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Anticipating the New Normal: How Behaviors will Shift and How to Prepare

There is no doubt that we are in unprecedented times. Stay-at-home orders, drive-thru virus testing, social distancing, and sadly, death from a pandemic are just some of the things that are now part of our everyday lives that we couldn’t have conceived of six months ago. No one really knows when it will end, but an end will come. And when it does, there will be a new normal. Our perceptions, motivations, and behaviors will be forever changed by this crisis. How much will they change? No one knows yet, but it is something to start thinking about.

Consider the changes that have occurred in our world in just the last six weeks. Zoom has become a household word — I’ve even taught my 83-year-old mom how to use Zoom and Google Hangouts. In-home workouts have become a regular part of many folks’ lives. Schools across the nation have gone virtual. More people have scheduled video visits with their physicians in the last few weeks than ever before. Many of us are cooking from home far more than we typically would. Open houses, digital notary publics, and arts organizations have taken their work online. Will these and other new habits that we’ve all picked up become permanent in a post-COVID world? Likely not all of them, but many will be integrated into our lives.

So what is most likely to become permanent? The most significant changes have been around any business associated with the gathering of people. The majority are shut down — retail stores, dine-in restaurants, theatres, museums, airlines, and gyms. The numbers paint a picture — more than 250,000 stores are now closed temporarily, which accounts for 60% of retail square footage. As a result, Deborah Weinswig, the head of retail analyst Coresignt Research, believes that more than 15,000 stores will close this year. There will likely be many other changes. Will more meetings be virtual? Will more people work from home permanently? That could cut down on business travel and shrink the need for office space, while removing geographic boundaries in the job market and making it more competitive. Will this pandemic permanently increase the number of people who utilize convenience tools such as online shopping, as well as grocery and restaurant delivery? Time will tell.

So, while we can all speculate about what the new normal might look like, what is the best course forward for marketing, experience and strategy leaders? We must listen to those we serve. Just like the path to a new normal will be circuitous and full of uncertainty for our organizations, the same remains for our customers and potential customers. And to effectively serve them in the new normal, we can’t ignore them or their needs now. Their perceptions, motivations, and emotions will evolve quickly over the next weeks and months, and we’ll want to ensure that we are understanding those evolutions so we can pivot or change course when needed. Here are three things to consider:

1. Tracking Perceptions. Many organizations are conducting regular perception surveys around different verticals during this time of COVID-19. These provide an opportunity to track how people are approaching elements in their lives during this time and how those approaches and needs are evolving. One example is from Revive Health, who is publishing a regular survey on consumer’s healthcare communication preferences during this time of COVID-19. Another is from the Consumer Brands Association on perceptions attitudes around COVID-19 and shopping. There is likely a survey out there right now relevant to your business which will help you understand how your audiences and potential audiences are reacting to this current situation.
2. Listening. You have many channels to utilize in order to learn about your consumers’ perceptions and attitudes. Social media listening, call center transcripts, review sites, employee feedback and more. This is a time to take your listening program to the next level and ensure that you take advantage of every opportunity to understand how those you serve are perceiving your organization now and moving forward.
3. Engaging. As we start to see around the corner of this pandemic, we will begin to see what the new normal might look like. This will be the time to engage those you serve as well as potential new audiences to truly understand how their behaviors, motivations, perceptions and expectations around your organization have changed and will continue to change moving forward. This is the most effective way to gain the insight you need to design experiences for the new normal. You can do this through 1:1 interviews, workshops and design sprints. And yes, while in-person engagements will likely not be ideal for some time, there are virtual options that can be just as effective as in-person engagement. More on that in a future post.

By tracking perceptions and bolstering your consumer listening programs today, and preparing to engage your consumers as well as potential new consumers as we get closer to the new normal, your organization will be well prepared to hit the ground running with programs and experiences that meet your customers’ needs and drive the results you will be looking for.

None of us have experienced times like these, and we are all facing challenges from many directions. But, we will get through this. For inspiration, consider the book by Rebecca Solnit, “A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster.” The book looks at past disasters, including 9–11 and Hurricane Katrina, and provides examples of the opportunities, altruism, human resolve and meaningful work that have come out of those events. We’re already seeing similar examples over the past weeks, and here’s to seeing many more as we move towards the new normal.

Stay safe!