This article by Dawn Anderson, global lead, Accenture Customer Sales & Service, highlights three priorities businesses should address to activate and support purposeful customer engagement experiences in a vastly different world since the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
The coronavirus crisis has created massive shifts in human behavior and rapidly accelerated organizations to a new digital adoption standard, impacting customer engagement significantly and permanently. Tried and true models, predictable patterns, and old rule books no longer apply in the current environment we call the “never normal.â€
When the pandemic eventually recedes, organizations will have to continue accommodating new attitudes and behaviors─ and to transform and create an adaptive customer engagement experience. Leaders are already striving to take immediate action to meet customer expectations in the post-pandemic era and seek answers to questions impacting the future of their sales and service organization.
To understand where businesses should focus, based on shifting global consumer priorities, purchasing decisions and behavioral patterns, Accenture conducted two COVID-19 surveys this year in 15 countries at different stages of the outbreak. The first survey took place from March 19-25 with 3,313 consumers and the second from  April 2-6 with 3,074 consumers. The findings, analyzed in our latest report, A New Era in Customer EngagementOpens a new window , highlight three priorities businesses should address to activate and support purposeful customer engagement experiences in a vastly different world.
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1. Embrace the Unpredictable
Accelerated customer interactions have upended the rules and digital engagement is everything now. Our research revealed an expected increase in ecommerce purchases of 160% from new or low frequency users. During prolonged time at home, consumers have become more willing and able to use digital methods of engagement with industries ranging from beauty to groceries.
Surprising shifts: During the pandemic, people moved from resisting digital interactions to embracing them. This includes areas where in-person interactions were previously preferred such as medical visits, education, and even financial advisory services. Bank of America, for instance, saw a 50% jump in active mobile users of its CashPro online business banking platform and a 77% increase in logins over a rolling 12-month, year-over-year basis, according to a payments and commerce trade publication.
Digital transformation: Covid-19 has ushered in new ways of living and working. Focusing on digital transactions alone is not enough. To remain relevant, companies need to embrace digital engagement (that is, building closer relationships with customers). The emergence of new digital customers, who will likely continue to interact with organizations online even after the pandemic ends, will require companies to analyze how to maintain the right customer sales and service channel mix.
In addition, customer trust has become even more important during the Covid-19 crisis. Consumers are more than two times as likely to be buying only brands they know and trust, according to consumer research Accenture conducted in June.  Companies are making tough choices during the pandemic to retain that trust. Online retailer Asos, for instance, had to make the difficult decision of letting customers know it was increasing its standard delivery by up to 11 days during the height of the pandemic, to ensure it didn’t disappoint customers.  The approach paid off as Asos grew its active customer base 16% and sales rose 10% with “steady improvement†despite the pandemic.
Capitalizing on new customer preferences and ensuring digital engagement will become a competitive advantage for companies. Those that can build these capabilities, and sustain them, will see a positive impact on reducing costs and increasing the percentage of total revenue derived through e-commerce.
2. Workforce Flexibility
The coronavirus crisis has forced companies to flex their workforce to support the changing needs of customers and to adopt virtual working for their people.
Reevaluate remote work: Our report reveals that 46% of those who never worked from home in the past, now plan to do so more often in the future and 73% enjoy working from home. Expect to see an increase in companies moving work from office settings to virtual positions as it helps optimize cost structure, provides greater flexibility to respond to customer needs, and has been proven effective as a way to help ensure employee safety without compromising customer quality. As a result of this shift, we will see an increased focus on ensuring work-from-home standards is up to snuff, such as providing certifications and “starter kits.â€
Create agile talent models: Companies will need to foster a more adaptable workforce to serve a changing customer base and evolving environment. This will include increasing employee skills to handle needs across the entire customer lifecycle in a seamless way from the field, to retail locations, call centers, and the back office in order to simplify operations and customer engagement. To optimize hiring and create a more fluid workforce to meet rapidly shifting customer needs, organizations will focus on increasing analytics and expanding third-party partnerships to ensure their ability to handle volume fluctuations.
For instance, Clover Health, which serves patients primarily in New Jersey, a state hit hard by the pandemic earlier this year, set up outreach workflows to keep members and clinicians connected across multiple channels. This includes a resource website with frequently asked questions and 24/7, real-time support.
3. Strengthen Business Continuity
How can companies enhance business resilience now and in the future? Organizations that were better able to weather the coronavirus crisis had adopted advanced data solutions along with mobile employee and cloud technology before the pandemic hit. While Covid-19 has sparked companies to accelerate digital solutions and innovation, these efforts will need to be recharged on multiple fronts in the future.
Rethink physical locations: When I talk to retail and brand CEOs now, many of them say they want fewer stores that are different than those of the past. They want to use stores to build awareness, educate consumers, define identity based on shared values and develop association. Companies like Microsoft are moving in this directionOpens a new window by closing stores with a goal to open “Experience Centers†in the future. With empty offices and call centers, and retail locations closing or doing curbside pickup, companies are reevaluating how they will define, and invest in, customer-centric workspaces.
Make technology platforms more resilient: As physical environments undergo tremendous change, digital channels will need to be increasingly agile to meet and exceed customer expectations. For example, Texas is now using chatbotsOpens a new window to help handle the surge in unemployment claims. Companies that invest in “future-proofing†their technology platforms will be in a better position to provide customers with new apps, experiences, better service, and to tap new markets.
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Upgrade analytics: Analyzing internal data only is no longer enough to forecast customer trends and employee needs. A combination of internal and external analytics will be needed in the future. A case in point — even with business activity slowing in the pandemic, the Internet of Things (IoT) market is expected to grow to 5.8 billion endpoints by the end of this year and IoT technologies will help to drive change in a wide variety of industry sectors. Investing in advanced, real-time analytics will help inform decision-making, pinpoint new opportunities to boost sales, identify new staffing models and provide insight on how to handle low-complexity customer needs using artificial intelligence. This dynamic data-driven approach will allow companies to better maximize customer satisfaction and revenue and will be essential to remain resilient and competitive during the pandemic and beyond.
What organizations do today, will set the stage for unprecedented customer engagement opportunities. Amid uncertainty, there is innovation. Amid disruption, there is reinvention.