Together in sickness and in health
She has lost her loved one. You have lost your health. He has lost his job. They have lost their employees. You have lost your customers. She has lost her hobbies. We have lost our sense of freedom. Have you lost your hope?
In this post, I'll start with COVID-19 and will end with customer experience.
Common goal, common agenda
A horrible tragedy but at the same time, I believe, it's also a blessing that COVID-19 is a global issue. For once, we all have the same goal, a shared purpose, the basis for creating a common agenda.
"COVID-19 has highlighted the inequalities of our world. But it’s also offering us an opportunity to bridge those inequalities and build a fairer world – a world in which health is not a privilege for the few, but a common good."
These words were part of the opening remarks of WHO Director-General at the media briefing on COVID-19 last Friday (May 29, 2020). He highlighted that "Tools to prevent, detect and treat COVID-19 are global public goods that must be accessible by all people". His message was that we're in this together.
To stop the virus from causing more harm than it already has, we need to help each other. To win this together is much like doing business together:
- Mutual understanding of the problem to be solved
- A quantifiable impact of the problem
- A definition of what success looks like
- Joint approach to solving the problem
When it comes to COVID-19 and the first two, we can pretty much check the boxes. The definitions of success may vary to some extent but most people agree that saving as many lives as possible and avoiding large-scale financial crises would be at least part of the success criteria. But in this too, as so often in any business meetings, finding the joint approach, agreeing on the next steps and who does what is tricky.
We all have an important role
Not every one of us can make big political decisions but this crisis if anything has shown us that the actions of everyone have an impact. Whether it's the prime minister speaking or a child sneezing, it can either accelerate or slow down the spreading of the virus.
Most of us have already done our best in slowing down the virus. We have taken our kids out of school, worked from home, practiced social distancing, and washed our hands so obediently that our skin is sore.
But now, in addition to still fighting the virus, we should start to fight the impact of the virus to minimize the negative repercussions and help countries, companies, and individuals in their recovery. We all are responsible for creating a brighter future and washing our hands from this is not an option. A great start is to ensure that healthcare and education are available for all. This we can achieve, first, as countries e.g. by listening to WHO and making sure all research and development in relation to COVID-19 are accessible by other countries and researchers, and second, as companies and individuals e.g. by creating new jobs which can improve the quality of life for many people and increase the tax revenues upholding the countries.
What is your role?
If you lead a country: listen to the experts and your people. Work together with other countries to find a joint approach to solving the global problem.
If you lead a company: listen to your clients and employees. The information you receive will help you identify the changes and trends that are here to stay and the ones which might fade away. It will also help you identify your ideal client profile. Use that information to figure out where you can deliver value, where you can really make a difference, where your company's profile fits in better than other companies'.
If you work in sales: listen to your clients and be there to help them improve their business. If they win and you win, it's not just a win-win but all kinds of wins will occur as a side effect: you have an important role in creating more jobs and reviving the economy.
If you're a buyer/consumer/customer: listen to yourself and express how you feel. The feeling you have when you're visiting a vendor, shopping in an online store, entering a restaurant, or waiting at the doctor's office, tells you about the world you'd like to live in. If you don't feel safe, respected, or valued, your responsibility is to voice that. This will help the organizations (capable of listening) to make changes and improve the way they serve their clients, do business, and contribute to the world.
What's your next step?
Now, even more so than before, it's important to understand how your customers and employees feel. Many companies have already learned to understand the importance of candidate experience on their employer brand but this crisis has reminded us that there should be more focus on all the experience points on the employee journey. It's not just how you hire but also how you fire that affects your company brand. And the same applies to your customer journey. Starting a service is often simple and easy but canceling it becomes a pain. Understandable tactic but leaves a bitter taste to the client who was forced to leave you due to financial difficulties caused by the crisis. How you handle the unpleasant situation may define whether or not they come back to you when their financial situation has improved.
Just like health should not be a privilege for the few, neither should be being heard. If you only listen to your customers in your loyalty program or your most engaged employees, you'll probably hear exactly what you want to hear. Great ego boost but, unfortunately, doesn't help you improve. You might have heard the saying: "Bad news is good news, good news is no news, and no news is bad news." This is very applicable also when leveraging customer and employee experience to improve your business.
So the next step is to do all you can to find out how your customers and employees feel in different experience points. (Tip: Look especially for the bad news!) The more successful you're in keeping both groups engaged, the stronger and better equipped we are to fight the negative repercussions of the virus – together.