How to adapt
to changing
customer needs

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1. Why it is important right now to be considering customers' needs?

2. What trends have you been seeing in the past week or two in relation to the changing needs of people?

3. What methods would you recommend in order to try and understand more about your changing customers' needs? What examples of brands have you seen out there who are responding well to the recent changes?

4. What examples of brands have you seen out there who are responding well to the recent changes?
   
   

5. Are there brands that are missing a trick?

6. What do you expect the post Coronavirus brand/ business world will look like and what will be the key changes that will remain?

7. Which brands do you believe will survive and why? Which ones don’t you believe will recover? Which ones will morph into a different proposition as a result of their coronavirus learnings?

8. What type of content will medical professionals want to receive during this COVID period?

9. How can a charity get customer attention?

10. Do you feel that any forward planning (strategy) can be done or is it better to think reactive/tactical?

11. How could these changing needs affect where brands should be investing their marketing budgets?

12. With the barrage of online information now, is there a best way to launch a new service and get marketing to cut through to reach audiences?

13. Any thoughts on how to market events and services that cannot be delivered for many months, possibly until next spring or summer for seasonal events and services?

14. How do we add value to our job considering the current situation? How do we benefit from the circumstances?

15. How can content agencies best harness the surge in social media use for their clients? Is it a case of content being no selling, but more supporting?

16. What different types of needs might be changing (psychological, practical)?

17. What platforms do you see as most effective for lead gen, and what approach would you take so as not to appear opportunistic/insensitive while still reaching a new market?

Julian Erbsloeh: One of the things people currently look for is certainty and trust. For companies, this translates to being super clear when managing user's expectations for example on stock levels and delivery times, for communicating clearly and reliably throughout a transaction and beyond and showing that they really care.

We have also seen a huge number of changing needs around people's work lives. Video conferencing, collaboration tools and other technology needs have overnight become critical.

Front line care staff need to be able to shop and none of the existing food delivery services (supermarkets) have been able to cope with the new levels of demand. 

Nate Wood: Realisation and acceptance are starting to set in. A lot of panic has reduced. We're starting to see the growth of community spirit, apparent in the Clap For Our Carers campaign. This is raising consideration around brands that are legitimately and authentically assisting in the process. Tesla and Dyson making ventilators, Nike, and Gap making face masks, Burberry making masks and surgical gowns are all examples of brands potentially increasing their brand status by becoming part of the solution. My personal circle is showing clearly increased brand awareness and positive sentiment for these brands.

A need for solitude is increasing. An increasing desire for individual pursuits like reading, puzzling, listening to podcasts and audiobooks is something I'm seeing in my circles. Video call burnout is starting to become a thing and despite the need for technology, a lot of my contacts are actively turning devices off. Video calling can be quite intrusive, and I think we'll start to see a bit of a shift away from it for a while.

Luke Hay: Trust is key, people need security more than ever. People are more risk-averse, but they will still buy products and services, provided they are comfortable that what they are buying will give them what they need. Be sincere, don't ‘take advantage’ of the situation. Also, the demand on people's time is interesting. Some people are busier than ever, while others are already getting bored. You need to find out more about your audience and then plan how to best meet their needs.

Personalisation is important here. You need to be able to give people the products or services that are right for their current situation.

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Julian Erbsloeh: Dominos - sending pizza to all of your employees. Banks offering mortgage holidays and no overdraft fees;  Aldi opening their doors 24/7 for NHS and care staff when all other supermarkets have reduced their opening hours;  Streaming services offering their service for free in areas hit by country-wide isolation; Michelin star restaurants turning to cooking and delivering large batch read-meals; Pret a Manger etc. doing free hot drinks and 50% off food for front line staff.

Nate Wood: Local businesses are innovating massively. In my area, some pubs are offering takeaway and food package services. Dance and music teachers hosting online classes and producing video content to keep learning habits strong. The use of technology by my children's' school, using Google Classroom to send out and hand in work has been a massive assistance. Local appears to be an opportunity to capitalise on. The key here is being able to remain relevant and deliver services in a changed, but still valuable manner

Luke Hay: Those who empathise with their customers are doing the best. The tone of voice is crucial at this time. River Island has done a good job of playing down its importance in the greater scheme of things using the following:

"The government has said online retailers can ‘operate normally’, but COVID-19 is serious and nothing feels normal at the moment. As a business driven by the love of fashion, we don't say it often, but some things are just more important."

This, combined with actively engaging with their ‘community’ on social media, is likely to retain customer loyalty. Be human!

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Julian Erbsloeh: At this stage, nobody knows. The only thing that is certain is that the country/economy / our behavioural patterns won't just snap back into 'normal' anytime soon so don't bank on that.

As Nate already mentioned, global events of this magnitude accelerate change that was already underway. The only trend I would add to his list is the fundamental change to the brick and mortar economy. Our high streets were changing already, this will gather pace. Businesses with an existing digital-first strategy do not have to reinvent their entire business model to go digital only but those behind on that curve will struggle to keep up unless they take drastic action.

The data provided by Imperial College suggests that the virus and some form of restrictions will be around for 12-18 months so simply waiting it out is not a feasible option. Understanding what decisions your business needs to take now to not only get through this but also to come out of the crisis stronger is critical. Exploring what this means for your business now is a step in the right direction. Read the 2009 HBR article on marketing during a downturn (we will share the link in a blog post) is a good starting point that provides some good thinking and actionable advice.

Some pretty big change is to be expected for companies with multi-national, just-in-time production lines like the fast fashion industry, these business models are especially vulnerable right now.

Buying local, responsibly sourced and manufactured goods and caring about ingredients, fair pay etc. was a movement that was already underway. I expect to see further acceleration as this suddenly makes more sense for bands too. 

Nate Wood: It has been noted that major world events will tend to accelerate changes that were already happening, but it can also reverse them.

Social media was experiencing a bit of a backlash pre-COVID-19. The design tactics and targeting of Facebook were particularly under scrutiny in their relation to mental wellbeing. However, Covid 19 has forced people to use Facebook much more. Messaging has increased by 50% on the platform and video calling has doubled in some markets. These are behaviours that may actually remain post-Covid 19.

Another aspect that was gaining momentum was climate awareness. It's already been noted what the beneficial impact on the environment of the drop in human activity has been on things like air quality. I think the alignment of the global collective consciousness on an issue may well translate to some degree to an increased global determination to tackle climate issues.

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Julian Erbsloeh: Ask them! This can be done via a small survey on your website, an email survey, speaking to your customer service team about the types of calls and emails they are currently receiving or by getting actively involved in the conversations of your audience where they happen. This may be forums, social media groups on FB or WhatsApp etc. - find out where your medical professionals are spending time online and try to engage them, clearly showing that you are trying to help.

I would also think that not all medical professionals want to receive the same content so segment, understand their needs and personalise your comms and content where possible. Showing that you understand their needs is key here. 

Nate Wood: Agree, ask them! But before that, be honest with yourselves about how you can help. What are your motivations for this particular audience? These people will be tired, highly stressed and worried as much as, if not more than, the rest of us due to their increased exposure to Covid 19. How is it that your brand will fit into that? The honest answer here may be that for most brands trying to get content in front of medical professionals in particular is a little inappropriate.

Luke Hay: Ask them, but ask them what they are currently struggling with and think creatively how you can help with that.

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Julian Erbsloeh: The answer depends vastly on your sector and business but personally, I could not imagine running any business without right now trying to understand what a post-COVID-19 world would look like and how I have to restructure my business and approach to marketing to still meet my customer's needs, or better, to spot an opportunity to grow into this new world.

How far ahead do we need to think? Personally, I find it exciting to play the various scenarios through but we are probably not quite ready for a 'Total Recall' like future where the travel industry has now specialised in implanting holiday memories into our brains instead of us traveling in person.
Retail, especially the fashion industry, will change dramatically. For the user this may mean an end to fast, cheap fashion as global 'just in time' supply chains become a liability, but it won't change dramatically how they shop. According to statista.com, more than 50% of our clothes shopping already happens online. We know that returns and managing them are one of the key challenges for businesses in this field - ordering three different sizes and only keeping one will become the norm so understanding how to make this experience the least painful for our customers would be a great example of adapting to the new situation.

Nate Wood: I think forward planning is essential. After lockdown, the world will start trying to get back to normal, but the economic impact of COVID-19 will still need to be navigated.

Whether COVID-19 causes a recession or not there will still need to be careful forward planning and likely a need to keep costs under control for another 12 months. This will require strong tactical and strategic guidance. Many businesses around today have been through at least one recession, and have some experience of managing their way through it.

If we treat it as a recession, even if technically it's not, then it's fairly common marketing knowledge that you must keep marketing in order to come out the other side as a stronger brand. A McKinsey report from 2002 analysed the 1990-1991 recession to show that brands that refocused their spending and efforts rather than cutting them saw EBIT growth during and after the recession. This is because these brands used greater discipline during boom times and planned properly through lean times.

Planning what you're going to be doing, how you're going to do it and the resources you'll need is going to be essential so that you're not in a sustained reactive cycle.

Luke Hay: It’s hard to plan too far ahead but important no to focus too much on what’s happening right now either, as that could all change by tomorrow.

Focus on understanding what’s going on and run some quick short-term A/B tests to make the most of this.

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Julian Erbsloeh: This depends very much on the service and the audiences you are looking to reach. Many companies have drastically cut their paid advertising, resulting in much cheaper clicks and impressions. This can be an opportunity for a new service but if it is not something people have the headspace to consider at this point in time, that money might be wasted.

If you haven't done empathy maps for your audiences, I highly recommend you do that first. If you have done it, but it's been more than a month ago, do them again because chances are that things have changed.

Nate Wood: Firstly, I'd say be sure that the new service you're trying to market is relevant to the needs of the prospective customer at this point in time. There's nothing worse than trying to start something new, spending the money on promoting it, and realising that people simply have no need or desire for it, despite how amazing you might think it is. Take the time to get some customer opinion before spending the marketing budget.

Secondly, if you're offering a service or product that is already available on the market from other suppliers, perhaps position it slightly differently in a way that directly addresses customer motivation. A great example of this would be someone like Purple Bricks, who entered a very well established market in a different way with a solution that tapped into a customer concern around fees at the time.

Lastly, it's fine to market a new product or service that will have relevance post-COVID-19 but just get the timing right and the messaging. Focus on the brand, perhaps, and how amazing the product will be and judge your marketing campaign by reach and impact rather than by sales and revenue. 

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Julian Erbsloeh: Two questions - the first one I assume is about adding value to your company as a marketing professional? We already had some good answers on that - the fact that you are here already shows that you care. My advice would be to think laterally and put immediate ROI to genuinely help and you will be helping your organisation to come out of this crisis stronger. 

The second one about benefitting from these circumstances is morally questionable but can be re-phrased to 'how can I ensure that my business survives this period of extreme volatility and uncertainty', again there have been plenty of good starting points and I recommend reading through the resources we will be sharing in the blog post.

Nate Wood: The circumstances are providing a unique "reset" opportunity. If you weren't customer-centric before, now's the perfect (and critical) time to become customer-centric. Your business will be better for it. The reset opportunity can allow your business to grow internally. If you've had to furlough people (which is a temporary state by the way) then perhaps give those people some professional steerage. If they're not seeking other employment or volunteering, they can be using online resources or training so that when they come back they're even better equipped.

I'm using some of this time stuck indoors to broaden my skill experiences. I have a line of expertise and I'm deepening that while also looking at the surrounding topics and broadening my knowledge. Becoming more T-shaped as a professional will add value to your individual job as well as to your business.

Luke Hay: I think companies need to be careful about 'benefiting' from the situation. Finding out what your customers want, listening to them, and understanding their needs will give you opportunities though.  

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Julian Erbsloeh: There is no blanket answer to this as it depends on the individual's circumstances. There is an old HBR article around marketing efforts during a downturn, it was written following the 2008 financial crisis (will share post webinar). What resonated was how they segmented their audience post-recession into 'slam on the brakes' users who tighten their financial belts and stop spending on non-essentials to the 'comfortably well-off' and 'live for the day' audiences who will continue to spend money, maybe even spend more on luxury goods because travel restrictions mean more disposable income.

The key point is that this is different for every person and brand/service so if you haven't already done this, start thinking about how your customers have been impacted and if all of them have been impacted the same way. Then look at the data you have available to verify your thoughts. You may have fewer transactions but what happened to the AOV? It is likely to have been a shift in channels, users are spending more time on social media and are more likely to open a well-crafted email, especially if this does not just bombard them with sales messages but contains genuine content that shows an understanding of their concerns and needs. 

Nate Wood: Physical restrictions will directly impact the ability for customers to engage with products and services that require travel or collecting in groups. Additionally, financial uncertainty is likely to mean that households are tightening their purse strings, so considered luxury items will drop in priority. For families with children, there are additional considerations around keeping them entertained while also keeping their education up to date. Many parents I've spoken to are concerned about children's exercise levels and spending too much time in front of screens. 

Luke Hay: Where do you start?? Varies massively between industries. Some common themes though: As well as the physical restrictions people are likely to be stressed and anxious so you need to take that into account when dealing with them.

On a positive note, people are also willing to help and those who are financially secure may be more likely to give to charity for example.

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Nate Wood: If you're relevant to your customers in the current situation then it's difficult to be seen as opportunistic. So the first thing is to understand the needs of the customer in order to be relevant.

Facebook and search are good lead gen channels, but if the relevancy is strong enough then channels normally given to brand awareness can be used to raise intent. For example, if you had strong, relevant alternatives to pasta and loo roll then all channels could be effective because the need in the market for alternatives was very strong.

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• COVID-19: How to optimize trust during a pandemic
• Pivoting your online business for changing customer needs
• How to market in a downturn
• Six solid actions to keep your business going through the Coronavirus crisis