April 16 is the Get To Know Your Customer (GTKYC) day. For those who came in late, GTKYC Day is observed annually every quarter on the third Thursday of January, April, July, and October. In the current slowdown brought by COVID-19 lockdown and travel restrictions, the pledge to follow GTKYC becomes even more resolute. Ahead of the Get to Know Your Customer Day, Julien Rio of the RingCentral Engage Digital shared valuable insights on how the quarter starting April will be unique in many ways, something nobody predicted or prepared for.

For service providers around the globe, GTKYC Day could be a stream of hope, motivation, and faith, a guiding light to ensure everybody thinks about what companies can do to help customers, partners, and of course, employees. Under huge pressure, often disrupted by various IT challenges, privacy hazards, and miscommunication, GTKYC Day insights from Julien could help meet immediate, short-term and long-term Marketing and Customer Support goals in this tough and highly-unpredictable situation.

The Evolving Online Customer Relationship

COVID-19 info-demic stats show that online users rely on social media channels such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and WhatsApp to stay afloat. Messaging apps are everywhere, and their advertising streams don’t seem to have slowed down.

On an average, 65 billion messages are circulated on WhatsApp alone. A majority of businesses either use Facebook messaging apps like Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger to promote their products, services or events.

Julien says, “Companies have known for a long time that they can learn a lot about customers from their online behavior, when using apps or browsing websites, much more so than when they are in physical stores, and it helps retailers meet customer expectations.”

He added, “The COVID-19 Pandemic is forcing customers to experiment with doing even more online including contacting customer service teams, perhaps using services such as WhatsApp and Twitter to do so for the first time, in frustration at long wait times on the phone. This will drive more activity online, so every company needs to think in the long-term about how it will integrate social media and messaging apps into its customer care. It is becoming the norm, now faster than ever before.”

Promote Your Digital Channels

According to a McKinsey & Company UK Consumer Pulse survey conducted on the 28th and 29th March, 70% of adults believe their normal routine will be impacted by Coronavirus for at least the next two months.

Maria Rua Aguete of Omdia, the tech research arm of Informa Tech has said that “E-commerce will be the other sector that will see a revenue boost as a result of the Pandemic, adding $175 billion in revenue in 2020, which represents a 5% increase.”

Julien says, “Customers are facing long waits to speak with customer care agents in the current COVID-19 Pandemic. If your company uses social media or messaging apps for agents, then make sure you are communicating these channels to your customers. The asynchronous nature of them means your customers can get on with other things and still get the answers they need without getting frustrated at your brand.”

Do You Know Your Customer Already?

“One of the biggest hates customers have is repeating their query with multiple agents every time they contact a company. Yet, much of the information, including previous contact will already be stored in systems. With more and more customer interactions happening online through apps, messaging services and social media, companies need to not just think about getting to know customers better, but how to connect the information they have across multiple systems and digital channels so that agents have a single view of what the systems collectively know. Companies that can do this will win the kind of brand loyalty others can only dream of.”

We thank every reader, PR partners and social media followers who have continued to consume information at MarTech Series and subscribe to our magazines. We also thank industry leaders who have continued to provide their valuable insights and opinions on how to cope with COVID-19 disruptions with optimism and determination.

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