The events of early 2020 have changed the way companies and customers interact, perhaps permanently. For many companies, digital transformation and the prioritisation of online selling or ecommerce capabilities has been accelerated, but offline customer experiences (CX) have changed too.
For many companies, the processes that were put in place during the times of COVID-19 lock-downs and ‘shelter in place’ orders were hastily cobbled together reactions to stores being closed. The ideal customer journey was not top of mind. Instead, businesses were thinking about the ability to take and deliver orders.
COVID-19 also changed the mix of buyer personas shopping online. The growth in ecommerce is due, in part, to consumers using online shopping for the first time. These people have different expectations and understanding of the technology than the early adopter, tech savvy shoppers.
Now that stores are opening up again, the Omnichannel customer experience is also having to change. Behaviours like wearing masks or contactless payment need to be adopted and the impact on team members and staff taken into consideration. e.g. moving from cash to contactless payment has an impact on tipping!
Live Chat as a Barometer for CX Types.
There is a temptation for companies to focus on staying in business, perhaps making decisions that benefit the company over the customer in the short-term. However, the companies that put the customer front and center will probably come out best – and customers have long memories.
One of the areas that will need scrutiny is ‘Live Chat’ support. This tool is a great barometer of what type of CX a company tends towards. You can determine very quickly if a response from an operator is in the best interests of the company or customer.
You can also determine the extent to which the agent has the ability to go off script, is empowered to solve problems.
One example of company-centric chat CX is the practice of sending the customer to an FAQ page. This is usually done by companies that make it as difficult as possible to find the live chat option in the first place. The self-service mentality is so strong, that the priority is to get rid of the chat as quickly as possible.
Companies like Facebook and Shopify have a lot of ‘Lone Wolf’ CX types on their live chat. These companies are used to dealing with digitally-savvy customers and many of their agents find it hard to hide their arrogance and lack of empathy with the new digital users. They really don’t care if they solve the problem or whether the customer is satisfied.
Customer Experience Typology Framework
In partnership with ACEDE, we have created an exclusive framework to benchmark your organisation against CX best practice. We can identify team members who act in the customers’ best interests or the company’s best interests or those who might have a tendency to cause brand damage.