The first part of this comprehensive list – communication trends 2021 – talks about the new rules for the ever-evolving game of corporate communication. 2020 threw the world a curveball, and people’s predictions went out the window along with people’s New Year resolutions. By all accounts, we will continue to feel the effect in 2021 as well.
Lines between work & home are blurred and businesses around the world have adapted & accelerated to deal with challenges. Our experience with the pandemic has shaped a new future for communication and given us a new resilience. These 6 guiding principles will help your business navigate through the maze and get ahead of the competition.
1. Get to Know the Players
Knowing your customer and understanding their journey with your brand, is the first step towards creating that excellent service that will give you an edge above the rest. While this may not seem like a new idea, its prominence is definitely an emerging communication trend in 2021.
One of the things I’ve learned during my years on the shop floor is that customers will always weigh exceptional service over factors like convenience and even price. Understand who they are, where they come from, what drives their purchases, and what are their pain points.
Some studies show the 65% of consumers find a positive experience to be more influential than advertising and would be willing to spend approximately 16% more if it means they get better service.
This data is will not only help you leverage your current relationships but will also be valuable when expanding into new markets as it helps target your communications & advertising.
2. Self-Service
Today most customers like the option of solving their own problems. It is faster and more efficient than waiting to speak to an agent. This doesn’t mean they want to cut out the human connect completely, but they prefer using self-service automation for simple to moderate requests. This consumer experience survey by Aspect sheds a little more light on the subject –
88% of customers say that live agent interaction should not go away, but the role needs to evolve to that of subject matter experts.
Self-service technologies aren’t just convenient but inexpensive and they can take many forms. For example, one way to integrate self-service is to set up a knowledge base. Think videos tutorial, how-to manuals, and so on. Self-service goes beyond just websites, customers now expect the same level of service across all channels be it product information or order status updates, or even aftersales services.
3. People & Personalization
While we talk about the Internet of Things and AI and automation, we need to make sure we do not lose sight of the human element of customer service. Over the past few years, more and more companies have realized the importance of personalizing their customer communication and creating an emotional connection.
A staggering 80 percent of customers prefer to buy from brands that offer highly personalized experiences. Nearly half of buyers have made impulse purchases after receiving personalized recommendations from a brand.
Customers expect a natural transition between automated self-service and speaking to a service agent so the context of their interaction is retained. Along with being well versed with the customer’s history, an agent also need to be authentic and transparent in their communication to gain trust.
4. Mobility Makes the World Go Round
Customers have been relatively mobile for a few years now, employees, however, have been tethered to a computer, with reliable Internet access. This last year has created the need for more flexibility and the need to really invest in mobile communications. Equipping your service teams with 4g (if not 5g) enabled mobile devices will prove to be an excellent investment in time.
Additionally, focus on web solutions that are accessible and work well on smartphones. Apart from product displays, contact forms and page links should also be mobile-friendly.
Take this one step further and create a great app for your business.
5. Purpose-Driven Content
Another emerging communication trend that will gain more traction in 2021 is putting forth purpose-driven content. A brand can enhance its customer engagement and generate leads by keeping up with the latest trends. Expand your online content strategy to include a blog and a presence on all the major social media platforms. Maintain an engaging social media presence doesn’t have to be time-consuming.
Not all your content has to be product-driven. Social media can be used to talk to your customers or to talk with your customers and have them talk to each other through your brand.
Having multiple platforms can actually make things easier as you can re-use blog content to make multiple posts and infographics. Some great tools allow you to schedule when and where your content is published (read point 6.) This gets the most of the content you have.
6. Rise of Omni-channel Communication
We cannot talk about communication trends for 2021 with out discussing. Omni-channel communication. There has been a resounding focus on omnichannel in 2020 by both customers and businesses alike and there is a good reason for that.
The Omni-channel experience allows the service team to follow a customer conversation wherever it goes. For example, your customer can begin by viewing your product on Instagram which can be followed by a chat session on WhatsApp to answer queries and then roll that chat into a website or in-store purchase.
This approach takes into account the customer’s & employee’s perspectives as well. It connects the online & offline experience leading to higher customer retention & references.
Businesses that have a strong omni-channel customer engagement retain an average of 89% of their customers, compared to 33% of those with weak or no omni-channel customer engagement.
Continue reading Volume 02. for a list of the latest tools and resources you need to put these principles into practice and create a winning strategy for your business in 2021.
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