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FORWARD THINKING CX MANAGEMENT IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY By Ipsos | May 2020

© Ipsos 2020

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• In what ways have your customers’ fundamental needs and expectations changed? How are the drivers of behavior transforming? It may be an opportune time to revisit your standards for customer service delivery at each touchpoint

• Beyond complying with government requirements, how else do your processes and customer handling practices need to change to align with shifting customer priorities?

• If you have implemented new processes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic such as contactless or digital services, how well do your customers understand what to do and expect at each touchpoint?

• Are all your stores or business units executing at an equally high level? A lack of consistency calls for immediate action to pinpoint and address below average performers

• What do your front-line employees need to remain engaged and deliver an optimal customer experience during this challenging time?

• What new employee skill sets are needed to meet changing (or new) customer expectations?

QUESTIONS EVERY COMPANY NEEDS TO ASK ABOUT THE CHANGING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

RE-IMAGINING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DURING AND AFTER COVID-19

Customer attitudes, behaviors, and needs have changed rapidly and substantially since the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis. How should companies navigate such a swiftly transformed business environment? It starts with understanding how customers are being impacted by the pandemic, and evaluating which emerging customer needs are temporary and which will prove more “sticky” long after the current health crisis abates.

GETTING BACK TO THE BASICS OF CX PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

In the same way that the global health crisis is affecting the way customers live and work, it is also influencing how customers perceive and engage with your company. They have a heightened awareness of what actions companies across industries are taking for their customers, employees, and the general public, resulting in further convergence of expectations across industries. Proactive companies realize that the actions they take now will determine whether they ultimately deepen their relationship with customers during this turbulent time or erode it. Responding to the rapid shifts in the customer experience occurring in this uncertain business climate requires a return to the basics that drive a strong CXM ecosystem, including:

• CX surveys and social media channels that provide the kind of tactical feedback needed to evaluate the performance of different service channels and digital transformation activities

• Targeted reporting and analysis that gives everyone from senior management to front-line employees the information they need to deliver an optimal customer experience

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MINING EXISTING RESOURCES TO GLEAN NEW INSIGHTS

After re-evaluating the effectiveness of your CXM system, consider how well your business is operationally aligned to deliver on your brand promise in the new global environment. There are several ways to stay abreast of a fast-moving target using CX and other information already at hand:

• Monitor KPIs more frequently across key dimensions such as customer type, region, and delivery channel; this will help you stay abreast of emerging trends, differentiate meaningful fluctuations vs. random noise, and assess whether CX or operational performance targets need to be adjusted

• Compare performance across stores or business units to assess which are continuing to deliver a strong customer experience and what they are doing differently; use these insights to identify opportunities for improving lower-performers

• Update key driver and CX financial impact analysis for early identification of shifting customer priorities that impact CX, financial, or other business outcomes; this will help focus limited resources on what matters most to your customers and your company

• Leverage unstructured feedback from your CX survey and social media to uncover tactical customer needs, operational issues, and qualitative insights on both transactional and relational dimensions of the customer experience; this may require fine-tuning an outdated text analytics code frame to identify newly emerging themes that are not currently being detected

ACTIVATING FORWARD THINKING CXM

Once the fundamentals have been assessed – bolstering your CXM ecosystem and leveraging existing data – forward thinking CX managers strive to expand their current listening posts for more contextual feedback. Expanding feedback channels during times of social upheaval allows shrewd companies to build an effective, future oriented CX strategy. Actions to consider:

• Re-assess existing customer journey maps to ensure they reflect potentially ‘sticky’ post-pandemic changes to customer handling, digital strategies, and other new or accelerated processes such as e-commerce and contactless delivery

• Leverage insights from your front-line employees: solicit their feedback on barriers and enablers to delivering the ideal customer experience, and determine what training and coaching is needed to sustain desired new customer handling behaviors

• Prioritize efforts toward reducing churn and maximizing ROI on your high-value customers

• Update competitive benchmarking to assess what actions you can emulate that are particularly well-received by consumers, both in your industry and across others

• Accelerate initiatives to integrate CX data with operational, social, and other external metrics; in a rapidly changing consumer landscape, this will enable more targeted root cause analysis of performance issues, help manage churn prediction, and build linkages to drive the right business outcomes

• Re-evaluate the process for developing performance targets (2021 and beyond) in light of changing CX touchpoints (such as digitalization), customer expectations, and score trends

• Create a crisis management playbook that details CX process changes as well as internal and customer communication plans to enact in the event that the health pandemic re-emerges or another catastrophe occurs

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A ROADMAP TO SUCCESS IN CHALLENGING TIMES

With its rapidly accelerating trajectory, the global COVID-19 pandemic represents uncharted territory for customers, companies, and industries. In some ways, however, the current global health crisis can act as an agent for needed change, such as by accelerating the transition to digital strategies. Mitigating risk in such an uncertain business climate requires acting quickly to leverage information resources on hand, while at the same time adapting your CXM ecosystem to enable a long-term view that maximizes operational alignment.

In turbulent times, Ipsos prepares our clients to extract the CX insights essential for navigating challenges and uncovering future opportunities. We partner with successful companies to activate forward thinking CXM by curating a deeper, contextual understanding of what the ‘new normal’ looks like for their customers - what matters to them in this moment, what will matter in the future, and the roadmap for providing a best-in-class customer experience today and tomorrow.

BHARATH VIJAYENDRA

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENTbharath.vijayendra@ipsos.com