Customers will vote with their attention
Customer experience is a constantly moving target – just as organisations “catch up,” the expectations of their customers have already moved on. And with statistics identifying customer experience as being the key differentiator for organisations in the future, they have no option but to keep evolving in order to remain competitive.
In 2021, I think we will see customers become more protective of their time and attention. As the amount of digital noise increases in their lives, customers will become more aware of the digital engagements that add value to them, and those that don’t. And once triaged, jumping from the “doesn’t add value to my life” bucket into the “makes my life easier” bucket, will be very difficult.
As a result, 2021 will see customers judge the service of their providers more critically by the level of thought, usefulness and relevance that goes into each customer engagement. For digital customer communications, this means that customers will expect organisations to provide relevant information, presented in the ideal way and with the correct level of usefulness and functionality.
I think we will see more customers vote with their virtual feet, which is especially concerning for those organisations that are not communicating effectively.
Relationships cannot be built in silence and the lack of communication will result in disengaged and disloyal customers that are easily lured by the sweet promises of competitors.
The good news is that I have also seen many examples of providers strengthening their relationships with customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Importantly, almost all of them had very strong digital communication strategies.
