We’re living in a changing world. Things we complained about a month ago – from too-busy eateries to crowded malls – seem almost like luxuries today.

Tightened social distancing measures are a necessary move to flatten the curve of virus spread, but they also undoubtedly pose challenges for businesses as they adjust to a new normal.

Amid cooling buyer sentiment, demand for most products and services has fallen, save for a few exclusions such as medical technology. When this happens, word of mouth becomes a business’s best friend, and this starts with great customer experience.

Businesses that hope to emerge on the other end of this tunnel in fighting-fit condition must be able to maintain and strengthen their relationships with their customers during this time.

For those looking to improve their approach to this, here are four tips from HubSpot to get things started.

Also Read: Customer service: is it still relevant in the age of automation?

Customer satisfaction

It may seem straightforward, but companies can forget to check with the most accurate indicators of customer experience – the customers themselves. Customer satisfaction is typically measured by asking your customers to complete a quick survey post-service, whether by clicking a thumbs up or thumbs down or answering a few questions about their experience.

This metric — which is arguably the most important — tells you how effective, helpful, and friendly your customer service team was and if your customer’s issue was fully resolved. It could also tell you whether or not they’d return with a question or concern, based on the questions you ask.

Look for positive responses, which means great customer experiences and a well-functioning customer service team. Negative responses can also help, too, as they tell you how you can improve.

Listen to what your customers are telling you. If your post-service survey doesn’t ask open-ended questions, consider following up with those who reported a negative (or thumbs down) experience and ask them for specific feedback.

Note: Many businesses include certain customer success and customer satisfaction metrics in their customer service and support scoring. These metrics may include their Net Promoter Score (NPS) or customer retention and churn rates.

All of these metrics are important for building the big picture of how customers interact with and experience your business.

Also Read: Ace the e-commerce game by mastering the art of customer experience

Average ticket count

Your average ticket count measures the average number of customer service or support tickets your team receives. You can measure these on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis … or all of the above.

While more tickets can be a confirmation that your customer service system is accessible and working, it can actually indicate customers are having frequent issues — and that your product or service may be falling short.

Look for fewer tickets, which means fewer problems for your customers.

Communicate your customer feedback to your product and marketing teams so they can understand what your customers may be dealing with or asking questions about. Depending on the number of tickets you receive, ensure you have enough representatives on your customer service team to handle the ticket volume.

It’s not just good practice, but also efficient and helpful to have commonly raised issues to address automatically, such as through a properly designed FAQ section on your website.

Average response time

Your average response time tracks how long it takes for your customer service team to respond to a conversation after opening a ticket. This metric tells you how quickly your customer service team is solving issues and getting back to customers.

Look for quick response times, which demonstrate to your customers that their issues are your priority, which can lead to positive customer satisfaction measures.

Image credit: HubSpot

Make sure your team is equipped to solve issues and answer questions. If they’re dependent on a manager or product specialist, it’ll likely take longer to get back to customers with answers and solutions.

Also Read: Ace the e-commerce game by mastering the art of customer experience

This can be frustrating for customers – HubSpot Research’s Consumer Customer Support Survey found that 90 per cent of consumers expect an immediate response from customer service representatives. Also make sure your team is handling and resolving the proper number of tickets at once — whether that’s one, five, or 10.

Overwhelmed customer service teams lead to poor customer experience and unhappy customers.

Average ticket resolution time

Your average ticket resolution time measures how long it takes your team to resolve each customer service or support ticket.

This metric tells you about the efficiency of your customer service team and, potentially, the complexity of issues from your customers.

Look for short resolution times, which means that your customers’ issues are being solved quickly — and more customers are walking away satisfied.

Also read: Looking at customer experience through the customer’s eyes

Take a look at the initial message your team sends to each customer. Make sure it asks thoughtful questions and encourages the customer to explain their problem in detail. Also, ensure your team is well-versed in your products or services so they can respond and resolve issues quickly without having to reach out to other teams for help — thus lengthening the process.

Create the best customer experience possible

The service and support we provide along with the product are often just as important as the product itself. In fact, it’s arguably a deciding factor in whether you’ll win in the market. Well-performing customer service departments lead to happy customers, and happy customers are your best marketers.

In a world of uncertainty, it’s more important than ever for consumers to know they can count on their favourite businesses. While COVID-19 forces us to put some physical distance between each other, let’s make sure we’re not disconnecting from our customers.

–

Register for our next webinar: AMA with founders of Cocoon Capital

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page.

Image credit: Icons8 Team on Unsplash

The post Building great customer experience when it matters the most appeared first on e27.

 

The times of uncertainty are not easy for all of us. But they give us a boost to move forward and evolve the businesses we are managing. In this article, I’ll share some digital marketing insights, which, hopefully, will help you market your brand more effectively in times of the downturn.

People are rethinking their values

The global economy has recently experienced a triple attack caused by rising gas prices, sudden inflation, and a current recession. This economic storm makes people rethink their values. Today, we view everyday things in a different light.

We try to filter what we shouldn’t think about now and focus only on the most important things.

People are fed up with a bare and obvious promotion; they just need solutions to their problems. If they could probably watch one or two irrelevant ads in their Facebook feed earlier, they will block them today (and you’re lucky if they don’t write angry comments under your ads or on your business page).

It doesn’t mean that people have become more aggressive but that they become more decisive, understand what they really need, and try to give up things distracting them from primary goals.

Brands should research the arising customer needs, deliver on them, and bring as much value as possible. These practices can be helpful.

Also Read: 4 things to remember while marketing your brand in SEA

Listen to your audience

Brand marketing must react to the changes experienced by a target audience. The fastest and easiest way to define your actual customer needs is to investigate what your target audience is saying about your brand and industry-related topics on social media.

Like the heart is bringing the blood via dozens of veins and arteries, social media is spreading the information via multiple channels and user discussions across the whole web with the wind speed.

Social networks are huge sources of information, as well as the most vulnerable areas for a brand reputation. It is the first place where customers share their needs, experiences, product reviews, and negative comments.

In the digital era, companies must stay connected with their customers on social media, on the one hand, and monitor how they react to new initiatives, on the other hand. There are a lot of social media listening tools that can help you track brand mentions and see what people are the most anxious about right now.

Continually monitor your brand’s heartbeat on social media to be able to react to a crisis immediately.

Also Read: Surviving COVID-19: How to adapt your digital marketing strategy amidst a global crisis

Be loyal to your customers to gain their loyalty

Today, making sales and discounts will not harm your revenue, but, on the contrary, they can result in fast-growing customer loyalty, brand awareness, and higher conversion rates.

Make steps toward more human interaction with your customers. You can notify people that your brand answers the current Coronavirus recession by making special offers, discounts, and holding special measures aimed to improve consumer experience with your brand.

You can spread your company’s news by running email campaigns, using digital advertising, publishing articles on your blog, or simply posting updates on business profiles on social media.

If your company has own mobile app, then it can be helpful if you inform users sending them in-app notifications about the news. In general, a mobile app adds value to a business. Besides social media, it seems to be another effective channel for communication with your customers and increasing audience engagement.

Being loyal to your customers, you will grow their loyalty to you. It will help you improve a brand reputation, increase customer retention, and convert more sales.

Optimise your brand messaging to the new customer goals and needs

Businesses should adapt to new challenges in 2020. It is high time for rethinking your company’s values and make them align with the customers’ goals. You can get a better understanding of your audience by listening to it on social media, conducting short surveys on your website, or sending them via email.

Armed with these invaluable target audience insights, you can optimise your brand messaging for the consumer’s reality. Adjust your content on the company’s blog and social media profiles to the topics that are now the most relevant to your people. You can publish guides, how-tos, myth debunkers that will help solve real user problems. And don’t forget about adding a pinch of fun to your content. Cheer your audience up and motivate them to move forward in this tough period.

Also Read: Why every startup needs to embrace video marketing in 2020

Humanise your brand voice

The downturn influences the life of each and everyone, and most often not positively. It leads to increased psychological tension, concerns, and anxiety about the future among your potential consumers. Brands must understand it and conduct some measures aimed to soothe the customer’s psychological discomfort and eliminate negative experience with a brand.

A lot of people are stuck at home. Many of them lost their jobs. Someone’s business is struggling. In these challenging times, companies should rethink their messaging and fill it with understanding and empathy. They should humanise a brand voice in the media.

You can start by optimising your social media content. The truth lives in balance: your posts shouldn’t be tone-deaf, but it also doesn’t mean they should be filled with doom and gloom. Brands must be seeking how they can help their people rather than pitch anything now.

Are you inspirational? You can share quotes and videos that raise the spirit and help us get motivated to overcome all challenges together. You can also post funny GIFs and memes because we need a laugh these days too. Try to be more “human.”

Apply crisis management basics

We shouldn’t be the crisis management pros, but we must be aware of some essentials to solve some of the brand’s most crucial issues. These days, it’s critical to invest more resources and effort into quality customer support. Now, consumers need your help and assistance as never before.

The hardships caused by the Coronavirus recession make us feel more stressed. Providing timely and professional support, your brand can prevent not only negative customer emotions and eliminate stress but also drive the audience’s loyalty to a brand.

It’s also recommended to continually monitor your brand reputation in the media, including social networks, news sites, forums, blogs, magazines, etc. Social media listening tools mentioned above will help you detect negative mentions and estimate the user sentiment.

Also Read: I tried TikTok out and now I get why it is the future of digital marketing

It will help you stay informed about the spots of negative comments that require your special attention and troubleshooting skills to save a brand reputation.

Try to communicate with your customers openly and update them about all the changes. The fastest way to deliver information to people is by making an announcement and updating status on your social media profile.

You should also provide official information about the changes to your company’s website.

Use positive visuals and reduce cognitive load

We are visual creatures. We often prefer products that look nicer. We feel calm when watching the sunset or the night sky. And we’re often allured by our eyes because we trust in what we see. A visual part of brand image and messaging can be more influential than you might imagine.

Smart brands apply principles of color psychology and cyberpsychology to create visual user experiences that help eliminate the audience’s negative emotions and set a more positive mood.

Also Read: Mobile marketing analytics startup AppsFlyer secures US$210M from General Atlantic, opens office in Indonesia

It seems to be a little investment in your online brand image but it can be a game-changer when it comes to massive advertising campaigns or the company’s official announcements in critical situations.

Another tip is preventing cognitive overload. No matter whether it is your website content, social media post, or tutorial on how to use your product you should deliver your message concisely and laconically, without unnecessary details.

Try to transfer a brand message to users as clearly as possible. Create intuitive customer experiences that don’t make people overthink. It will help you optimize customer cognitive load.

Don’t sell but help

You just need to step into your customer shoes to understand what they need. When you do it you will likely feel that they need to solve their issues in the easiest and most effective way possible. Try to give it to customers. The “unsalesy” promotion works best today.

It means that you should think of how you can help people with the content you share. They appreciate the value you deliver and will become more about to listen to your next brand message that can slightly mention your product as the key to their problem solution.

Leverage explainer videos

Don’t underestimate the importance of effective user-onboarding since it’s what can help you improve customer experience and reduce requests to a support team. You can use an explainer video to educate customers about how to use your product or service and tell about how they can benefit from using it.

Animation and explainer videos are one of the most effective methods of transferring complicated information in an engaging and easy-to-understand form.

Also Read: Mobile marketing analytics startup AppsFlyer secures US$210M from General Atlantic, opens office in Indonesia

Share your views

The company’s blog is a perfect place for sharing news and valuable insights provided by your experts. By publishing quality and relevant articles, studies, and guides on your blog, you can bring additional value to your audience, attract more attention to your brand, drive website traffic, and gain customer loyalty. It will help you build positive relationships with customers and convert more sales.

Combining creative thinking, empathy, and data-driven marketing, you can lead your business out of the crisis becoming the favourite brand for your customers.

–

Register for our next webinar: AMA with founders of Cocoon Capital

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page.

The post What you need to know about digital marketing for the new normal appeared first on e27.

White label human resource and healthcare platform CXA Group (CXA) announced that it has raised bridge round of funding from Thai HR solutions provider Humanica and HSBC Life, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC.

Humanica has doubled its investment in CXA as a continuation of last year’s convertible note bridge financing.

The company will use the funding to further develop its platform.

In addition to the funding, CXA also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Humanica to integrate its human capital management platform with CXA’s platform in Thailand.

CXA provides a white-label, one-stop, self-service mobile platform that will enable employees to have personalised offerings on health, wealth, and wellness.

Employees can purchase offerings by drawing down on existing insurance policies provided by their employers; they can also use funds that are then released into the platform’s e-wallet to make transactions.

Also Read: AI-powered insurtech startup CXA Group to set up tech hub in Ho Chi Minh City

In the long run, this can help employers to significantly reduce healthcare costs.

CXA Group was founded in 2013 with the mission of transforming the delivery of employee benefits through digitisation and prevention-oriented measures.

It had previously raised US$58 million in total funding from Series A, Series B, and a convertible note round in 2015, 2017 and 2019, respectively.

CXA also offered its brokerage services and health ecosystem platform to build these technical capabilities partnering with ThoughtWorks in January 2019 and established a technology hub in Vietnam for software engineering in July 2019.

–

Having a completed startup profile on the e27 Startup Database will promote greater exposure among potential investors and partners. We strongly encourage startups to create and/or update theirs today.

Interested in taking the next step? Be a part of the community and sign up for an e27 Pro membership today! You may visit here for more details.

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

The post CXA Group raises bridge round of funding from Thai HR solutions provider Humanica, HSBC Life appeared first on e27.

Samsung-backed HR-tech startup Swingvy commences operation in Taiwan

Singapore- and Malaysia-based HR-tech startup Swingvy has announced its expansion into Taiwan with the launch of a new payroll product.

This follows Swingvy’s US$7 million Series A funding in 2019, led by Samsung Ventures, which marked the Korean electronic behemoth’s maiden  investment in Southeast Asia.

According to Jin Choeh, Co-founder and CEO, Swingvy, the new product is completely compliant with Taiwan’s Labour Laws, as it calculates the payroll taxes, deductions, and claims via integration with its existing software HR Hub.

This means employers can run payroll and issue digital payslips instantly and accurately to their employees, calculated according to the employee details found on HR Hub, which it claims will minimise manual pay miscalculation errors.

Philippines’s ride-hailing firm Angkas pivots to delivery service

The Philippines-based motorcycle ride-hailing service Angkas has announced that it is pivoting to delivery services amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The decision comes after the government’s physical distancing policies left 95 per cent of Angkas’s business paralysed, ABS-CBN News reports.

Back in March, Angkas operations were suspended due to the ban imposed by the Department of Transportation because it violates the 1-meter distancing recommended by health experts.

To help sustain their riders’ livelihood, Angkas has also launched Angkas Food and will not take any commission on the initiative.

Also Read: Samsung’s VC arm leads US$7M Series A in HRtech startup Swingvy

“We are just pivoting to deliveries. Most of the [Angkas] motorcycles are doing deliveries. They are delivering goods or food to people,” Angkas Chief Transport Advocate George Royeca, told the Senate Committee on Public Services.

Before proving that their existence is pivotal during this pandemic, Angkas was entangled in a legal controversy with the government’s allegation that the ride-hailing platform violated a constitutional ban on foreign ownership.

Facebook, Instagram share new gift cards tools to support small businesses in Singapore

With a mission to support businesses in Singapore impacted by COVID-19, Facebook and Instagram will roll out new features to enable people to purchase gift cards from local businesses on the platforms via select third-party partner sites.

Facebook is testing a feature where people will be able to access gift cards from participating merchants in their cities through a “Support Local Businesses” promotion on Facebook.

The gift cards are made possible through partners, such as Fave and Chope, which will share the value of the gift card minus their transaction fee with the participating merchant.

On Instagram, businesses can add a gift card sticker to their Stories and also a button for their business profile page. Each time someone sees a Story with these stickers or goes to the business profile page, they can tap through to complete a purchase on the website of the chosen platform.

Instagram is also launching new capabilities to make it easy for people to show their support for businesses through hashtags and stickers. A new “Support Small Business” sticker on Instagram lets people give their favorite business a shout out.
—

Picture Credit: Swingvy

The post Roundup: Samsung-backed HR-tech startup Swingvy launches in Taiwan; Filipino ride-hailing firm Angkas pivots to deliveries appeared first on e27.

As a wave of ripple effects from the pandemic plummets the global economy in every sector, many companies have been faced with a staggering number of layoffs and furloughs to conserve business operations.

To ease this uncertainty, there are some companies that have been holding off on job cuts –at least temporarily– or offering other benefits to cushion employees during this situation.

Here is the list of startups and small or medium-sized businesses that have made a pledge to their employees to protect their jobs amidst the situation in Southeast Asia (SEA):

Singapore

With the government announcing the latest measures to control the outbreak of COVID-19, many companies were not deemed as an essential business, hence, this resulted in the increase of business units’ non-operational costs.

Due to this, one of many Singaporean companies that guarantee to continue employment includes Motorist.sg, the first digital-first auto concierge company in Singapore, which has shifted its focus to sustain the entire team by generating sufficient revenue online.

Along with the government’s support for SMEs through a 75 per cent wage subsidy in all sectors in order to help businesses retain workers in the city-state for training, the company is also able to maintain the operations without reducing wages despite the forecasted 80 per cent drop in revenue.

Also Read: Why crowdfunding will be the new normal for Malaysian companies

“However, the disappointment phase has passed, and my management team is focused on the survival of the business so as to support our team of over 40 employees without having to resort to any termination or pay reduction. Hence, our mindset has shifted from a ‘growth’ mindset to a ‘survival’ mindset now,” said Damian Sia, Founder, and CEO of Motorist.

Malaysia

Like most companies, iPrice Group, an aggregator e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, has experienced some difficulties in operations due to the simultaneous lockdowns and strict movement control that affected the supply chain in several SEA countries.

In conjunction with the Malaysian government’s regulation, it is not in the company’s consideration to sacrifice any of its employees at all.

Instead, the company’s higher management took certain actions such as 25-40 per cent pay cuts to ensure that its employees did not.

Even prior to the restricted movement order in Malaysia, iPrice Group has subsidised Grab rides to avoid public transportation to ensure their employees’ safety.

During the work-from-home period, iPrice’s Human Resource checks in on everyone’s welfare through weekly surveys and conducts AMA sessions with the CEO to maintain transparency every week.

Also Read: What we can learn from the Great Depression about a post-pandemic world

“During this period, there is one value resonating even more at iPrice than ever, which is transparency. As employees at any level in iPrice, we are aware and understand the reasoning behind why we as a team we shifted our focus on certain projects or new policies being introduced. Yet, transparency does not come from the leadership team only, teams are openly discussing the challenges they have encountered during work-from-home and finding ways together with their team or line manager to overcome it. Looking at this, I feel iPrice is closer together as a family more than ever. We are much more open and honest with one another,” said Putri Fadhila, an Operations Manager for the Categorisations team at iPrice Group.

In a bid to aid Singaporeans, iPrice aggregated all deals provided by e-commerce for consumers to easily access vital resources for necessities on “Stay Home Promos” during this lockdown period.

Indonesia

The Indonesian coffee beverage retailer, Kopi Kenangan, aims to bridge the gap between cheap street vendor coffee and drinks at the higher spectrum from international chains such as Starbucks. This startup was also affected by the global pandemic.

Given the nature of the business in the F&B industry, the CEO & Co-founder of the company has allocated IDR15 billion (US$1 million) funds to support workers, maintain hygiene at the workplace, and support frontline workers and hospitals during this tumultuous situation.

“As a leader in Kopi Kenangan, I will make the sacrifice first, from now onwards until the crisis is over, I will be taking of IDR1 (US$0.0) salary. Employees’ salaries and [religious holiday] bonus (THR) will proceed as normal,” said Kopi Kenangan CEO and Co-founder Edward Tirtanata on his LinkedIn page.

Vietnam

With the consumer behaviour shifting online, Loship, the aspiring unicorn startup that operates Vietnam’s e-commerce platform, had to bear with the increasing costs from the current situation. However, the company has made similar commitments to ensure no retrenchment and maintenance of its delivery services for the people in Vietnam.

“People are our most valuable asset and we will not cut or fire people to respond to a pandemic. We and our partners have come together and we are overcoming many challenges during the previous period. This COVID-19 pandemic is no exception as we will still go together,” said Nguyen Hoang Trung, the CEO of Loship.

Also Read: How can legacy companies future proof themselves post-pandemic?

The company recognises the importance of people’s safety and security at work during this challenging situation. However, their level of caring does not stop there as the online e-commerce platform also provides precautionary equipment such as face masks, hand sanitisers, and body temperature checks at the office to protect their drivers and customers from the virus.

The Philippines

As the leading green technology that provides a healthier life through a cleaner environment, Star 8 Green Technology Corp.’s operations have already been affected due to the enhanced community quarantine.

With the goal to provide the country with a greener and healthier environment using alternative fuel and renewable solar energy, the ceasing of public transport does not stop the company to provide financial assistance to employees who are in need of work from home devices. They believe that the current situation allows them to keep productive at home even during the crisis.

“Since we supply electric vehicles and solar lights, and are also delving into an automated fare collection system and a fleet management system, the lockdown has affected our operations. However, amidst the crisis, our company is still paying full salaries to its employees. The management also gives financial assistance to employees who are unable to work from home due to certain limitations such as poor internet connection, or to those whose work used to require them to be onsite,” said Star 8 Green Technology Managing Director Ronald V. Laurel.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash

The post How SEA startups are managing their workforce through pandemic-driven unemployment surge appeared first on e27.