The importance of customer experience is mission-critical right now for companies of all sizes.

I recognize that customer experience may not be relevant to you right now because you may not have any active customers.

Take me as an example, my business partners and I had to close the doors to our restaurants. Danny Meyers, had to lay off 2,000 employees yesterday because his restaurants are closed too. The hospitality industry is getting annihilated and many businesses may never reopen.

If you are operating right now, even with a fraction of normal business, the way you manage the importance of customer experience is on display. This will help you retain these customers for future products and services. This pain isn’t forever, but it is present today.

Right now, I’m using this time to learn. I’m educating myself and still moving forward. I’m observing how companies are responding and asking myself what I can learn from them.

Gaining education and knowledge during this time is helping me stay sharp and maintain my motivation.

In this blog post, I’m going to share three companies that are showcasing the importance of customer experience (even if this means losing revenue in the short-term): You’ll read:

• Screenshots of their messaging to me as their customer.
• What they are doing to win over customers.
• What all companies can learn.

Let’s get right into it!

Rogers Communication: No Roam Like Home Charges and More!

You might be surprised to find a telecommunications company listed here. I consciously placed them in the #1 spot because they were the first company to deliver a great customer experience to me which inspired this blog post.

As of today, I’m stuck in Lima, Peru for 15 days as the President suddenly closed the borders. Since this announcement, I’ve had many things to manage to get my domestic life in order. While having my coffee the day after learning that Peru would be my home for the next two weeks I started thinking about my expenses (at home and while in Peru).

“Roam Like Home” is a data-usage feature that allows me to access the internet from my mobile phone for $7.00 per day. Naturally, I thought, I’m either going to use wifi or ask Rogers if they are going to waive this fee for travelers stuck abroad so I tweeted at them…

Related: How to Build Your Customer Experience Strategy (2020 Edition)

Not only did they respond the same day, but they also tweeted back within an hour. This is better than most companies do without an epidemic hurting operations.

After I tweeted at them I thought, 

“They will probably take a while to respond…” I thought this because I figured that their business is also being disrupted and they would need to cut labour hours in their contact centre (or whichever department manages their social media customer service). This wasn’t the case. My assumption is that they haven’t reduced labour hours, using a bot or they have a leaner team doing exceptional work.

Shortly after receiving their response on Twitter I also received a text message from them sharing the same messaging as they did on Twitter. They clearly have their communication strategy in place and are serving customers on multiple platforms.

Furthermore, today they announced that they will be waiving overage fees, give free access to some popular channels and they will not suspend services for customers experiencing financial hardship.

Whether you’re a small or large-sized organization you can do this too! Rogers made a decision that they weren’t going to price gouge customers while they were already feeling pain, they would respond to customers quickly and serve them on more than just one customer service communication channel.

Zoom: Earn a Profit…Under the Right Circumstances

Zoom is becoming my favourite company.

First, their purpose is very clear. As Scott Galloway profiled on his YogaBabble Index, Zoom is very clear on what their mission is: To make video communications frictionless.

The other day I came across a tweet that further reinforced that Zoom is a conscious capital-type company. In response to how they should market their product during Covid-19, their CEO, Eric Yuan, responded with,

“If you leverage this opportunity for money, I think that’s a horrible culture.”

I agree! I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t try to earn an income for yourself and employees. If you’re going to then do it this way:

• Cover your operating expenses.
• Find ways to use this income to help others.
• Enjoy a profit (if you can) but don’t take it too far.

Eric Yuan has also offered his company’s services to K-12 schools for free. Keep in mind, that this isn’t “free” for Zoom, they still have fixed and variable expenses to cover which adheres to bullet point #2 listed above.

This is conscious capitalism at its finest!

TruLocal: No Price Increase

TruLocal is a Canada-based meat delivery service. Essentially, every two weeks, I receive a box of locally-sourced proteins at my home.

Since I’m away, I wondered if they may need to discontinue their services because of supply chain reasons. If they did, I’d have to help Sophia (my girlfriend) with groceries from afar.

Similar to communicating with Rogers, I tweeted at TruLocal. Also, like Rogers, they responded back to my tweet on the same day.

This alone was relieving but what they did next was impressive. 

Since I’m a customer of theirs I received an email from them sharing an update and stating that they wouldn’t be increasing prices.

This is impressive for a few reasons:

• They could increase prices and I would have paid it because of the convenience of staying home and the poor consumer behaviours being shown at grocery stores.

• They aren’t capitalizing on their customer’s pain and vulnerability.

• They are focused on keeping services and prices at consistent prices. 

Now It’s Your Turn

Whether you’ve had to close your doors or are still operating, ask yourself,

“How can I reinforce the importance of customer experience by developing strategies, tactics and behaviours?”

For example, our marketing strategy will share at-home exercises hosted by one of our employees (this is not expected from a restaurant group) coupled with affordable and easy-to-make recipes at home.

Answer these two questions to truly understand your company’s position during these difficult times…

How do you want your company to be remembered before, during and after this global epidemic?

What can I do to behave like Rogers, Zoom and TruLocal?

Are you interested in improving your company culture, employee engagement, and customer experience? If so, my online course, Team Operating System, may be your solution.

Click this link to book a call with me directly to learn if the course is right for you and your company.