inquiry your company receives, there’s a piece of intelligence to be gained, a morsel of wisdom that can help you improve the customer experience. The key is to take time to understand not just what your customers are contacting you about, but why.
Many incoming customer inquiries are unnecessary and avoidable. That is, they are triggered by a question or concern that could have been preempted if something were done differently upstream (e.g., better product descriptions on a website, clearer customer communications, less confusing self-service navigation).
Pinpoint the most common “whys” behind the inquiries, and then you’ll be perfectly positioned to make upstream improvements that obviate the need for people to contact you in the first place. That means less stress on your operating infrastructure, and a better experience for your customers.
4. Educate your team in the secrets of CX design.
Pandemic-induced downtime can be good for thinking and learning – two professional development tasks that often get neglected in the whirlwind of day-to-day business. Indeed, this may be the ideal time to (virtually) assemble executives and/or front-line staff to learn the ins and outs of good customer experience design.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, CX design isn’t as simple as “service with a smile.” It actually requires a healthy dose of cognitive science, since doing CX well is as much about shaping customers’ memories as it is about shaping their experiences.
Use virtual customer experience training programs to equip your staff with the same CX design skills that legendary brands employ every day. Your team will then be able to leverage those techniques to strategically differentiate your customer experience, both during and after the pandemic.
5. Chip away at oft-neglected items on your CX to-do list.
Just as homeowners are using quarantine time to make progress on long-deferred maintenance tasks, the same approach can be applied to CX improvements. Some of those tasks may have been languishing on a to-do list for ages, yet they may be ideal candidates for “contactless customer experience improvement” (i.e., CX projects that can be effectively pursued remotely, without much need for in-person team interaction).
Examples of such “contactless” projects include the enhancement of customer communications (to improve clarity, readability and brand alignment), the redesign of onboarding processes (to bring new customers into the fold in a more polished, deliberate and impressive way), or the revamp of billing/account statements (to turn what are generally viewed as administrative touchpoints into more of an experience differentiator).
These are all examples of CX improvements that often get subordinated to bigger (or at least more glamorous) priorities. They’re high-value targets, however, that might be perfect to pursue in the current circumstances.
One of the great hallmarks of CX-leading firms is that they’re proactive. They anticipate and address individual customer needs, as well as broader marketplace trends.
Now is precisely the time to be proactive.
Don’t let the pandemic define your company’s customer experience by pushing you through a series of haphazard, reactive moves. Instead, be deliberate and intentional – take the lead in designing and actualizing a customer experience that will set your business apart today, tomorrow, and well into the future.
[A version of this article originally appeared on Forbes.com.]
Jon Picoult is the founder of customer experience advisory firm Watermark Consulting. As a consultant and a speaker, he’s worked with the CEOs and executive teams of some of the world’s top brands. Follow Jon on Twitter or Subscribe to his monthly eNewsletter.