CX worsening to shifting pandemic behaviors
With so many behaviors changing from the pandemic, are we monitoring new expectations to better manage them?
The Trend
“Companies and agencies rated “good” declined to 22% of the pool from 25%, while the share of “poor” and “OK” scores increased.”
Forrester CX Index found on their twitter feed
WSJ recently posted about Forrester Research annual U.S. CX report, citing how brand experiences are worsening after our second year of the pandemic. It is worth a read by Katie Deighton - especially for those who don’t have Forrester Access. It covers Forrester’s yearly report on their CX Index Rankings per industry for the United States. It shows that many brands dropped from the year before in customer experience rankings. I have read the Forrester US Customer Experience Index report as a subscriber and indeed see some troubling signs as well. I encourage brand leaders to read the Forrester report and discuss. Pete Jacques, Principal Analyst at Forrester wrote the report and it covers a few key factors.
A first glance it appears the index drop is not significant, it is worth noting dollar spend per customer at scale for some industries is indeed significant. This is especially true for some industries struggling to recover post-pandemic, such as travel and leisure. Indeed there are multiple factors at work given the complexity of customer experiences with brands. Everything from staffing shortages to shipping container delays have been rather self evident during the pandemic and we are even seeing a rise in these resource deficits. Like most we have witnessed some extent of this impact. We all have at least one story to tell. For example, it has taken four months for my wife and I this spring to find a replacement for our decade plus old car. I spent multiple visits at dealers, finally calling over twenty dealers nationwide in an attempt to buy within an auto group. This was an experience where I ultimately gave up on loyalty with an auto group I’ve had for fifteen years - something I will write about in an upcoming post.
Another Take
“70 percent of Americans agreed ‘it’s time we accept Covid is here to stay...’”
One area that I find most troubling - among many - is that companies are struggling to measure new behaviors of customer engagement brought on by the pandemic. Over the last ten years we have seen customers move from brick and mortar retail to a mix of retail-online. But more recently during the pandemic, that emphasis moved to mostly online with the impediment or limitation of any retail access due to COVID-19 restrictions. We began to increase our purchase demand online as we scrambled to find toilet paper - and now more recently, baby formula - as retail struggled to meet demand. As local municipalities have been easing pandemic restrictions, our patience with brand expectations have not. Our expectations three years ago went from waiting for an hour for a retail employee to buy a mobile phone, to waiting on the phone for an hour without any visual stimulus to keep us engaged. These are very different experiences that brands must evaluate as well to pivot with the pandemic. A recent New York Times article showed that we are coming to accept we will be living with COVID for some time, but we’re none the less patient with it. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey showed that “70 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that ‘it’s time we accept Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.’” The question remains, what exactly does it mean for us to “get on” with our lives and will we become more empathetic in our experiences?
“As local municipalities have been easing pandemic restrictions, our patience with brand expectations have not.”
What it Means
There is a great saying that applies to corporations: “What get’s measured gets managed.” What trends are showing is that brands need to find ways to better measure the expectations of their customers. For example, it would be recommended for brands to bridge measurements between their call centers and retail centers to better understand expectations in this new era. Ideally, brands should first begin to measure consumer sentiments before they begin evaluating how they change to various levels of COVID. They can then begin setting benchmarks on where they need to pivot as the pandemic impacts available resources.
I remember in February 2020 speaking with co-workers who thought I was crazy that we would likely be working remote until that summer. These two plus years of Covid seems to show us there is no normal in sight so it’s best not to expect one any time soon. As humans, we haven’t been asked to sacrifice this much since World War II. During that time, the government worked to telegraph a clear understanding of the impact to our resources and expectations that had to change. School kids to some degree knew what defcon level meant. What is our new pandemic defcon and how are brands adjusting in this response? We will always be five steps behind the customer if we do not begin planning for the next wave of changes.
During this time in the pandemic, our expectations and patience reset. Was has been difficult for brands and supporting organizations do is quickly measure those expectations and adjust. My question raised now is: where are brands tracking a measurement in customer readiness to respond to their expectations as Covid eases or rises? Until then we will struggle to find customer experience agility as we continue to chase a normal we expect to remain constant. We are quickly learning what the greek philosopher Heraclitus meant when he said “the only thing constant in life it change.”
Sources
What are your thoughts about the recent articles? Feel free to start a conversation below or join our community here.
Note: I cannot cite much of these reports as my subscription forbids reposting more than a few citations.I recommend others read the Forrester report for impacts within their industries.
