Published date: 21 May 2020

Few businesses had established the link between Customer Experience (CX) and business performance before the COVID-19 (C19) pandemic arrived in March 2020. 

CX leaders can therefore expect to be challenged to show the relevance of CX now and how it is critical to business success in “the new normal”. 

CX leaders need to shape their C19 response, or have it done for them

But look again. C19 means every customer and colleague journey, and for that matter, all related metrics, need to be recalibrated. How brands engage with customers and colleagues is already being transformed. Customer and colleague attitudes, expectations and loyalties have also changed forever. 

This is both a threat and an opportunity to CX which holds the key to doing more with less at this critical time. Every dollar spent on tech, payroll and other assets needs to deliver value for all stakeholders.  CX disciplines can drive business-wide alignment that uniquely delivers both customer effectiveness and business efficiency.  

Why now:

Deliberately designed experiences for both customers and colleagues isn’t just a nice to have.  It’s now mission critical. C19 has changed customers’ perceptions and expectations. They now notice and react to how companies handle their staff.
Clumsy, insensitive return to work policies, as well as being dangerous (and potentially litigious) are unforgiving on social media e.g.: Tyson meat processing, Tesla

Now more than ever, brands need to be mindful of the rational and emotional parts of the end to end experience for both customers and colleagues. 

All the experts predict both a recession and another wave of C19 later this year. We all know the impact of the first wave of C19 with businesses and economies weaker. The scale, pace and impact of the next wave will require businesses to be able to respond quickly and effectively.  

There’s good news here…

Since March, the velocity of businesses has changed, and we’ve all had a chance to prepare.  Those who are successful will be the ones who’ve purposely listened, continuously assessed and then quickly responded, set out clearly in a recent global study of insurers:

What to do first:  

C19 has impacted all organisations. It’s just sensible to have someone distil all the learning since March and to build a playbook so as the business is better placed to respond in the autumn. 

Focus on bare essentials 

TribeCX has spoken to over 50 CX leaders since March on their response to C19. Whether facing demand shock, supply shock or employee shock, CX leaders said they now need to be able to do more with less and are focused on the “bare essentials” to increase their pace. The essentials are:  

• Get set up for success: 

– Build or review your CX ambition (North Star) to align resources and decisions 

– Establish and ensure CX contributes to a “do now, do next, do later” assessment and react approach 

– Build and manage a CX centric plan with your hopper of CX initiatives 

• Learn how to quickly drive changes in CX to respond to change and directly drive results 
   
• Develop disciplines to be able to scale what’s proven to work and ensure adoption 

Why us?

TribeCX is a global CX business comprising CX leaders from some of the worlds most respected brands. We’re by no means experts in C19, but our team of 20+ proven practitioners each have the “scars and stars” from leading the customer agenda in large complex businesses during crisis.  

A recent call with Jill Herriott, VP CX at Transunion, agrees, saying the CX team at Transunion: 

• Need to do more with less 
• Are responding and turning things around quickly 
• Taking small risks when there’s no downside, then moving quickly once proven 

Ask yourself, what can you do now with what you have?  And engage cross business teams to leverage the power of the whole business.  

Central to our values is to provide practical advice, and to be generous.  We’d like to offer an hour to leverage our proven approaches and frameworks to help brands start to develop their own: 

Purpose Driven CX Playbook 

And the immediate practical advice to help businesses power up their experience in line with purpose and ensure they’re in the best possible shape to survive, thrive and flourish.