The world is changing rapidly. The new situation is putting pressure on everyone to embrace the changes now – whether someone likes it or not. This creates new habits new routines that all of us need to adapt. The future may be different from what we expected but it’s here and we need to prepare for it.
What challenges are we facing?
Many challenges will arise, encouraging organizations, customers, and employees to rethink their ways of working, purchasing, communicating, etc. Companies are making rapid changes as well: eliminate bureaucracy, empower previously untested leaders with new responsibilities, and turbocharge decision making.
The internal processes and the decision making will take a turn as well. Crafting a new playbook and new operating models are expected outcomes in this situation. One of the primary changes in the decision-making process: being distributed to the lower levels in the hierarchy chains, deliver better effects. Due to this, the organization embraces a more flexible model that provides better simultaneous management across multiple functions and improved integration among several processes.
The customer experience will be more important than ever. The customer experience has been changed due to the pandemic. For that reason, re-shaping the current partnerships and sharing the know-how will result in the risk-resilient customer experience and provide new value for them. Evaluation of the existing channels will be put in action, and keeping an open mind for crafting new funnels might be taken into consideration.
Another opportunity that comes out from this pandemic is the possibility to reconsider your current career and learn new skills. Since many industries were severely hit by the crisis, others have noticed an increase in their demand for the workforce. The most common approach about what you can do is to start practicing something else – cultivating knowledge, skills, resources, and relationships until you’ve got strong new legs to walk on in exploring a new career. On nights and weekends, people take part-time courses, do pro-bono or advisory work, and develop start-up ideas. The point is to take advantage of this moment and use it in the best way possible.
Emerging habits
Now, that we briefly talked about the challenges, let me tell you about the new habits and routines that are already taking place.
First of all, new purchasing habits come as a natural consequence of this pandemic. Selecting the must-have ingredients, increase demand in hygiene and cleaning products, and food necessity due to lockdowns. Another thins is that local-based groceries and products will notice an increase in demand as well as digital purchasing regardless of the type of products. The companies that support the healthy lifestyle of their customers will come as a first choice to buy from.
Second, the brands that are already well established will face an uprising trend, since the customer will prefer to choose those who are familiar with it. Also, the referral communication will play a key role here, due to the fact this period will rely on relevant opinion when it comes to making a purchasing decision.
Third, the transparency will come first – stating the clear values about what the organization stands for will be vital when the customer decides whether to support your brand or not. Building trust among your customers will result in loyal brand advocates that will help you outperform the market.
What you can do?
Redesign your brand and make sure it’s future fit. Don’t be afraid to moderate your core values, listen to your customers, and discover new business opportunities. Redefine your stakeholders and be brave in taking your boat into a new direction. Test and pivot new experiences, the often you do it – the better. Here comes the true power of Design Thinking – be bold and use it!
To discover more what you can do to make sure your brand is future-fit – download our FREE E-BOOK “Creating the new tomorrow – starting today!” and get the latest insights on how you can prepare yourself and your brand!