Welcome to 2021

2020 is gone but the scars of the year will linger on for a while as we continue to adapt to the new normal i.e. doing business amid the outbreak and spread of the coronavirus. We have seen understandable changes in customer and employee behaviours ranging from changes on preferences, priorities and the role of proximity and safety in decision making.

While some sectors were badly hit by the outbreak and spread of the virus (tourism, entertainment, manufacturing, etc), several sectors have gained from the pandemic due to the importance of these sectors (i.e. products or services) to customers during the pandemic (e.g. technology, financial services, e-commerce, education, etc).

With some countries experiencing a second wave of the virus and economies going into a recession, businesses still need to keep it going in 2021. Businesses still need to find new and sustainable ways to ensure that customers are happy with their end to end experiences leading to customer retention and advocacy.

Our Reality

With the above in view, the focus for customer experience management as a business strategy for differentiation and business profitability in 2021 is a focus on Customer Reacquiantance. It makes sense because so much has changed with customers since the outbreak and spread of the virus and this includes employees. People have lost jobs, businesses have folded up or drastically changed their business model to stay afloat. disposal income per household has been impacted positively or negatively, income per household impacted (positively or negatively), schools operating remotely, countries going into recession, inflation happening, the list goes on.

All of the above definitely has an effect on what customers want, what customers need, what customer prefer, what customers prioritize and what customers expect. As this is the case, it means that customer groups or segments as we know it before COVID-19 are no longer valid. It means that customer journeys mapped pre-pandemic are no longer valid. Why? Customers’ wants, needs, preferences, priorities and expectations have changed leading to a change in customer profiles or personas.

A great customer experience (CX) strategy for businesses in 2021, therefore, will be to get reacquainted with customers to understand what has changed and how the change affects changes in customer interactions across all stages of customers’ journey.

Getting reacquainted with customers means to gain renewed knowledge and experience of customers and this puts the spotlight on customer relationship management being a customer-centric strategy to maximize profitability, revenue and customer loyalty (superoffice.com).   

How Will Customer Reacquaintance as 2021 CX Focus Work?

For businesses to win the hearts (loyalty and advocacy) of customers in 2021, there is a need to adopt the Niche Customer Experience Consulting Firm’s take on a Customer Reacquaintance Model. This is a model that encourages businesses in 2021 to win with customers by being deliberate about how customers are; segmented, acquired, retained and extended.

The CX Advantage of Customer Segmentation In 2021

Leveraging customer segmentation intelligence in 2021 will help businesses understand and target customers better leading to higher conversion rates. How have you segmented your customers? Do you have a concentrated, differentiated or hyper-segmentation approach or do have you segmented your customers using a demographic, geographic, psychographic, technographic, behavioural, needs-based or value-based approach? Are these groups or segments still valid? Do you need to create new segments? What is the customer story per segment in 2021? What do you hope to achieve per customer segment in 2021? 

Here are some considerations for businesses in 2021 concerning the CX Advantage of Customer Segmentation In 2021.

• Overhaul existing customer segments or groups. If required, create new groups or discard groups that are no longer relevant. Be open-minded to your current customer realities and don’t stay fixated on what was rather focus on what is.
• Leverage customer segment data intelligence in marketing products and services as solutions to segment-specific customer needs. Let customers see themselves in their adverts and promotions. This also means resisting from pushing out information about product/service features without contextualizing these features from a customer’s want/need perspective. 
• Create or review a product or service feature benefit chart clearly articulating benefits per product/service feature to customers and share with all internal stakeholders responsible for one customer experience activity or the other

The CX Advantage of Customer Acquisition In 2021

Businesses can make customer acquisition extra special by being deliberate about new customer onboarding experience. It is one thing to understand, segment and attract customers, and it is another thing to create a 1st-time experience that’s stuck and makes a new customer buy again from you.

In 2021, businesses should take the time to review or design onboarding experiences that:

• Acknowledge, appreciate and thank every new customer
• Educates each new customer on how to use products and services bearing in mind that different customer segments may require different media and channels for customer education i.e. media/channels that resonate with specific customer segments
• Offers and is available to support customers while using a product or service. Customer service experiences should not be an afterthought in 2021. Businesses are encouraged to put the right teams in place, equip them with the right tools as well as to measure and track the quality of experiences across all stages of a customer’s experience i.e. from discovery to advocacy.
• Shares great news and updates about product/service offerings i.e. what people are saying about a product/service as well as more information about features and benefits especially the ones that customers are yet to explore. Let your customers know what other problems they can solve bu trying out other product features.
• Rewards repeat purchase. For first time customers, businesses are encouraged in 2021 to figure out the kind of rewards to offer to customers by way of loyalty programs be it a discount offer, improved after-sale support offer, contractual agreement offer or a hybrid of loyalty program types

The whole point is, be on your new customers like white on rice and do not give them a chance to get away as best you can. Ask questions like; did they activate/use your product/service after purchase? Did they need help? What kind of help did they need? What was the quality of help offered? Why did they need help and can this demand for help be eliminated completely for prospective new customer experiences? What are the great parts of their experience and how can you leverage this intelligence to improve the quality of your marketing and sales activities? 

Bottom line is to track customer experience metrics across all stages of your customer’s journey so you stay on top of your 1st-time customer’s experience

The CX Advantage of Customer Retention In 2021

There is always a CX advantage in customer retention so focusing on how best to retain existing customers is a winning strategy for all businesses. Businesses are encouraged to focus on customer retention with a twist. The twist is:

• Constantly monitor repeat customer transactions and leverage insights to improve every repeat experience per customer segment. 
• Constantly find new and innovative ways for continuous improvement in people, processes, systems and yes, products/services
• Constantly checking your customer’s pulse, reviewing customer personas and remapping customer journeys (at least once or twice in 2021 per product, service or touchpoint) to value to the customer and repeat purchase
• Periodically and proactively improving product/service functionality 

The CX Advantage of Customer Extension In 2021

Nothing delights a customer more than a business, product or service that evolves with him or her. In 2021, there may be more changes in consumer behaviour especially with the reported second wave of the Coronavirus, economic recession and inflation. Given the above, businesses can enjoy the CX advantage of customer extension in 2021 i.e. increasing customer share of wallet and lifetime value through cross-sell and up-sell activities by:

• Helping customers achieve their goals and aspirations by using products and services (highlights the need for apt customer understanding & segmentation)
• Helping customer evolve from depending on you to offer a service to be independent by using your product to self serve – businesses can be profitable by empowering customers
• Mapping added product/service features benefits to each customer type or segment e.g. at what stage of your customer’s experience will he/she need product A, product B, product C, product D, etc? Businesses are encouraged in 2021 to not focus on cross-selling or upselling all products/services at once but allow customer behaviour i.e. frequent purchase & interactions with a business to inspire what, when, why, where and how to cross-sell and upsell for increase revenue per customer. The bigger picture is a progressive approach to ascertain that you maintain or increase your customer’s share of wallet and achieve your 2021 customer lifetime value goals per customer segment.  

In Summary

Demonstrating good knowledge of your customer and using this knowledge to engage, serve and build a long-lasting relationship with customers is a winning customer experience strategy for businesses in 2021 and I look forward to hearing or reading about CX successes from businesses that will consider this approach to winning the hearts of customers and achieving customer profitability goals in challenging times. 

deBBie akwara

Customer Experience Entrepreneur (CXPreneur), Founder & Principal Consultant at Niche Customer Experience Consulting Firm, Author, CX Conference Speaker, CX Thought Leader & Influencer and Co-Founder, Customer Experience Professionals West Africa (CXPWA) Network.