The optimism of #Purpose & science of #design in forging #digital customer experiences! Opinions my own!

This too shall pass.

Many a thought on the post-pandemic revolves around how we can emerge stronger, more resilient than before. That’s the key question many business leaders are asking themselves, and the answer lies in what you choose to do today.

On a personal level, people are trying to make the most of their lockdown/quarantine/social-distancing time – for example, by starting a home improvement project, addressing long-ignored items on a to-do list, or picking up a new skill/language.

But just as the opportunity exists to leverage the lockdown for personal productivity and enrichment, so, too, does it exist on a professional level.Until we find a vaccine, probably towards the end of 2020; every economy is re-thinking and reimagining citizen & workforce resiliency – Twitter and many others will follow suit, have announced a ‘permanent’ WFH option. Research has shown, some ‘segments’ and personas of the workforce are more suited to WFH – and working remotely. Chances are, if you’re a content generator, a thought leader – during these times you thrive. Everyone seems closer, and there’s much that can be done to ‘spread the voice’ and disseminate ideas with increasing efficacy.

Even as the country starts to re-open for business, many people will continue to work from home, somewhat shielded from the frequent interruptions of passerby in the office. In addition, many organisations will continue to see a lull in business activity, as individuals and institutions perpetuate some form of hibernation, be it by staying home more or pulling back on discretionary purchases.

The question then becomes, what will you do to capitalise on the “pause”? How will you leverage the time available to become a better firm, to deliver a better experience management (XM)?

Much, much research shows how XM-leading companies outperform their peers. In the early 2000s if you recall the mantra was acquisition is 5-7x more costly vs retention (kinda passe now). There’s a new world order in the coming months – one that values Trust above all else, and one that truly connects, nay, brings humans, closer together than ever before. Never has geographies, economies and socio-politics been so intertwined – actually it always has been, but it took #Covid-19 to ‘wake up’, to jolt the human race.

1. Reboot post-pandemic #Covid19 experience management aspirations – nothing will be the same! Ever.

While some businesses, some sectors e.g. travel/airlines, leisure and services are naturally affected more by COVID-19 than others, all organisations need to consider how their experience management might need to revolve, if not be completely redesigned, in a post-pandemic world.

Existing touchpoints may need to be tweaked (e.g., shifts to contactless/digital interactions) and new ones may need to be introduced (e.g., visual cues that signal attention to sanitisation and cleanliness).

Special attention should be applied to experience management episodes which may be getting heavy “traffic” during the pandemic (e.g., digital touchpoints, call center interactions, and self-service capabilities). Nothing more apparent that all the #Trust building apps recently released in agile sprints for contact tracing by most governments across the world! . Those episodes may benefit from a current-state assessment, which in addition to revealing quick hit improvements, could also help inform the design of a future-state XM target operating model and blueprint.

These trying times are crucial for #Trust building (or rebuilding), nothing should be inauthentic, and it just shows – the human BS radar is at an all time high, and we are empathically connected. Every experience should be, as always, for good – never to exploit. We observe some protagonists (initially during the earlier phases of the pandemic) attempting to raise prices for commodities such as face masks and other necessities – obviously not a very good time to be called out !

2. Reshape the employee experience to account for WFH.

Stay true to your purpose .

All the Covid-19 related spams well, become jarring. It’s quite apparent . Instead focus on giving back and redefining the employee experience to be one that’s caring . We humans are naturally caring, we need to connect ; nurture these.

It’s not just customers’ routines that have been disrupted by the pandemic. Many employees, too, are navigating a new, work-from-home (WFH) world. The implications of this new model are far reaching. Recent surveys have shown that most employees will never want to return to a physical work place – accept that this is the new normal, and embrace. This is the defining moment for the digeratis. Most are asking , why does it take a virus to get us to work this close, this seamless? Every corporate line, divide and chasm blurs into the background – and as some would put it “we get stuff done. Faster.”

3. Crank up the combustion rate of the XM ‘world engine’; fuse experiential and operational data spectrums!

Combustible ‘insights to action’ on overdrive; the pandemic demands renewed #Trust – regained, rebuilt, newly forged. What’s happening is the fusion of experience and operational data spectrums – like a sun going supernova.

All the enquiries about public health, safety, transparency and efficacy of responses vis a vis solutions are increasingly under real-time scrutiny. Brands are as good as their last tweet – think Elon!?

Many a transformation agenda, blueprint is flipped upside down – stuff that Boards and C-suites reckon should come ‘online’ much later/experimental etc, are seeing the light of day. Satya said it himself, 2 years digital transformation in 2 months, or was it 2 weeks? With clients, we see sprint, scrum and release cycles cratering – almost halved! The best part is (shh!) we don’t have to get it absolutely 100% right the first time/release – its about getting something authentic out, to help and give back and serve! As I’m sure most teams would have discovered during these trying times, clients/vendors are more amenable with network glitches, zoom lags and bandwidth related jars – it’s all about coming together (like never before) to solve common problems.

Make no mistake – hygiene factor, what’s already ‘broken’ in businesses will be called out and made so very apparent – Covid-19 doesn’t break businesses, it exposes broken businesses; there’s a difference. High volumes of transactions, e.g., payment accommodations, downgrades to cheaper services, inquiries about contactless offerings – these will be come mainstay and part of the new normal. If you weren’t prepared before (pandemic), chances are you won’t be prepared at all – and if brands survive the beating, regardless the shape of the recovery, they stand to thrive.

Treat every customer interaction as a ‘gift’; a barometer, an input to the XM combustion engine that distills insights, intelligence and ultimately action!

4. Design is life; focus on ‘upstream’ XM design – and Trust triumphs Ease

Sinek said something along these lines; a small move in the right direction > big move in the wrong direction. Can’t agree more. Got plan, got chance. No plan, no chance – someone wise once told me. And this is the ‘perfect’ time to plan. Redesign your experience ambitions to mean more – not just short-term tactical fixes, be far more aggressive – do the #FutureBack; put yourself in the future tense/lens and extrapolate/regress back. Nothing is more powerful than extreme empathy – except a temporal shift for hyper immersion! Work on #Trust as the new pillar, new currency of the new/next normal – regardless of sector – where Trust is high, the rest will follow. Simple examples – how clean, read: disinfected regularly for train carriages will outweigh fares, contactless payment options etc. How clean your hotel rooms (how transparent is that..?) will play a crucial part in defining the new expected experience, optics and perceptions.

Pre-pandemic it could be that fixes were fast and furious, efficiency was the top driver -> then it moved to seamlessness & ease (omni) etc. Now? It’s Trust. It’s Transparency. Everything else is a given (or table stakes).

5. Transformation. Now. This is the (only) time; pound the rock, work on neglected items on your XM to-do list. Actually, bring those experimental initiatives up (refer to item 3 above)

If you see XM Institute’s – XM Operating Framework, one of the quadrants is dedicated to driving action (from insights). I’d say start with this, amplify the magnitude and efficacy of these ‘actions’ or experiential improvement opportunities (cover experience gaps) – and accrue that back to the Experience Economics P&L balance sheet. Never a better way to gain support.

Now is precisely the time to transform (to thrive in the new normal). Never doubt the indomitable human spirit – this time around, we’ve got shared #Purpose across the globe – strange how we come together during trying times.

Build and aspire for the new/next normal experience ambition vs. reactive stop gaps and band-aid type fixes; easier said than done I know but now is the perfect time (with some leeway) to put that plan in motion! Reboot XM.

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