PHOTO:
Bruno Nascimento
Companies are no longer competing only with businesses in their wheelhouse. They are competing with every experience that customers have during their daily lives. The abundance of digitally-native businesses are conditioning consumers to expect faster, simpler and more intuitive experiences, self-service and personalized interactions, and even anticipating and responding to needs before consumers even recognize them.
While traditional businesses have been taking continuous steps toward digital customer interaction, the need to accelerate changed almost overnight with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers quickly became comfortable living with digital interactions because they had no other choice. Months later, many have come to realize they like digital interactions every bit as much, and sometimes better than what they experienced before. That has only served to increase the challenge of keeping up with customer expectations.