COVID19 Pandemic has exposed how fragile our entire eco-system is in the face of a globalised health emergency. Most importantly, the sentiments circling around prioritising health over everything else will be stronger than ever.
This sentiment won’t be just on an individual basis, businesses across every sector would be re-thinking & re-shaping their CX, by factoring in “Health”, which in turn, would pave way to build & strengthen TRUST among the consumers.
For eg, the food industry would have to deal with the much increased craze around healthy eating, not to mention that it comes along with the caveat of being safe & hygienic. Coupled with an ever-increasing preference for home cooked food, restaurants that fail to entice the customer will face a slump.
The Banking Industry has already introduced video based services to serve their customer better. But, it would be interesting to see how they will address the rising levels of financial instability, & what changes would they make in their offerings to attract customers.
Read more about Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Video KYC Facility
Digital transformation has become a key strategic goal in today’s business world. Brands lock horns against their fierce competitors in the borderless world of digital, to stay ahead of them effectively — all in the midst of changing situations, and market turbulence.
The physical world can never be replaced but providing a key differentiator for creating a greater experience has become incredibly essential. The emergence of D2C model is one prime example, where brands focus on attracting the customers through easy discovery, seamless and engaging interaction, frictionless transaction and absorbing the customer reaction to improve the existing system.
Companies which had kept their Digital Transformation initiatives on hold are speeding up the process and betting big on it. Research shows that most organizations are allotting about a third of their marketing budgets on martech to deliver effective customer experience. A comprehensive unification of technological evolution and brand story-telling is inevitable, and indispensable.
The lockdown took a toll on people’s mental health as well, with the numbers going through the roof, and with the consequences predicted to increase even more, post lockdown.
We can see a rapid increase in the number of mental health councillors in the online space which is a very welcome move since therapy is seen as a taboo in our society.
Businesses must be vigilant on employee stress as lockdown eases, and should be prepared with wellness action plans, apart from the enforcing safety guidelines.
There has also been calls for creating a system of corporate health responsibility (CHR) made mandatory for employers, similar to CSR.
Gamification could be one big bet for big corporations. It is impacting businesses in a huge way. Marketers and training leaders are leveraging the power of games to engage employees, improve customer experience, build team dynamics, and gain market insights. The likes of Zomato, Google Pay, Swiggy, Flipkart etc have been focusing a lot in this.
Brands are gradually moving away from their traditional organizational & working structures, adopting more flexible and modernised roles that will help in establishing a clear correlation between business, technology and digital experience. As we progress, the addition of new technologies and priorities like healthcare will continue to shift the essence of customer experience completely.
Cover Photo Source: Atrivity
The Fiery Fawkes 