Ways to Create Meaningful & Engaging Experiences with Customers

Several members of Acuity's Retail Team attended the virtual National Retail Federation 2021 – Retail's Big Show in January. Chewy CEO Sumit Singh presented his session insights around creating meaningful connections and engagement from both internal and external customers. The session was titled “Creature Comforts: Serving Customers’ Desire for Life’s Simple Pleasures.”

Singh described two key takeaways from 2020. The first was leadership focusing on people. He encouraged leading from the front, being authentic, and communicating frequently and honestly. Empower teams to do the right thing with both their coworkers and external customers by providing a virtual environment where collaboration and innovation occur without losing the human touch. The second takeaway was adapting to rapid innovation by launching new features and services to meet customers' needs. An organization’s culture during this time revealed either panic or innovation – your mission to win the hearts and minds of your customers is a tremendous strength.

In 2021 and looking ahead three to five years, he feels it’s essential to anticipate and plan for change, focusing on the following trends:

• Acceleration toward online – this shift will continue and be prominent.
• Reliance on tools and technology to offer better products and services to customers. Ask where the opportunities are to disrupt your own models and find a better way to service, innovate, and find better technology.
• People strategy – where is your business going to allow employees to work? At home, in the office, or a hybrid? Adaptability and flexibility are important.
• Focus on customers more than ever – they will have increased demands and expect great service.
• These retail shifts are permanent.

He encouraged companies and organizations to “live inside the details” to really know their customers. Listen closely to feedback and have mechanisms in place to work backward from their feedback to deliver your product in a closed loop manner. An example is reading customer reviews. If a defect is found, how is it being measured, monitored, and what is being done to fix it? This leads to customer-centric innovation. If customers don’t become loyal to your brand, you’ll lose them.

This was written by Aimee spatt, Acuity Claims Consultant.