Depending on what sector you provide services in, the frequency of changing circumstances will vary. For example, if you provide products and services in the Financial Services marketplace, circumstances will be changing on a daily, or even hourly basis. This news being readily available to customers through a multitude of media means that customers will be responding quickly to those changing situations.<\/p>\n

It is critical that customer facing teams are kept extremely up to date with what\u2019s happening, how it may impact on customers and how to answer very specific questions. Remember, customers these days have a huge amount of information available to them from a variety of sources, which means the questions they will ask you are likely to be more in depth, and very specific to themselves. Keeping your front line staff in a position where they can confidently answer questions from concerning customers will naturally create a greater feeling of confidence for the customer, helping retention.<\/p>\n

It is extremely important to pro-actively communicate with customers and help them through this traumatic time. Web sites will be receiving higher hits, and the refresh of the information should be increased in line with what customers are likely to expect from you. If they can\u2019t find the information on the Web site, they will either make choices without the information or find out through different methods \u2013 all of which could have potentially a negative impact on your business.<\/p>\n

Staff behaviour impacts the customer experience<\/h3>\n

Consider your customer facing staff \u2013 they are going through exactly the same pressures and challenges in the current climate and how they are feel, plus their views, will have a direct bearing on how they interact with customers. It is hugely important to engage with your staff and communicate actively with them. If your staff are extremely well informed, when they are interacting with your customers this will display confidence to the customers. Sadly, often communication drops at times like this, as Leaders are so busy working out what needs to be done, unfortunately communication is not seen as high enough in the priority list.<\/p>\n

The risk of creating an unplanned negative affect on the customer experience is significantly higher in pressure periods like now \u2013 Leaders should ensure they are actively engaging and supporting their staff.<\/p>\n