eBusiness Weekly
Robert Gonye
While we are experiencing what is before us, one day at a time, the pandemic has presented an opportunity to participate in a forced-perspective taking exercise for all of us.
We shared both personal and business things that 2020 had taught us and would share them as below in retrospect.
- We have a renewed appreciation for human resilience. Much has been thrown at people this year, often compounding tragedy upon difficulty, and many are still recovering.
However, we also see that people roll with things; we adjust and make the best of what we can. It’s been heartening, as tricky as it has been for everybody.
Sure, there are also examples of people not coping well with these things, too, but on the whole, it’s been affirming. Human resilience is incredible.
- People can do amazing things in a crisis. It’s surprising what we can accomplish when the opportunity presents itself.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was talking to a colleague who moved a 220-person call centre to work from home in only a week.
I mean, consider the logistics of that! Moreover, the impossible was happening all over the place every day. When push comes to shove, somehow we find a way to happen.
Consider the scientific community and the haste with which they developed a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 with input from our own local talent.
We have these processes that are ongoing to test and maximise safety for a vaccine globally. In this instance, however, we needed things to happen faster and a joint effort has brought that.
- The most important things are not things at all. Everyone enjoys and appreciates a wonderful life. Flying between South Africa and Zimbabwe and have all the trappings of enjoying yourself work or none work related.
However, in the first lockdown we had, we had to shelve any form of travel, regional or local. All the missed things are the icing on the cake. We are social creatures of habit, and we need other people. Family and friends are an essential thing in your life.
- Businesses can benefit from showing empathy for customers. From the business side of things, we learned even more about the power of proper business actions in your customers’ time of need.
These actions can manifest in increased accommodation, flexibility, and anticipation of what people want and will need under unusual circumstances.
Many companies have bent over backward and earned a lot of goodwill from customers when they needed it. Businesses that didn’t will probably pay a long-term price for that.
Also, empathy is essential within a company, too, for colleagues and teams and their burden during this time. Organisations have adapted to the new environment, bringing compassion to the fore.
People will remember actions extended to them for goodwill and actions generated.
- The idea of Customer Science will continue to change how we approach business. Customer Science is the next wave of change.
Customer Science is the fusion between digital technology, artificial intelligence (AI), behavioural science to increase understanding of what customers want and what they do to get it.
Perhaps most importantly, Customer Science makes it easier to anticipate customers’ needs and ensure you have what they want when they want it in personalised interaction.
Customer Science is where it all fits together, and it will be a massive growth area in the future.
The technology exists already, but we are hitting an inflection point with several of them simultaneously.
Moreover, there is a different way of thinking about customers facilitated by these new technologies and approaches. We know there’s a ton of data that we can use to analyse things and predict outcomes.
Infusing what we know about the behavioural sciences and machine learning, and other AI creates this inflection point.
We’re getting to the point now where there’s more experience with all of these elements and people are more confident of what’s possible with them.
Also, there are more tools available so that people can seamlessly integrate the various elements into what they’re doing. It means that things might change rapidly at this point in the area of Customer Science.
Crises also present an opportunity to learn, grow, and develop yourself personally. My corporate life experience progressed from the shop floor through to a senior positioning throughout that time we had crises, many of them (although none like a global pandemic, to be sure).
How did we get through it? Excellent leadership and mentorship.
Furthermore, I believe in giving back with the right support and structure and offering coaching for leaders that need an extra set of hands to manage the crises they face.
Finally, while we learnt a lot in 2020, 2021 requires fresh new levels of execution with huge amounts of gratitude in our respective work spaces and businesses.
Robert Gonye is a Business Growth Expert and Influencer. He writes in his capacity.
