With the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), we have been introduced to different ways of living and some of our behaviours and habits have been transformed. With this, experts, consultants and lecturers have started to research and comment on the possible transformation of the pandemic on consumer behaviour. Wiseback’s Consumer Behavior Consultant Aysun Şabanlı made evaluations about the change process in the field of consumer behaviour and customer experience.
60+ met e-commerce
The rate of online shoppers among internet users has reached 63% (We are Social, 2020, Turkey Data). According to ALADIN’s report, 40% of the respondents made their first online purchases during the Covid-19 lockdown. This shows that a new segment of consumers, especially those over the age of 60, have joined the e-commerce target audience.
E-commerce brands failed
The air of panic in the first weeks of the pandemic, the anxiety about meeting our basic needs, and the tolerance we showed to the delays and disruptions in the spirit of solidarity gave way to a cognitive evaluation in the following weeks. During this period, there were brands that won the hearts of consumers. These were brands that had good product quality, planned the delivery time correctly and responded positively to complaints. During the cognitive evaluation period, we observed that many well-known e-commerce brands failed.
Expectation in customer experience: Total quality
It seems that digital transformation is not enough just to integrate technology into our business as a sales channel, to become a valuable brand for customers and to increase loyalty. Understanding the digital age correctly and transforming all processes according to these dynamics has become even more important, especially after the process we are going through. It is now inevitable for e-commerce sites to reconstruct their total customer quality processes in accordance with the culture transformed by the digital age and the dynamics of the age.
People orientation and transparency
In the digital age, consumers also have the opportunity to evaluate the services they receive from brands and share these evaluations on social networks. Information has been democratised with the freedom to access information from anywhere. Along with this, transparency emerges as a new value. It is not an element of differentiation, but rather a necessity for brands to be aware of these new elements and to keep up with this transformation culturally and organizationally.
As a result of this change, the culture that should transform in the way of doing business should be to position the consumer as a human being, not as a “consumer”, and to instil this culture in the entire organisation. Therefore, all other processes need to evolve in a human-oriented way. Communication with “human beings” is the new value of the digital age, and all processes should be transparent and sincere.
Things to pay attention to in e-commerce
Although many e-commerce sites operate on a marketplace model, they should be with their customers in every link of the supply chain for total customer experience quality and take responsibility at every step of the process. To mention these processes;
- Product quality and product definition: Cooperation agreements should be arranged to ensure that the quality of the products provided by suppliers is as described on the site.
- Seamless logistics: E-commerce sites should not pretend to be unaware of the structures of the cargo companies they cooperate with, which have not kept up with digital transformation. A consumer who shops from an e-commerce site is actually in contact with the site in all processes from start to finish. The success of a business can only be possible with the successful process management of the companies it cooperates with. Therefore, it should also take responsibility for the problems experienced between cargo companies and consumers. When a complaint of “my product did not arrive” or “it arrived late” is received, saying “it is the responsibility of the cargo company” and getting out of the business actually shows that digital transformation has not been adopted. We see that successful digital businesses in the world also undertake the development and training of the companies they cooperate with. E-commerce sites should also guide the cargo companies they cooperate with to organise their processes and specify these processes as a mandatory item in their business agreements, and undertake the training and development of cargo companies to keep up with digital transformation and establish smooth processes.
- Ease of return and money-back guarantee: In order to alleviate the feeling of financial risk in shopping, companies should also facilitate the return conditions and provide a money-back guarantee. One of the most important elements should be that e-commerce sites take responsibility for all processes from the product return delivery process to the realization of the return process and provide convenience to their customers.
- Continuous and human-oriented communication in every process: Human-oriented communication requires getting to know people well and establishing sincere and transparent communication. It is imperative that brands stop using the data to be obtained from technological tools only for tactical promotional purposes and start analysing them properly to get to know their customers, offer them personal solutions and build personalised relationships, and start building their strategic processes according to this data. Responsibility must be taken for every step of the customer’s shopping journey and the customer must be informed at every step. Customer touch points should be mapped, communication design should be made and the organisation should be adapted according to this design.
As a result, with the goal of becoming a 360-degree social business, a social brand that listens and understands its customers, in other words people, takes responsibility at every step, and a social business vision that shapes all its processes with people-oriented and continuous innovation should be set out with the vision of a social business.
Manage customer experiences
Wiseback, which enables businesses to collect feedback, measure happiness score and NPS in an omni-channel structure through website, mobile application, email, kiosk, sms, QR code channels, enables end-to-end customer experience management with the management screens it offers. Developed as an industry-independent solution, Wiseback is suitable for businesses of all sizes. Register now for free and start managing customer and employee experiences intelligently.
