It’s clear that in the last few years, the global pandemic has created unique circumstances for business and IT leaders at small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Yet a relentless focus on customers can help build resilience and success.
In this 3rd episode of our 5-episode podcast, Essential Connections: The Business Owner’s Guide to Growth During Economic Uncertainty, we explore why success and resilience depend on high-quality customer engagement.
For MK, this focus is essential, especially for small- and medium-sized businesses.
“It's always been true, how well you connect with your customers. But now we're communicating with and supporting each other in ever more critical ways,” says MK. “All of us need those seamless interactions with each other. We used to be able to have these rich interactions when we were face to face. And now technology must pick up the slack.”
In fact, the importance of customer experience now trumps goals such as cutting costs as a deciding factor around IT investment, MK says.
“I think it's important to realize that just like all of us, our customers and our employees are experiencing uneasy times. It's almost like concentric circles of unease. And that has drastically changed the way they work, the way we work,” she says. “But expectations have only grown. Customers, employees, people, they value staying connected. The stakes are very high. We commissioned some research with Frost and Sullivan. And we found that nearly half of employees say they won't consider working for a company unless the company offers some flexibility.”
“Now consider how hard it is ... in this labor market ... to make hires. And you see why the stakes are super high,” she says. “With customers and employees – these are your two most valuable assets.”
Listen in to learn all the details, including MK’s actionable insights on how to prevent poor customer experience from undermining your company’s resilience.
Be sure to listen to other episodes in our series, Essential Connections: The Business Owner’s Guide to Growth During Economic Uncertainty, and learn how you can future-proof your business with agile IT leadership.
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