Like many business owners, I am aiming to close out a few last things before taking a couple of short leave days during the Festive Season. As I try to wrap my brain around this year, one part of me wants to scream and shout in frustration, but at the same time, I feel truly grateful for having survived yet another year living with the Covid-19 pandemic.
MORE OF THE SAME?
Hopeful as we may be, according to many economic experts, predictions are that 2022 will be yet another challenging year, described in one word by some of the world’s leading CEO’s as volatile.
I can already see the telltale signs of this volatility as many of my clients struggle with supply chain issues, labor uncertainty, interrupted production capacity, transportation challenges, shifting business relationships, and numerous other adaptations they’ve had to make just in the past 6 months alone.
It appears that many of the larger corporations have moved from a “just in time” production to a “just in case” procurement mindset. This fear of running out of inventory has had a tremendous knock-on effect on the global supply chain cycle, and many of the smaller (read developing) economies are finding it difficult to provide the necessary production materials, parts and equipment at airports, harbors, and railway stations.
THE DAWN OF A NOVEL ECONOMY
The way we used to do things before 2020, is over. Forever. We may see hybrid versions of the old combined with the new, but consumers have moved on and have found more convenient ways of buying, eating, relaxing, living, meeting, and recharging, to name a few.
Think not about your own convenience and benefits when adopting new software, processes, equipment, point of sale systems or whatever components you are considering changing, but become obsessively customer focused. This will be a key issue for small and medium businesses to resolve in 2022.
In this article I want to present 5 key trends and predictions that businesses need to focus on in 2022 to become obsessively customer orientated. Let’s get started!
1. DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ISN’T OPTIONAL ANYMORE
In the quiet solitude of locked-down cities, your customers have become digital experts, using their mobile phones, apps, and software to buy books, order pizza, attend meetings, host seminars, watch movies, and even to pay their traffic fines. They have become masters at finding their way in the digital world.
Having a website and posting a few pictures on your business FB page is simply not good enough anymore. You need to become a thought leader in your field of business and partner with your customers to resolve their unique problems and challenges. This means you need to become an information hub, a problem solver, a partner.
Do you have a digital strategy? Do you know how your customers engage with you? Do you know who your customers are? Do you know who else they talk to? What do they like or dislike about your service and products?
These are all critical questions and the answers to them hold the key to how you need to tailor your customer interactions, how you need to improve your internal communication between employees and service divisions, and how you need to improve and change workflow processes. A well developed digital strategy will be invaluable in your pursuit to answer some of these questions and by doing so increase your sales and improving your products and services.
2. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES REMAIN THE STARTING POINT
Customers still want pleasant experiences and meaningful interactions; they just want it to be more convenient...and fast.
Traditional customer experience models are based on a mapped versions of so-called “customer journeys”. Businesses would then identify ways of improving each of these steps, as the customer progresses towards making a purchase.
But that was then. Today’s customers find their own answer to their questions and fill in the blanks. They own the customer journeys. They are not reliant on the business facilitating (convincing) them in their purchase decision. Customers make up their own minds by means of accurate information, visual aids, online reviews, recommendations, and influencer marketing to make their final decision.
Give your customers the tools and means to get the service or product they want but make it quick and easy. Succeed in that, and you will never run out of customers! Get into the habit of creating “ignite moments”, special and unexpected customer experiences that take your customer’s breath away. But be creative and think customer centric.
3. GET INVOLVED IN YOUR COMMUNITY
The pandemic underlined the importance of emotional and physical support, be that from nuclear family members, friends, our neighbors, or community organisations.
For consumers this translated to a heightened focus on societal and community involvement. Your clients want to know how you are contributing to your community and how you make a difference in the lives of the people who support your brand and buy your services and products.
A simple example of such a contribution could be donating a percentage of all sales towards a charitable organisation or project. This is often referred to as a 1% Model and it can take a range of different formats. Whatever you decide to do, make sure it is a sincere and meaningful effort, clients can smell self-indulgent marketing fluff from a mile away!
4. THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO SEEK IT
It is already agreed that 2022 will likely be characterized by all kinds of volatility. Disruption remains a key characteristic of the novel economy and no industry or sector is overlooked irrespective of its complexity or tenure in the market place.
As the world becomes more interconnected it also becomes more unpredictable. Small events in one region may have a devastating impact elsewhere. The current migrant issues experienced in Europe, for example, has led to a range of policy and regulatory changes, even for legal migrant workers and economic expansion.
One concrete way of becoming better at predicting the future is to invest in scenario planning and to create flexible medium- and long-term strategies which are reviewed regularly. Strategies, tactics, and plans must be able to change at short notice to capitalize on sudden market, political, technological, or regional changes.
Another method is to learn how to identify the drivers of volatility and disruption, and more importantly, decide how they could be optimized within your own business (sector), or how they can potentially impact your business activities.
The main drivers include, amongst others, the following:
Digital Drivers
These are factors that impact our digital world and all things digital. It includes things like major changes to social media platforms (think about the recent changes made by FB and Twitter), new web-based applications, the power and impact of “big-tech” companies on our daily lives and typical marketing and branding efforts.Societal Drivers
These are events that have the ability to alter or threaten our communal safety and stability and includes factors such as global pandemics, lockdowns, civil unrest due to major events (think about the incident involving George Floyd and the global demonstrations against lockdowns), disasters due to global warming (floods, fires, heat-waves) and war.Political Drivers
These are events or activities that mainly bring about major political changes and include things like election results (didn’t we see that in our own elections this year!), new governments, major policy, and trade changes (think about BREXIT for example), community based unrest due to poor service delivery, crime, unemployment and corrupt officials.Technological Drivers
These are events, new developments or advancements made in major technology sectors. This includes, for example, advances made in 5G wireless technology transmission, Artificial Intelligence (AI), personalised AI, major changes to popular software applications, Augmented/Virtual Reality applications and the recently announced “Metaverse”.Make a point to keep a close eye on the above drivers and task different members of your team to read up on these topics. Regularly review the status of your own understanding of these issues and review your current stance in light of these events.
5. THINK PRACTICAL AND MAKE IT EASY FOR YOUR TEAM
The entire discussion thus far has been informative and theoretical, but what can you do from a practical point of view? What are some of the changes you can make in the short term that can immediately improve your business environment and create a better workplace for your employees?
Here are 5 practical areas (functions) which will require your undivided attention in 2022:
Invest in Software and Technology
Make it easy for your employees and teams to meet, manage work, host events virtually and execute key projects and business goals. Be accommodating and allow space for creative suggestions and inter-team collaborations. Invest in technology that facilitate and replicate office like interactions (currently being developed by Microsoft among others). This is especially helpful for creative and sales teams where collaboration remains a critical factor.Create Game-Changing Policies
The Great Resignation has underlined the importance of businesses to become employee-centered and to create a work ethic and environment where employees feel they can be in charge of their time, their roles, and make valuable contributions.It will be in your best business interest to create Human Resource policies that are sensitive to issues such as gender-neutral parental leave, institutional flexibility, commitment to diversity and creativity.
Develop Client and Employee Centered Business Practices
Consider adding cashless payment options to your list of client centered business practices to make it easier for clients, both local and international, to do business with you.Also consider the emotional and psychological impact of the new workspace reality as experienced by your employees. Invest in business practices that combats volatility fatigue (emotional burnout due to job insecurity, lockdowns, threats to personal health, unexpected death of loved ones, etc.) by creating randomly allocated off days, meeting free days (or time zones) and open-ended personal schedules.
Review your Digital Strategy
The popularity of video as a marketing and communicative medium continues to grow in popularity and has become one of the preferred ways in which we interact with the world. This is likely due to our current information overload. Watching videos require less of brainpower than wading through a 5- or 20-page articles. This doesn’t mean people have stopped reading, they are just more selective, and they will only engage in reading on complex and important topics.Watching humorous videos, cartoons or graphic representations containing information about new products, both for personal and commercial reasons, have created an exciting and engaging new way of marketing your business, products, and services to clients. Make sure your digital strategy includes investing in creating meaningful video-based content.
Outsource Support and Specialised Services
The pandemic has sadly seen the closure of many businesses, leaving many people unemployed and without any form of income. This has forced a number of business executives to start new businesses or to offer their core skills on a freelance or project basis.Most services, specialised and supportive in nature, have consequently become readily available and at competitive rates. Consider outsourcing your support, admin, and other service (such as accounting) as a strategy to creating more compact business processes and more effective teams.
The reduced financial drain while at the same time investing in smaller local business makes more sense than trying to continue operating with a traditional support base which have to work remotely without real supervision or quality control.
CLOSING REMARKS
If you don’t make the necessary changes in your business to adapt to the novel economy with its technology (read mobile) smart consumers, you won’t just see less revenue in your business – you will close your doors. It’s that simple (and important).
The jury is out, like in 2021, that we won’t beat Covid in 2022 either. The sooner we prepare ourselves for yet another volatile year, the better. By remaining customer centric and adjusting our internal business operations to make it easier for customers to do business with us, while also keeping our employees meaningfully engaged, we will inevitably take a positive step towards securing our own futures.
It may sound like a daunting prospect, but it certainly brings ample opportunities to the fore. One of my favourite mantras in business is always that “adversity breeds opportunity” and 2022, it seems, we will have no short supply of either!
May you find the time to rest and recharge for a couple of days, but may you also take the time to really think about your unique place in the greater economic scheme of things.
2022 will no doubt require tenacity, strength and an openness towards innovative ideas and approaches from each and every business owner. However, you choose to look at it, it certainly is a wonderful time to be alive.
See you all in 2022!
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