2021 has been a year like no other. Businesses have had to contend with national lockdowns, social distancing requirements and a whole host of new consumer demands. It quickly became a fight for survival, with those unable to upscale and adopt new technologies at risk of falling behind. Meanwhile, commerce trends that were years in the making before COVID-19 were suddenly adopted at a brisk pace. IMRG Capgemini’s latest Online Retail Results reveal that UK online sales grew 74% year-on-year in January 2021, which is the largest rate of growth since the start of the first lockdown in March 2020. The knock-on effect is that consumers’ preferences for brand interactions have changed for good. Many retailers have rolled out new technologies since the start of the pandemic to facilitate the various requirements and restrictions of lockdown customer service. They will need to consider the sufficiency of these solutions when the high street re-opens.
No individual or industry has avoided the changes caused by the pandemic. But it’s understanding these changes that will be key to gauging a better picture of what today’s consumer of looks like and how they want to shop.
Expectations Higher Than Ever Before
One standout theme from the past twelve months has been the impact of good customer experience, and perhaps more worryingly for retailers, the repercussions of a bad experience. Research from Infobip, conducted in 2020, revealed that a third of British consumers will never spend again with businesses that they felt provided bad customer service during lockdown. Their biggest frustrations included waiting to speak with customer services (35%), limited ways and times to contact a company (31%) and repeating details multiple times to a customer service agent (20%).
The consumer of 2021 is more demanding than ever before, with a third of UK consumers saying that they have higher expectations of customer service following lockdown.
Thankfully many business leaders recognise the need to evolve. As Gartner predicts: “Customer service is the biggest influencer of the customer experience.... Organisations will seek to transition from delivering only to customer service journeys, to becoming partners.”
Those businesses that get customer service right will reap the rewards – especially when more than half (54%) of UK consumers said they will purchase from businesses again if the service was positive.
More are Mobile-first
When it comes to expectations of brand interactions, customers want to be able to interact with brands quickly, seamlessly and on the platform of their choice. Salesforce argues that “understanding customers’ needs – and exceeding their expectations –are becoming table stakes for businesses to compete.” It adds that “70% of customers say connected processes – such as seamless handoffs or contextualised engagement based on earlier interactions –are very important to winning their business.”
Facilitating these interactions across a range of channels, such as online webchat, SMS, WhatsApp, mobile apps, and voice calls, and being able to deliver a great, personalised customer experience on each will be integral to a positive brand perception.
