Collective Notes from our Global Customer Journey Post-Covid - Webinar

Customer Journey is More than just a Journey

Customer Experience and Customer Journeys have profoundly changed over the last few years. No Matter how hard you try to create a great customer journey/experience, users will create their own. We cannot create a journey for our customers, but can only facilitate the customers to create a great journey by themselves ... and each of these journeys is different.

Each customer creates their own journey from any touchpoint, to another touchpoint with or without a successful journey/transaction/interaction. 

The COVID19 pandemic has without a doubt, impacted the way consumers behave and how they consume content and how they are interacting with brands. The pandemic has required businesses to accelerate their thinking and transform the way they use technology to communicate with their customers.

“Customer journey’ as a phrase can sound mechanical, but it is really about understanding what people want and when (and how we be of best help to them) 

Brands are often at risk of being ‘tone-deaf’ to customer’s needs, and this is equally true today, despite all of the AI and predictive models. When we hear brands talk about ‘driving’ customers to somewhere – eg. A web site – you have to ask yourself if this is about the brand’s own interests or the customer’s?

COVID has been a great challenge for many industries because it has inverted our customer engagement priorities. In the ‘normal’ mode of operation, we are mostly aiming to inspire people to book or transact. As an example, airlines need to really understand that people have a fear of flying (that may not be rational or factually derived, but it is a fear nonetheless) and they have a fear of being stuck with a booking they cannot use. The industry has to quickly evolve as a business to address these new challenges.

Key Areas of importance are:

What do we know about people’s behavior in relation to Covide-19?

• Health and wellbeing are very important
• Community, local and family/friends at the fore
• Financial hardship for many
• New Direct to Consumer Online trends – shopping, news, research, news, self-improvement
• Consumers have a new attitude towards physical environments
• Environment and sustainability still very important
• Human values from brands are critical for success

What could this mean for brands in practical terms?

• Transparency and ‘genuine’ values need to be demonstrated
• Physical store environment must change
• Travel and leisure will be completely re-defined
• Community/Environmental credentials very important
• Technology being deployed in numerous ways at lightning speed. 

How important is Data and Privacy in this new world and Why Privacy Is a Customer Experience Issue!

Consumers want personalized experiences. There are no two ways about it. Two-thirds of consumers are more likely to purchase from a retailer that sends relevant promotions or remembers previous purchases. 

Marketers often see compliance with data regulations as someone else’s problem, relying on legal and IT to hammer out the finer details. But without data, delivering relevant, personalized experiences is virtually impossible, making privacy very much a marketing and customer experience issue. 

One survey shows over 70% of US consumers worry about how brands collect and use their personal data. Forrester’s recent report, The Top Trends Shaping Privacy in 2019, highlights that privacy consent is the first opportunity for customers to interact with a brand — and the importance of first impressions.

But personalization requires one essential ingredient: Data. Until recently consumer data was in abundance and businesses were free to collect as much of it as possible. Now we are entering an era of potential data scarcity as a raft of regulations — from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to Nevada’s amendment to its online privacy law — make consumers more aware of the personal information that businesses collect and provide more control over how that data is used.

Marketers should start with privacy interactions, where they explain data practices and request the consumer’s permission. Data regulations require the language used in these explanations to be easy to understand, without legal jargon. But more than that, the consumer should feel someone has put thought into writing them, that they truly reflect business values, and they sound like something the brand would say.

What is the landscape for changing data issues after COVID-19? 

We have had GDPR and now CCPA to help manage this privacy process but how are we supposed to plan and build on a global basis with so many different systems. Where does Data Privacy and Security fit into the New Customer Experience Life Cycle? The successful companies have to do better at planning and integrating data usage and approvals at the very beginning of the Customer Journey. With new payment systems and the direct to consumer economy growing at a rapid pace, privacy and consent will become the new gold standard. Companies must bring data, compliance and risk assessment teams together with the marketing teams to ensure safe and new systems are being created to protect the customer while at the same time ensuring the best value for the consumer.

In the bigger picture, there is a challenge we are facing regarding data and predictive models. The problem with segmentation is that it excludes most customers from your targeting. Propensity modeling that would offer customers certain options based on averages. The risk is that this works for the 70% but 30% miss out. Despite the hype, data-driven customer journeys are mostly still about pushing options to customers. The best customer service brands will be able to recognise that people are not that predictable.

More than any time in history the Customer Journey now demands a ‘connected experience’ however, are brands really ready?

Consumers have ‘digitally transformed’ at pace – have brands? 

Are their data tech and operational structure fit for the new digital age?

The next 18 months will be very interesting to watch the global marketplace to see what companies transform and quickly scale into successful entities and which ones keep the legacy operational models in place and barely survive. Overall I see many executives who hold a growing optimism and determination to fight and change will be the new leaders of tomorrow.

A few key tips to keep in mind while undergoing this transformation are:

• Technology is not the final solution but an enabler – treat it as such
• The human element is the key – top-down, will to change, manageable steps
• Look at start-ups aggressively – new ideas are needed