Three Keys to Delivering Exceptional CX in a Crisis

Proactively communicate with your audiences. Whether managing a short- or long-term crisis, your brand should be sharing updates regularly in the way your customers want to receive them. This should include all the channels on which you engage with customers, like your website, email, and social media. These updates should be straightforward, brief, and transparent but should share details on how you can be reached and how customers can continue to secure your products or services. When faced with a crisis, it’s good to have already mapped out the customer journey, so you understand how customers engage with your brand and where the interaction model needs to be adjusted. And remember — in times of crisis, veer toward over-communicating.

Go back to the basics. During a crisis, it’s best not to over-complicate your CX. Focus on your business’s best and simplest communication techniques and leverage omnichannel means of connecting with your customers. During the COVID-19 crisis, for example, consumers have been forced to gravitate online and leverage digital touchpoints to connect with businesses in ways they may not have before. For instance, as the crisis was starting, Delta set up a hub on its website to share easy-to-understand, concise updates related to the virus. Any customers looking for details on the ways aircraft are being cleaned or how flight schedules are impacted could check out this one-stop-shop resource. The airline also issued numerous similar updates via email and other channels.

Communicate with authenticity and transparency. In many instances, a businesses’ CX team is the first touchpoint a customer may have with your company. Entrust these people to put themselves in the position of not only the customer but the other stakeholders within a business. During times of crisis, transparency in your messages and empathy for customers’ needs must come across in your communications and your policy changes. Customer experiences that include a human connection make people feel heard and help to boost company confidence. At Ubiquity, providing the best, most authentic customer service is a priority in times of crisis and year-round.