Pivoting your CX program to deal with the uncertainties of COVID-19

Given the rapid change to organisations, teams and customers we need to rethink how our CX programs are operating. The purpose of these programs is to 1) gather insights into how our customers are thinking & feeling and 2) develop programs and responses for continuous improvement.  There are several tools available today (including our own CentraCX voice-of-the customer solution) that make it easier to predict CX under normal circumstances and tailoring the experience accordingly.  

But what happens when circumstances change, and continue to change, rapidly creating uncertainty for organisations, teams and customers.  In these times, the role for the CX professional to play is an important one.

In my experience, the following three guiding principles are most important to consider when updating your CX program:

1.     Humanise Your Approach – organisations, teams and customers alike are in crisis-mode.  Customers may be less patient when it comes to answering the usual barrage of questions. Make sure customers know that the valuable time they’re spending providing you with feedback is to their benefit. Show that you care – asking generic intent questions, traditional “NPS-style” questions or demographic questions may come off as insensitive and likely won’t give you the insights you’re now looking for. Talk less and listen more – focus the questions on what you really need the answers to and asking more open-ended questions. Backfill missing data points using other sources of information - such as CRM or web data analytics – to complete the picture. 

2.     Focus on the Employee Experience – it’s likely that your front-line teams are feeling the pinch too. They’re working lives have been disrupted and like most of us they’re probably juggling working from home whilst keeping the kids entertained.  Above all they’re experiencing first-hand the stress & anxiety our customers are feeling. Everything you do to ensure your teams feel supported will directly impact the support they’re able to show our customers. Keep them in the loop with the changes you’re making to your CX program and the reasons why. We know that large-scale disruption such as COVID-19 is going to affect customer sentiment. Discuss with stakeholders that BAU metrics no longer apply and your new focus is gathering insights on how to best respond and serve your customers’ evolving needs in evolving times.

3.     Rapid Response & Feedback Cycles – organisations have quickly built response teams to deal with the ever-evolving landscape. Initially these teams were focused on how to keep the lights on, but could easily be applied to how to best serve your customers’ needs powered by your CX program. Consider getting your CX professionals involved in the conversation. The BAU pace of feedback was once defined by your organisation’s capacity to act. But if the last few weeks have shown us anything, it’s that organisations are demonstrating that they need to act far more quickly. This is an opportunity to shorten your feedback cycles to feed results back into the business, into testing and evolving your CX approach and sharing insights back into your front-line teams.

Global Speech Networks is a leading provider of SaaS based customer experience solutions in Australia and New Zealand. We provide several innovative customer solutions, including Contact Centre, IVR, Chat Bots, and CentraCX. 

CentraCX is a leading Voice of the Customer platform incorporating the latest machine learning and AI technologies. It continues to provide unique capabilities specifically targeted to driving continual improvement in the Contact Centre space.