Your COVID-19 preparedness response should probably incorporate these 5 CX to-dos

Shane Schick tells stories that help people innovate, and to…
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At what point did we all decide that adding to the litany of ‘How We’re Addressing COVID-19’ e-mail messages flooding everyone’s inbox will make for a better customer experience?
To be fair, these are unchartered waters, so look at this post by CX consultant and speaker Dan Gingiss that offers a handful of ideas to think about your coronavirus response through a truly customer-centric lends.
All the self-isolation and social distancing that’s going on as a result of the virus is hurting at lot of companies, including those in transportation, but imagine if you were already trying to crawl your way out of an avalanche of angry customer feedback? That appears to be the case at West Midlands Railway, which published a video where its newly-hired CX director talks about what he’s doing so far and apologizing for the past. Interesting to see CX leaders behind this front and centre at the very beginning of their tenure.
Sabio Group, which makes contact centre software and related products, announced the acquisition on Monday of DVELP, which weaves together technologies from Google and Twilio to create automated “conversational” experiences for retailers like Marks & Spencer. The impact will largely be felt in Europe, but may be indicative of similar M&As on this side of the pond in the near future.
I hate the term “phygital,” but it’s managed to become relatively common as more organizations explore ways to combine online and offline experiences. On India’s Dataquest, an exec from Infosys reinforces the importance of iterating with customers and prototyping — common sense that appears to be surprisingly uncommon within sectors like retail.
And finally, I’ve always thought that there was a certain cool factor to having more followers than following many others, but this tweet offers a good antitode to social media insecurities like that — a good reminder for brands in particular:
When you see someone with lots of followers and not following anyone, that shows they are more concerned about their ratio than the conversation. They won't listen to you any better when you are working with them directly. #CustomerExperience #CX #Communication #Leadership
— Tony Johnson (@ServiceRecipe) March 16, 2020
Shane Schick tells stories that help people innovate, and to manage the change innovation brings. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of Marketing magazine and has also been Vice-President, Content & Community (Editor-in-Chief), at IT World Canada, a technology columnist with the Globe and Mail and Yahoo Canada and is the founding editor of ITBusiness.ca. Shane has been recognized for journalistic excellence by the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance and the Canadian Online Publishing Awards.