During these difficult times, it’s even more important for you to focus on delivering the best experience for your customers so that they feel like a top priority and that they have somewhere they feel supported. And in turn, you delivering the best experience helps your business stay afloat and thrive during uncertain times.

Here are a few trends with tips that’ll keep you on track and ahead of the curve during 2020 and beyond…

1. Customer experience is the new marketing.

This is something I’ve been saying for years and it’s true now more than ever. The better your experience, the more you keep your customers happy and satisfied AND create a base of raving fans — people who love everything you do. And customers who adore you tell all their friends and family about you. Word of mouth marketing is still king. I mean it’s everyone’s dream right? Provide an amazing customer experience and you’ll pretty much guarantee word of mouth marketing and very happy clients.

And during these difficult times, satisfied and happy customers not only helps bring peace of mind but it can also help sustain your biz during these challenging times. They’ll keep making a point to return to you because you help them to feel safe and seen in the midst of such uncertainty.

2. Increase trust.

It’s all great and fine to make sure a customer is satisfied but to make sure they trust you is even more powerful. Trust builds loyalty.

Here are a few of the ways you can increase your customer’s trust inside your biz…
Adjust your policies and interactions to meet changing customer needs. For example, during Covid, many stores relaxed their their return policies. This was a response to knowing that helping, especially during a time when many people’s wallets have been hit hard, was a better strategy than penalizing.

Decrease any potential friction and stress. Airlines have allowed customers to cancel and change flights without fees due to coronavirus and this has decreased friction and stress. Think where you can do something like this to decrease friction and increase trust.

Be open and honest. Tell your customers that you understand their needs and are doing something new to meet them even if you’re not quite sure what that looks like yet.

Be a customer advocate. Work with and for your customers to build trust and loyalty. Help your employees, if you have them, do the same.

3. Show empathy.

Being empathetic also ties in with building your customer’s trust. And the best companies who make their experience a top priority are indeed the most empathetic.

Most of the customer experience is about emotion anyway, and this pandemic has created a lot of it. If you can tap into their emotions, you can craft high-quality experience. To do that you’ve got to understand their perspective and their feelings — cornerstones of empathy.

When you can really empathize with a customer, you’re more apt to do what it takes to do what’s best for them instead of hiding behind company policies that don’t currently meet their needs.

All in all, these are a just a few trends in client experience for 2020 that are always a good idea at any time.

I’d love to hear what you think! Comment below and let me know.