 Without question the COVID-19 lockdown is going to have a lasting impact on the way NZ and the world do business. For many businesses this has been a very trying time but equally for some this has been a once in a lifetime opportunity to migrate non-digital customers to digital.
Well COVID-19 has forced many non-digital customers to new technology (albeit kicking and screaming) and many of us have spent multiple hours teaching friends and family how to use Zoom, borrow an eBook from the library or use mobile banking.
Some international results have been staggering – Zoom has reported a growth in users from 10m in December 2019 to 300m in April 2020, Netflix saw their Q1 growth at double their forecast and back home those of us who are frequent online grocery shoppers had to revert to visiting the supermarket in person as online order slots were booked weeks in advance. So, the question is, how has your customer behaviour changed, is it a permanent change and what do you need to do about it? Here’s five ideas to help you understand the impact of the change on your business and help you refocus your digital priorities if needed: 1. The first thing to do is to look at the facts – what does your data say about first time users and repeat customers? Are there trends in the data that you can identify around new users (or dormant users that have re-activated)? Have you attracted a specific demographic that you haven’t seen before or are customers using your digital channels in a different way from what they have in the past? Have you seen a surge in product sales for categories that have not traditionally done well in digital? 2. Next you need to figure out if these new customers need extra or different help? A good way to uncover this is to look at what your customers are telling your staff through your support channels. If you have been getting more frequent requests to fix a user error or to understand what you thought was a simple function then your UX has issues that you need to resolve. (This can of course have a positive impact on all your users because making things simple and easy to get right/hard to get wrong is something that benefits every customer). The added benefit of moving quickly to fix UX problems is that good experiences will encourage your new digital customers to keep using those channels when things start to return to normal. 3. Talk to your new digital customers, preferably in a human-centred way. If there is a group of customers that you wouldn’t normally include in user testing, then a specific focus to really understand their needs will help with designing better solutions for them over time. 4. Think about hiring an accessibility expert to review your user interface. An accessibility expert will specifically review your digital tools for access issues and will recommend changes. Often small changes to colour and navigation will have a big impact on how accessible your channels are. 5. Lastly, now that you’ve finally got those laggards to use your digital channels you need to focus on keeping them there! Strategies for this will undoubtedly come out of your customer research but you should also think about regular reminders about how to use your channels, incentives for repeat usage and asking your customer-facing teams to encourage customers to keep using your digital channels when appropriate (“I can absolutely help you with that request today but did you also know you can do it through our mobile app, would you like me to talk you through how to do it?”). However you choose to approach this, there is definitely an opportunity to retain the new digital customers that you picked up during the lockdown. Best of luck and if I can help in anyway please get in touch.
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