The new brand-consumer relationship: Post-quarantine communication challenges
The pandemic has forced thousands of businesses to rapidly change their modes of production, emerging services, remote collaboration, and communication with their customers, especially with their digital media, which have become the main channel for maintaining contact with the public.
Businesses redefine how customers see them, their expectations, and what priorities; they hope to convey during and after this crisis.
That is why it is essential, in the first instance, to rethink our media, based on the new consumer habits forgotten in recent months, under the new business-customer relationship at a distance: What is more critical for customers in these times of crisis? What do you expect from companies with the new confinement rules?
Closer, less connected.
Most companies have prioritized efficiency in their communication channels through, for example, bots on social networks or automated emails, making faster response times with their customers as an audience. However, during the quarantine, people found new priorities to make their shopping experience more friendly.
Human gestures became more relevant and appreciated by customers who connect with companies through these digital channels because people cannot achieve this social approach in other ways.
Developing a close digital strategy can be the key to differentiating yourself from the competition during quarantine. For example, on social media, a company that manufactures clothing nationwide can launch a campaign to inform its customers about the health measures implemented in both factories and retail outlets, where your employees can appear through photographs or institutional videos.
This kind of update shows that the company prioritizes empathy over sales. Otherwise, if it publishes a spring promotion only to attract customers, the public may find the content tasteless, transmitting a wrong message of ignorance or detachment from the current situation.
Maintain human service
Staying at home has significantly reduced social contacts, so now people are looking for a much more personalized shopping experience. The critical question we need to ask ourselves to understand the importance of this shift is how can I support my clients in a meaningful, humane and relevant way?
Brands with the lowest prices, the best products, and the most memorable campaigns remain relevant. Still, emotional intelligence, honesty, and empathy in daily communication will be critical to the post-war ericoid. They can build the confidence of their consumers daily as the ultimate goal.
In a crisis like the ones we live in today, people want to be understood; they can realize that the brands understand the situation and add to the cause, modifying their communication and production strategies, not only for their clients but also within their organizational culture.
It involves showing empathy with our collaborators and understanding that we are overcoming a crisis and that each has endured it in a specific way. Employees and co-workers are also just as important to brand positioning as consumers themselves, so companies will have to work on developing their internal communication tools and channels, both in his speech and in the capacity of "listening.
Future challenges
The challenge with the pandemic; we have confined ourselves, but we have moved too, with decisions that have included our partners, clients, and work team, because we believe that, united, thinking for the well-being of all as one, we will succeed.
Remember that our actions in this pandemic will be reflected in the future, significantly defining consumer loyalty and how brands perceive it. Let us keep our messages close to reality, through empathy and credibility, to create a more lasting connection, not only with people as customers but as more human beings.
