Without stating the obvious – we now know and have started to come to terms with the importance of issues that are much wider and deeper than our workplace and market, with loved ones, friends and family deeply feeling the impact of Covid-19 in some shape or form. Clearly, we are all starting to adjust and come to terms with the new normal on which our lives will be based. Change is never easy and all this and not a single mention of Brexit.

There is now a new uncertainty across the market at a time when lenders, intermediaries and those across the wider UK plc were feeling very optimistic about the UK economy.

So many of us are now working from home and operationalising a different way of working, adapting to new technologies and completing projects in record quick time to enable the new normal. I’m sure many of us have seen sticking points wrapped up in risk or regulatory red tape that ‘normally’ would take meeting after meeting to resolve, now being agreed in record time. There is nothing quite like a crisis to focus the mind on issues that need resolving. I’m sure many of us are also asking the question ‘why did any such decisions REALLY take so long to make previously?’

Whilst the above is true, with many of us feeling the impact of such changes in our own organisations, it’s important to also take a step back and look at how our own consumer behaviour has changed. We are now starting to better understand the biggest shift that will undoubtedly affect our industry (and others) moving forward, whilst also presenting us with the biggest opportunity to progress and change old processes and procedures as a result of the effect that Covid-19 has and is having on customer attitudes and behaviours.

This is precisely the time for customer experience leaders to move to the forefront of design, digitisation and operations and by doing so take advantage of the nudge theory that has surrounded our lives for the past 3 months. Customers and people generally have been primed, stimulated and nudged into accepting different ways of receiving service, and indeed what service actually is in the new normal.

By being customer forward in approach, organisations can position themselves, their clients and their customers for success in the future, with arguably two key ingredients of success to focus on:

• Creating a stronger emotional connection with customers

Over the last few months we have seen public trust erode across many facets and parts of our lives, from politics and healthcare, to businesses and even humanity in some instances.  Customers are seeking reassurances with multiple ‘partners’ in their daily interactions, whether it be purchasing insurance, ordering goods or looking to cancel or suspend services/provisions that normally would be part of everyday life. Now, imagine if the service that they require is already a stressful and emotional one, such as a house purchase or a remortgage, inevitably the level of anxiety will be heightened even further. In a world of unparalleled uncertainty with multiple scenarios that can greatly overwhelm people, customers are looking for genuine levels of support as well as core beliefs that resonate with them and in turn build loyalty and trust.  This means a truthful and genuine unfettered connection to the things in life that really matter such as social or environmental issues. However, for an organisation to have this degree of authenticity and empathy, it can’t simply launch a marketing campaign to the masses designed to convince, it has to come from within, the top down and the people within the organisation have to be the fabric of this in order to enable a meaningful customer connection. This move must be done because the business wants to create an authentic empathic connection – not to create margin. The organisation must believe this.

• Understand what the new world will look like in 2 years

Covid-19 and the reality of social distancing has had a profound effect on nudging consumer behaviour into different directions. Even the most hardened of ‘anti-digital’ customers have had to quickly get to grips with an accelerated digital world by way of email, portal messaging or live chat. Picking up the phone to contact a business is lower down on the list as everyone flocks to Amazon to place their orders. How do we embed this behaviour? It is important that processes and operations enable businesses to continue at pace down this route as consumer behaviour can soon regress as quickly as it progressed, and investment decisions are made on customer enablement. This of course doesn’t negate the fact that there will clearly be decisions to make on financial savings as the wider economy slows and digitisation and managing customer experience can also contribute a significant part to the cost line on an organisations P&L.

Maybe the customer really is King this time..