The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 brought a lot of changes to business functioning during this year. To adapt to them is a matter of survival for most companies now. Customer experience is a priority for those running any business, and there are some things you need to implement to make sure your client stays with you.
Before you start with the practices, ensure that the technical side of your business is perfect. It includes providing your clients with developed websites and applications, multi-channel invoicing, and safe delivery service. Examine what is best for your line of business and apply it immediately.
Re-Evaluate Communications
When you get used to conducting communications in a certain way that suits your business, it is easy to begin taking them for granted and rarely audit or reassign them. The chosen tone of voice and particular topics for communication with the audience may be perceived as a lack of development in your brand.
Try writing out the texts of several dozen of your recent posts, comments, and articles in the media on a separate piece of paper and reread them, highlighting emotionally colored words and value judgments, frequently repeated words, and topics that you want to discuss. It will help you see the impressions you make at the audience and compare them with the desired brand’s image.
Besides, make a list of rules for your brand that need to be followed when writing texts. For example, make your brand posts always in the first person, because personal communication is in more demand right now.
It is the right moment to unite within the team too. It is difficult to broadcast unity externally if you are struggling with it inside of your team. You can do a re-evaluation together to see what expectations and differences you all have. During the discussion, you will be able to come up with joint ideas that can unite everyone.
Establishing Communication with the Audience
Communication of many brands often seems impersonal. It is not unusual that communication strategies often prioritize the brand, and it entitles forgetting about its audience. It is why their messages are insensitive in stressful situations.
Tell your non-fictional stories that are closely related to anyone – family, friendship, nostalgic memories of the world before quarantine – and ask your audience to share them. During isolation, when everyone is experiencing a sense of alienation, your communication can help someone cope with loneliness.
Interact with Your Audience in a Fun Way
To interact with your audience whenever possible is a good practice established a while ago. Engage them in dialogues on social media or through giveaways and now by going live and answering their questions. At the same time, it can be more useful to manage the interaction between users themselves, which can already develop spontaneously in the comments under your business account’s posts.
It is your time to use people’s desire for socialization and self-organization. You can also become a platform for people to communicate – by launching flash mobs and challenges, organizing virtual “smoking rooms” in the comments under your social media posts. Offer discounts and special offers to those who can manage their friends or find new ones to receive your product. It will be a good excuse for many to start or resume communication with others, which was lost on some of us during isolation.
Next Steps
Do not expect that everything will go back to normal right after the pandemic is over (and it isn’t just yet). The way we are living right now might just be the “new normal”.
You already know your brand better, its strengths and weaknesses, and got to know your audience better and strengthen your connection with them. The acquired knowledge can form the basis of the transformation process reflected in new statements or maybe even the company’s mission.
Consider rebranding as your next step. It is a perfect way to implement your business’s changes in both visual and verbal communication. It may be just a new design of your old features brought to the line with current trends, or you can aim for a full-fledged rebranding that rethinks the entire brand concept.
Conclusion
In turbulent conditions, businesses need to understand their brand’s image and see the prospects of its development to survive and come out stronger in the post-crisis era. It has become clear that if a business uses the old work mechanisms, it risks becoming irrelevant. Being true to yourself but following the trends is always a serious challenge, but it is incredibly serious today when an already unstable world has been shaken up.
What customers expect today is support from the industry and a positive attitude. It is essential to talk more about good things being done in these difficult times.
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