Why is Digital Worthiness More Important Than Ever?
Covid-19 has shaken the foundations of the business world. Priorities are increasingly changing as more and more people work from home. As a result, your customers want quicker, more seamless experiences online as they struggle to balance their home life with increased career pressures and new stressors.
If your website and products aren’t optimized for quick and efficient digital use, you’re going to lose customers. They want to see, at a glance, that your site will save them time – which saves them money. After all, no one has extra time right now to dither around on an ineffective website or use a product that glitches and fails, requiring additional time spent on a troubleshooting call.
Now, more than ever, you need to prove your digital worthiness.
What Do Customers Want After Covid-19?
More than ever, customers want to be taken care of by businesses that can meet their needs. This often means engaging them online with the latest digital capabilities and giving them a seamless and valuable experience. If your product or service can help them get their work done and make their life easier, they need to know about it.
But remember – while the modern customer doesn’t just sit back and wait for you to engage with them, it’s often a two-way street. Your company needs to reach out and let them know about your digital worthiness to build new relationships with customers and strengthen existing customer relationships.
- They want their research made easier
We all like to do at least some degree of research before investing in a new product or starting a relationship with a new service provider. Some of your potential customers are in the process of researching you right now, and they’re all looking for varying degrees of information and assurance that they’re making the right decision.
Showing them your digital worthiness by displaying an AT Rating allows them to see just how much you can benefit them, saving them time and helping them in their research. You’ve already started making their lives easier, and that’s a great first impression.
- They want meaningful social media engagement
Digital engagement is vital when building your brand because you can get more people involved from across different demographics and interest groups than ever before – primarily through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
People want to work with companies who have an active presence on social media because it makes them feel connected to the product and assures them help will be available when needed. With so many companies competing for your customers on social media, it makes sense to gain an edge by displaying your AT Rating prominently.
- They want you to save them time
With children constantly getting pinged for classroom COVID scares, people working from the chaos of their family homes, and more people caring for elderly or ailing parents, your customers are juggling more priorities than ever before. They’re on the lookout for solutions to their biggest problems – if you can give them more of their time back, they’ll reward you with loyalty.
- They want their basic needs met
With the uncertainty of the pandemic, people are often jumping from crisis to crisis. One day they’re dealing with a sick family member, and the next they’re queueing for fuel or wondering if their favorite products will be on grocery store shelves. A recent study from Accenture, the global IT expert, shows that “consumer priorities have become centered on the most basic needs, sending demand for hygiene, cleaning and staples products soaring, while non-essential categories slump.”
If your company provides basic needs and services, it’s time to build trust and prove your reliability to your customers. Even if you only offer luxury items or non-essential services, you can boost their confidence and make their lives easier by demonstrating that your company is digitally reliable.
- They want reassurance
Many people out there, including many business owners, have been through the wringer over the past months. People have lost jobs, clients, income, and loved ones. They’ve endured social isolation, emotional upheaval, and financial uncertainty. As a result, many are still dealing with trauma and grief that they may carry with them for a long time.
That’s where you can help. By reassuring your customers of your digital worthiness, you’re letting them know that they can rely on you and count on your products and digital platforms.
What You Can Do to Attract Post-Covid Customers
It’s clear that customer priorities have changed during the Covid-19 pandemic and that they will continue to change in the months and years ahead. So, what else can you do to cater to their new needs so that your business thrives in the post-Covid world?
- Rethink your customer personas
Your ideal customer may have changed a great deal over the past months. You might need to target entirely new demographics or rethink your current messaging to keep your existing customers.
Your customer person should include industry pain points, potential customer concerns, and general demographic and psychographic details. Think about their motivations, goals and objectives, and purchasing habits, ensuring that you’re addressing each one. You can gain this information from one-on-one interviews, customer surveys, and contests.
- Stay focussed on social media
As mentioned above, now is the time to stay focused on social media. As Duke University’s CMO Study recently found, 84% of companies are now using social media to build their brand, and more than half now use it for customer retention.
But of course, effective social media management is more complex than it seems. To effectively target your customers, you need to use your social media accounts as a tool to connect with them on their pain points. Think about their regular comments and questions and ensure you’re addressing their concerns. Seek your customers’ insights via polls, posts, questions, and surveys.
- Demonstrate your digital worthiness
As repeated throughout this article, your customers want reassurance that your website and products are up to their digital standards. They don’t have the patience, flexibility, or money to waste their valuable time on lagging, slow sites that require troubleshooting and constant updates. That’s why it’s essential to display your AT Rating – they can quickly and easily gain assurance that your site will meet their expectations.
Digital worthiness has never been more crucial for businesses of all sizes. As Covid-19 continues to go through peaks and waves worldwide, companies need to meet current customer needs while preparing for the end of the pandemic. That’s why you need to focus on getting your AT Rating, building your presence on social media, and doing everything you can to make your customers’ lives easier.
