COVID-19 is impacting businesses and customer behavior worldwide. As we all adjust to these unprecedented times, Customer Experience (CX) programs provide a way to help measure, monitor, and address customers' changing needs with both support and compassion.
However, it may not be immediately apparent as to what you should do with your existing CX program and surveys to help you do this.
In this post, we look at three questions you may have about managing your existing CX program during these times, and some tweaks to consider to help ensure you can understand and support your customers, and offer an informative and positive digital experience.
What type of research should I use to understand my visitors' expectations during these times?
In these exceptional times, brands need to continuously understand their customers' expectations and mitigate concerns quickly. This means knowing what additional information you could provide on your digital channels, and what you can do to support your customers further.
To do this, we recommend using a tactical approach to your research. For example, engaging customers who access COVID-19-relevant content on your site with a short survey focused on collecting targeted feedback relating to your efforts during these times.
The main goal of tactical surveys is to help you identify specific issues that your individual customers are experiencing, and help mobilize your website and front-line teams to address them. These surveys are not meant to give a representative and trended view of how all your visitors perceive their experience (more on this later), so they can be modified on-the-fly, when needed.
Although, as with any survey, it's essential that you only ask questions that will give you feedback that will help you, help your customers. As such, and especially due to the sensitive nature of COVID-19, avoid including any questions that won't help you do this.
Should I update my Experience Tracking survey?
The main goal of Experience Tracking surveys is to give you a representative view of how all your visitors perceive their digital experience and gain insights to help drive your CX strategy. These surveys usually use a "Pre/Post" sampling methodology, where you invite a random sample of website visitors upon entry to your website to share feedback about their experience once their session ends.
The disrupting effects of the coronavirus will likely impact the KPIs you track with these surveys, such as:
- Customer satisfaction / Overall satisfaction
- Purpose of Visit
- Task Completion
- Net Promoter Score®
- Customer Effort Score / Ease of Use
However, changing the wording of these questions, or the sampling approach to your Experience Tracking survey, can also impact your KPIs.
As the COVID-19 situation develops, it will undoubtedly impact the customer journey, and your customers' needs will likely evolve. Being able to monitor how well your website supports your customers during this time is crucial.
To ensure consistency in your KPI tracking, we recommend only reviewing the Purpose of Visit question to make sure it accounts for any potential needs you expect to arise as a result of the coronavirus situation.
The goal is to limit the proportion of visitors who categorize themselves as "Other" for this question. Doing this will help ensure you can more easily categorize, trend, and analyze these needs during and after COVID-19, and most importantly, your ability to meet these needs.
Should I update my surveys to include information pointing to content about COVID-19?
Definitely.
COVID-19 is disrupting how we as consumers complete our daily tasks, and how brands operate to meet their customers' needs. Many websites have already launched COVID-19-specific pages and content to inform visitors of how this crisis impacts (or does not impact) their ability to serve customers.
While not all site visitors may come with the specific intention of looking at this information, a proactive approach to direct users to this content can help build trust in your brand during this challenging time.
These pages are usually clearly marked or highlighted on the website. However, in times like these, bringing more attention to this content can only help. An easy way you can do this is to include details or a link at the end of your survey (on the "Thank You" page) that points respondents to where they can obtain more information based on their current needs.
Moving forward with your customer feedback program
As we all adjust to these new realities, your CX program must help you proactively understand your customers' needs, and give you the insights you need to best support your customers.
Using a targeted approach for surveys specific to COVID-19, and keeping your Experience Tracking surveys relatively untouched, will help you collect these insights and act quickly, while maintaining a representative view of COVID-19's impact on overall sentiment about your digital experience.
If you are currently using iperceptions, please feel free to reach out to your dedicated iperceptions support team to discuss your options in more detail.
Top image source: Pexels
