How can organizations reduce uncertainty, and best serve customers and employees during the pandemic, and the months of uncertainty that will follow it? How does capturing voice of customer – and employee – benefit businesses?
These are the questions all executive teams of every organization must have asked themselves by now – and one that we will pose to Twitter on Friday, April 24.
The question ultimately boils down to: What does this world look like now, and how do the voices of our two most important people – the customer and the employee – shine through?
Customers and employees are the lifeblood of any business
The answers to those questions affect every single aspect of our businesses – from marketing and sales, to customer experience, and customer support.
And, for so many brands right now, employees are customers – as well as our best insight into how customers are feeling and thinking:
- Will I be able to celebrate my birthday, my anniversary, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day?
- Will I still have my job in a month?
- Will I lose someone I love?
- If I do, will I be able to have a funeral?
These kinds of questions cause anxiety, and can cause anticipatory grief.
After all, for many of us, we may now be getting used to this new work from home life and routine. But there is little clarity about what comes next:
- How long will it really last?
- How do we begin to open things?
- What happens if it all comes back – and worse (like it did in 1918)?
- Will I lose someone?
- Will I lose more people?
- Will I get sick?
- Will I keep my job?
- Will I be able to pay my bills?
- Will I be able to put food on the table?
It’s overwhelming. And leaders of organizations large and small have a huge impact on how their employees think about both now and the future. And, how employees think about the future determines how they talk to customers, and thus, how customers think about the future.
How can we balance both morals and morale?
That’s a lot of weight for the executives in this world, as well. And already, we’ve seen many DTC brands started over the last decade on values and transparency begin to crash.
This isn’t the time for the wartime CEO, but it is time for an executive who can talk honestly and optimistically, who can do what is necessary and what is right. These are skills that must be balanced, and that few have done incredibly well at balancing in the past.
Most management and business strategy books have been written in times of relative stability. There is little out there – perhaps outside of How to Win Friends and Influence People – that can truly teach leaders how to both do what is right for the business and do right by the employees in challenging times.
So, because the answer to this question seems allusive, we bring it to Twitter and the amazing minds there. Likely, as in philosophy, there isn’t a single answer. Instead, there will be many, and each strategy itself will be nuanced.
Bring it on. No answers are wrong. No ideas worthless. Together, we will figure out how to move forward with both our businesses and our humanity intact.
This is the goal, after all:
Capturing voice of customer and employee: Making a list, checking it twice
In preparation for the Tweetchat on Friday, I encourage you to take a moment to create a list. Yes, a list of the top 3-5 things you’d say to an executive to help them keep both voice of customer and voice of employee top of mind.
Why a list? Because they help:
And, because it’ll help you be prepared to join the conversation, and help us all continue to figure out a path forward.
