COVID-19 is the biggest global event—and challenge—of our lifetimes. As such, it is changing human attitudes and behaviors today and forcing organizations to respond. However, the need to respond won’t end when the virus’s immediate threat eventually recedes.   Imagine it's September. Things are back to normal. We can meet face to face. Travel is possible. Toilet paper is easy to buy. But things have changed. COVID-19 has forever changed the experience of being a customer, employee, citizen, human. Expect to see behavior change at scale for some time to come.   What will have changed in the way we think? How will that affect the way we design, communicate, build and run the experiences that people need and want? The answers to these questions will lie in the way people react and how individuals, families and social groups—all sources of creative innovation—hack new ways to live. New behaviors trending now An essential first step is to understand the likely implications of COVID-19 on human experience then start to respond, today. We see five major human implications to expect from people’s behavior now and next which are likely to shape a New Human Experience.     01   The cost of confidence   An explicit message of COVID-19 is that other people/places can carry an invisible threat. Deciding on what to do—especially in relation to large decisions, such as holidays and where to live or work—is becoming a more anxious process. Many purchases are being postponed. All of this will make risk less tolerable and the familiar more valuable.   The erosion of confidence will make trust way more important than ever before. This will necessitate a “trust multiplier”—action that, to be effective, rebuilds trust quickly and credibly. Focus will be on confidence-building through every channel. Justifiable optimism will sell well. All of this may change the nature of what we regard as premium products and services.     02   The virtual century   The enforced shift during the worst of the pandemic to virtual working, consuming and socializing will fuel a massive and further shift to virtual activity for anything. It will affect ways of communicating across learning, working, transacting and consuming. This will impact everyone.   Adoption of digital by those yet to do so will be accelerated and a reduction of the obstacles to going virtual for any sort of experience will be required. Winners will be those who test and explore all of the associated creative possibilities. Anything that can be done virtually will be.     03   Every business is a health business   People are concluding that they cannot rely on existing health structures but, nonetheless, want all the help they can get, in every aspect of their lives. Health experiences will be in demand and, vice versa, health should be considered in every experience.   The concerns about health amplified during the crisis will not ebb after it is over. Rather, health will dominate. A health economy will emerge with opportunities for all to plug into. Every business will need to understand how it can be part of a new health ecosystem that will dominate citizen thinking.     04   Cocooning   Everyone being told to self-isolate means a return en masse to home as the epicenter of life and experience. At the height of the crisis, many—workers, especially—are spending more time at home. After, this pattern will endure with meaningfulness and comfort carrying a price premium.   There will be a rise in home spending—on the home and made at home as people will stay more local. Desire for cocooning, along with opportunities for those with creative strategies to enable it, will move center-stage. Winners will be those who zero their sights on the home.     05   The reinvention of authority   Dependence on experts and strong government recommendation—plus executive powers to start resolving the pandemic backed by citizen compliance—lends real weight to central authority, which in many markets has been eroded recently in popular culture. If governments get their handling of the crisis broadly right, expect top-down control to be back in fashion; if not, the reverse.   A reinvention of authority is likely after the effect of travel limitations, self-isolation and lockdown officially mandated by many governments. Greater acceptance for the role of government and companies in society, and the importance of collective behavior, may occur.     What to do   Next   Any organization—wherever in the world it is, whatever its customer base—must commit to the continuous process of an Experience Audit, based on a deep understanding of behavior change.   Having understood how the New Human Experience impacts on their audience, they should then respond. To respond effectively, organizations must:   01 Become a good listener   Hearing the early signals from customers in terms of what they want and how they feel is already important but set to become even more so. In the same way, an organization’s ability to respond to these signals quickly and appropriately will be business-critical. 02 Pivot experiences   At every point, take account of the new customer reality. This is not a one off: Behavior change will continue as the new plays out. Develop a tight interlock between listening and pivoting as a core business habit. 03 Learn from customers   Individuals, families and social groups are all sources of creative innovation adept at hacking new ways to live. Already, people are responding to COVID-19 by innovating for themselves. Watch that innovation closely and use it as a source of creativity for innovation in your business. 04 Reassess brand and business   Organizations must be bold and ask if their brand or business is future-fit for the “new normal” into which the world will settle once the crisis has passed. FOR ALL ORGANIZATIONS, THE FORMULA IS CLEAR: LISTEN, PIVOT, LEARN, REASSESS.         Brian Whipple CEO Accenture Interactive Mark Curtis Innovation Lead Accenture Interactive Martha Cotton Managing Director North America Accenture Interactive Bronwyn van der Merwe Managing Director Growth Markets Accenture Interactive     Originally posted on accenture.com ... View more

COVID-19 is a global pandemic, evolving at unprecedented speed and scale. It is creating a universal imperative for governments and organizations to take immediate action to protect their people.   Self-quarantine. Social distancing. Community spread. These formerly obscure terms are now everyday words. New habits and behaviors are forming that in many cases are not likely to go away after the crisis passes.   For customers, the most immediate impact is fear, not just for their personal health but also for the economic impact.     And while the impact to the economy is not fully known, both Direct-to-Consumer and B2B organizations are scrambling to meet the immediate needs of their marketplaces.   In particular, those who have viewed digital commerce as a secondary channel now need to reorient every aspect of their business towards a digital commerce mindset. There exists an opportunity to double-down on digital commerce, augmenting existing offerings and creating new lines of service.   While this represents an opportunity to grow revenue, attract new customers and drive channel shift, it depends on digital channels and capabilities having appropriate scale and stability to handle the crush.   Businesses must flex quickly to capture the opportunity; systems must be prepared to withstand the increased loads and actions must be implemented with pace. Below are immediate actions that they can take:   WITHIN 24 HOURS Rapid Customer & Channel Immersion   Rapid cross-functional style assessment of current issues, shifting consumer patterns, value chain breakage/pain points.   Identify critical individuals to give missing details on the major issues across the value chain. WITHIN 72 HOURS Product Strategy & Prioritization   Triage and group the issues, pain points, and opportunities into a prioritized product backlog. Customer research identifies new patterns, marketplace strategy established to align with shifts in demand, supply chain audit completed, technology ecosystem partnerships identified.​ WITHIN 5 DAYS Product Teams Deployed   Initial pilot plan established at the conclusion of Week 1 sprint. Deployment of MVP in Initial Channel(s) (i.e. ”Hub”) with minimum required features to test strain on systems.   Identify marketing needs to drive awareness and demand. WITHIN 14 DAYS Optimization     Analyze data from MVP based on initial consumer response and strain on existing supply chain or systems.   Dependencies outlined and optimized. Prepare for full launch at the conclusion of Sprint 2. NEXT Scale & Sprint     Scale the launch of the successful pilot product/channels.   Begin the next sprint based on the prioritized backlog.   Three imperatives to take on the Now and the Next The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly accelerating the digital commerce pivot globally, forcing business to revisit and even reimagine their strategy in the interest of capturing new marketplace opportunities and their fair share of new digital customer segments.   REASSURE   How do I REASSURE my customers and employees during this uncertain time? STABILIZE   How do I STABILIZE digital operations with frictionless transactions and the capacity to handle increased demand? RECONFIGURE   How do I RECONFIGURE my products, services, and markets and establish new partnerships and ecosystems to retain new and existing customers?       Reassure your customers and employees There is unprecedented confusion on what, where and how to buy things—customers are concerned about who to buy from, if they’re paying a fair price or even if they’ll be able to find the essentials they need.   As a result, they are gravitating towards companies that are truthful, transparent and driven by a clear purpose.   These principles extend through customer channels and their engagement with retailers, as well as into Business-to-Business relationships and how companies work with their distributors, wholesalers, or manufacturing direct suppliers.   Companies who can demonstrate these attributes will deliver a differentiated level of customer service and make themselves more relevant and connected to their customers—old and new—on an ongoing basis.   What’s   going on New consumers digitally engaging with your brand will bring about a different set of expectations and new opportunities to build trust and relevance. Beyond unpredictable sales through unpredictable channels, direct-to-consumer companies must contend with other unknowns, like new buyers in a household. In B2B, with the unpredictability in the product supply chain and distribution channels, manufacturers are looking to expand their strategy to move closer to end consumers. Many organizations have offered crisis-related accommodations to their customers that show true empathy about the hardships faced by so many. And companies are also looking at how they can help broader communities. Some companies are straying outside of their core business models and repurposing their assets to assist the greater human cause.   How to action   Now , what to consider   Next   01. Reassess your employee and customer policies in line with your brand purpose and values Define your role on how you can help people in this time of crisis. This could be as simple as rethinking your corporate policies to make them more relevant in today’s world. Suspending refund exchange windows, for example, when customers are having a harder time keeping up with daily life. Perhaps allow inventory priority to the vulnerable or locations more directly impacted by COVID-19.   02. Rally leaders around consistent communication Establish strong communication governance, guiding principles and tone. Leaders throughout the organization need to be in sync. Create the feedback loop so you can pivot and progress with pace.   03. Identify opportunities to provide special assistance to key communities Every channel, touchpoint and piece of content matters. Brands need to do an experience audit to make sure that they are sending a consistent and reassuring message, building on customer confidence and deepening trust. For example, parents with infants will have different questions and concerns than those with high-schoolers or grandparents who are empty-nesters. Be helpful and let them know the precautions that you have undertaken to protect peoples’ safety and be sure to rework your service content to ensure it continues to be relevant. An example of a company learning from previous epidemics is Alibaba, which launched a special senior-friendly version of its Taobao shopping app in 2018 with large print and a function that allows children to pay for their parents’ shopping.   04. Initiate an audit of your commerce experience to ensure it properly represents your brand Realizing that commerce has become your primary channel in which to do business, you must ensure that the commerce experience is more than a transaction engine for goods and services: It needs to appropriately represent your brand position and what you stand for as a business.   05. Establish a responsive listening and center Businesses that are keeping up with their customers are scaling  rapid response capabilities properly , by asking the right questions, analyzing the data, and then meeting customers where they are by acting on real-time predictive insights. And by putting this listening infrastructure in place now, businesses will be able to adapt practices over time, making them more relevant and connected to their customers on an ongoing basis.       Stabilize your digital channels, platforms and infrastructure Imagine the accelerated demand of Cyber Monday, every day for the foreseeable future. The latest figures from the USDA’s Economic Research Service found that in 2018, food purchased away from home in the US accounted for 54 percent of total food expenditure.   With the closure of cafes, restaurants, bars and hotels and the grounding of airlines, much of this demand will need to be met by the grocery sector, online. That’s the new reality as mass quarantines and unpredictable retail stock availability cause online commerce to skyrocket. While this represents an opportunity to grow revenue, attract new customers and drive channel shift, it depends on digital channels and capabilities having appropriate scale and stability to handle the crush. Businesses must flex quickly to capture the opportunity, and systems must be prepared to withstand the increased loads.   What’s   going on New consumers digitally engaging with your brand will bring about a different set of expectations and new opportunities to build trust and relevance. Beyond unpredictable sales through unpredictable channels, direct-to-consumer companies must contend with other unknowns, like new buyers in a household. Many organizations have offered crisis-related accommodations to their customers that show true empathy about the hardships faced by so many. Companies are also looking at how they can help broader communities. Some companies are straying outside of their core business models and repurposing their assets to assist the greater human cause. In B2B, with the unpredictability in the product supply chain and distribution channels, manufacturers are looking to expand their strategy to move closer to end consumers.     How to action   Now , what to consider   Next 01. Establish a Virtual Control hub Supported by rapidly putting together a cross-functional team to tackle critical business issues and monitor KPIs, clear ownership of responsibilities established, and members empowered to drive the response end-to-end. This virtual War Room will not only allow you to more aggressively handle the current chaos in the digital commerce marketplace, but it will lay the foundation for a “Commerce Control Tower”.   02. Run a UX Customer Journey assessment Optimize the customer’s path to purchase or other task completion. This is a quick and efficient way to improve customer satisfaction and boost online revenue. For example, UK online grocer Ocado introduced a “virtual queuing system” to help manage demand as its site experienced a reported 1000 percent increase in traffic.   03. Conduct a Marketing ROI assessment to optimize channel mix and redeploy investments Effectively meet shopper lifestyles and take advantage of current dynamics in online ordering, in-store pick up vs. in-store purchase. Where can enhancements be made across segment/audience targeting to reach new and emerging segments?   04. Reestablish supply chain visibilities and KPIs Bring early visibility to bigger downstream issues . This will allow teams to focus on the more immediate and critical bottlenecks, as well as lay the groundwork for exploring more modern Applied Intelligence and Automation solutions in the long term. This applies not only to B2C, but to B2B’s that are being greatly disrupted by factory slow-down due to workforce furloughing or redeployment.       Reconfigure and extend your products, services, merchandise, partnerships and ecosystems With the closure of retail establishments, and the disruption of supply chains, the rules for merchandise and inventory have fundamentally shifted. Historical data on what sells online vs. offline is out the window. Companies now have a lot of inventory that they are sitting on in retail outlets that they need to figure out how to get online.   Businesses that have historically invested in digital commerce sales tools will likely have an easier time adjusting to this new, digital first economy, while those that have only made moderate strides will be more greatly disrupted. For example, traditional auto auction houses are shutting down, while on-line auctions are fast becoming the norm—even in a reduced volume business, those that are digital-prepared are seeing increases.   What’s   going on Hoarding and low inventory levels. New markets and ecosystems are opening up. Businesses will be forced to revisit their customer engagement strategy. Companies are rebalancing their merchandising. Groceries, restaurants and other food outlets. Workforces are being redeployed. Brands are getting closer to the new demand cycle to rebalance inventory. Manufacturing is also stabilizing operations amid big demand shifts. Within B2B, social distancing and travel restrictions that limit traditional high-touch sales processes have accelerated a need for “low or no-touch” purchasing.     How to action   Now , what to consider   Next Many organizations – especially B2B companies who have traditionally been less digital sales focused – must now   01. Build your virtual aisle with an assortment assessment Look for inventory that can be moved quickly and efficiently online from your offline locations. Analyze the delta between what you offer and what the public needs to outline strategic areas to address next. Serve existing customers with their adjusted needs as well as new customers with new products.   02. Assess your workforce utilization to balance capacity and skills with new demands Analytics that will help companies understand where they need to move should be deployed now, including call center, triage, and proactive reach-out.   03. Rapidly update digital content Your digital shelf and product catalogue must be refreshed with all the key product information, including features, ingredients, imagery and more so that it is as good—or better—than the physical shelf. Additionally, you will need to do multivariant testing to optimize for different customer segments.   04. Analyze Pricing and Promotions to optimize investment in price promotions across key customers and regions Understand where discount levels are necessary due to shifts in elasticities, and if pricing needs to be adjusted in the short term to take advantage of changes in consumer shopping dynamics.   05. Deploy off-the-shelf solutions to quickly get inventory online and establish digital as your primary sales channel In the shortterm extending sales through marketplaces like Amazon, WalMart, or eBay can be a quick way to drive incremental revenue and create new long-term revenue streams. If it’s your first digital marketplace endeavor, be sure to focus on high-impact products that are easily fulfilled.   06. Extend your distribution partner ecosystem Assess the distribution methods that are quickly being adopted to ensure you are adapting to remain relevant. Explore new partners and distribution networks for national and local delivery. And look at new partners for local delivery, like Uber, Instacart, Task Rabbit and Shipt.   07. Evaluate new immersive media opportunities To identify areas where physical “high-touch” sales is still the norm, and look at ways of digitally automating or replicating the experience. US Apparel retailer Alice and Olivia is now offering personal shopping via facetime.   We do know for certain that business as usual has been disrupted significantly, and in many cases, permanently.   Yet, there is an opportunity to double down on digital commerce as customers rapidly change their shopping patterns and habits. As organizations adapt, their watchwords must be trust, relevance and convenience.     We do know for certain that business as usual has been disrupted significantly, and in many cases, permanently.   Yet, there is an opportunity to double down on digital commerce as customers rapidly change their shopping patterns and habits. As organizations adapt, their watchwords must be trust, relevance and convenience.   John Zealley Senior Managing Director Marketing Advisory Accenture Interactive Nevine El Warraky Managing Director Marketing Advisory Accenture Interactive Eric Buss Managing Director Digital Technology Growth Strategy Lead Accenture Interactive Jeff Ryan Managing Director Global Ecosystem Strategy Lead Accenture Interactive Sid Goyal Digital Business Integration Executive, Growth Markets Mohammed Sirajudeen Managing Director Growth Markets     Originaly posted on accenture.com    View full report below ... View more

The sudden emergence of COVID-19 is requiring that brands move at unprecedented speed to serve their customers with quality while caring for their employees with compassion. Brands are required to re-evaluate how contact centers are leveraged, how contact center employees deliver quality customer experiences, where contact center employees work, and how digital channels can be used to support the increase in contact center volume. Leaders must make swift, insight-informed decisions to support their contact center employees while maintaining and earning customer trust.   The emotional state of consumers and businesses adds to the challenge. But the combination of fear, uncertainty and frustration presents brands with both new risks and opportunities. Providing compassionate customer service will likely generate an outsized increase in positive brand perception and customer loyalty post-crisis. Conversely, inaccessible, ineffective or uncaring responses are likely to drive an equally pronounced negative reaction.   During times of crisis, contact centers are crucial. Customers prefer live interaction when they want answers to urgent and complex issues:   57% of customers ranked call support as their initial channel preference for flexible communication, wanting an opportunity to ask, explain, reason or negotiate with customer service. 58% more customers prefer to solve urgent issues by calling for support rather than use other channels.   However, organizations are often ill-prepared to react to a significant and sudden increase in call volumes. In the context of COVID-19, that increase is combined with the risk of having to suddenly shift to remote work-from-home models and protect a workforce in a high-risk environment. It’s an unprecedented challenge that will require swift action.   Within 48 hours Assess your current state. Using a rapid technology assessment framework, analyze your current technology capabilities and what a remote contact center will require across your network, platforms and security protocols.   Within 72 hours Identify how you can leverage your existing contact center technologies to enable new workforce needs. Work collaboratively with technology platform providers to flex licensing and take advantage of out-of-the-box platform capabilities.   Within 5 days Implement measures to drive digital channel adoption for your customers and scale up your existing virtual agent capability to deflect calls away from the contact center.   Within 2 weeks Plan how you will repurpose your workforce in physical locations to maintain customer and business continuity. Scale up new virtual agent capabilities and digital channels.   Going forward Continue to evolve and refine your contact center strategy, capabilities and channel mix. Identify what crisis-driven measures should be retained in the “new normal” and the right choices to maximize day-to-day operations sustainably and flexibly during disruption.   Companies are urgently asking how to handle the impact on their contact centers and keep their customer service workforce safe. They want to know:   How can I reduce customer wait times and manage customer frustration? How to deflect or redistribute contact volumes to control average wait times? What can I quickly automate? How should I enhance my digital channels? How do I manage my workforce if physical work locations are no longer viable? How can I offer the same level of customer support and workforce productivity when agents work from home? Can I extend access to the necessary tools and secure networks for remote workers? How can I maintain the trust of both my workforce and my customers?   These are tough questions. The risks of execution failure are higher than normal. But companies can take immediate action to create capacity in their contact center, enable consistent quality for their customers, and care for their people in the face of the crisis.   While actions should be taken at different variations based on a company’s unique situation, when done correctly, they can effectively respond to the immediate needs created by COVID-19 and realize a longer-term benefit from increased customer brand perception and loyalty.   To respond to the evolving circumstances of the COVID-19 crisis, we recommend contact center executives address three critical areas:   Adopt new ways of working: Contact centers + remote access Rapidly stand up the infrastructure, management systems and processes required to support an effective remote workforce. Improve contact center management: Data, workflow and analytics Harness data and analytics to inform an agile, responsive and relevant approach to addressing customer needs and support. Reprioritize and sequence customer support so that the most critical needs are addressed first, with non-critical contacts deflected to digital. Augment and automate service: Virtual agents Stand up or enhance virtual agent capabilities to support COVID-19 specific requests or growing BAU volume.     Adopt new ways of working: Contact centers + remote access Hundreds or even thousands of individuals work together in contact centers, often in confined spaces that make them particularly susceptible to COVID-19. Companies will soon have to enable home working for these teams. This imperative, however, comes with real challenges. It may be one of the best ways to avoid workplace transmission of COVID-19, but working from home at scale is uncharted territory.   As described in Productivity in Uncertain Times through the Elastic Digital Workplace, enabling the home-based workforce means addressing a number of key technology, process and people issues.   The cornerstone of the work-from-home model is the right secure technology. To create a consistent workforce experience, companies must (where possible) replicate the contact center technology environment at home. Demands on networking infrastructures will be unprecedented. Companies must be ready to address failures in the distributed network environment that may lead to performance issues and/or outages.   Beyond technology, companies must also address several people- and process-related issues. Getting people rapidly up to speed will require virtual training and change management programs to educate workers on the use of new technologies, processes, policies and collaboration toolsets. Leaders will then have to define new methods and rules for collaboration to maintain productivity and effectiveness in the new, distributed environment.   Caring for the workforce must be balanced with business continuity efforts and servicing customers. Leaders must realize that this is an unprecedented situation and unique considerations must be accommodated such as caring for family health and for children and managing wellness. They must also navigate the delicate balance of redeploying agents (sometimes at massive scale) while also managing significant spikes in workload.   Fully acknowledging that this process will be difficult and risky, we recommend the following priority actions to stand up a successful remote contact center model:     Establish infrastructure   including connectivity, secure laptops and software licensing to enable work-from-home models. Enhance management systems   by optimizing contact routing configurations, extending ancillary systems to new scenarios and enabling end-to-end security with a “Zero Trust” model.     Look after your people   by conducting rapid training needs analysis, creating community and collaboration and checking in daily to calibrate on the new ways of working and care for team mindsets. Modify processes   to implement clear policies, update internal schedules, processes and metrics and reflect changes in published customer-facing information.       Leaders that can make the shift to a partial or full work-from-home model will be better able to minimize business disruption and serve their customers. Additionally, they will help reduce potential revenue loss, forge new levels of trust with their workforce, and position their businesses for renewed growth once the pandemic subsides. Improve contact center management: Data, workflow and analytics As COVID-19 runs its course, now is the time for companies to take full advantage of their data to predict the changing needs of customers and the internal workforce. Combining this with a more agile approach to managing work and the workforce will enable contact centers to meet customer demand most effectively during such unprecedented volatility.   Traditional call volume forecasts should be enhanced with patterns seen in other challenging times and contextual data. Other sources of data that should also be included: customer demographic and geographic data; impact on customers from company actions; timing of communications; contact behavioral trends from COVID-19 in other geographies; crowdsourced data direct from agents and publicly-available data (e.g. changes to supply of goods, local service availability and local and national issued guidance). Using predictive analytics with this data will prepare the operations teams to best match volumes with the available workforce. For most companies, creating predictive views of demand will require new levels of organizational collaboration.   The same approach should be taken to evaluate workforce supply. Factors like workforce demographics and school/childcare closures will impact attendance. These coupled with analysis of COVID-19 intensity, estimated rate of spread and duration should all be factored into a predictive forecast to estimate deviations from planned workforce supply.   To bring together a predictive view of supply and demand with an agile approach to supporting customers, we recommend setting up a virtual command center. Its members should include data scientists and business function representation from Sales, Marketing, Customer Experience, HR, Contact Center Operations leadership, Workforce Management, Reporting/Analytics, Technology and Telephony teams. These groups should all collaborate, sharing internal data and identifying relevant external data sources. All stakeholders should share insights into upcoming company actions that will impact customers, daily customer contact trends, industry or market-relevant insights along with customer topics and sentiments trending on social media.   The command center should generate insights that will enable the organization to redefine roles and process handoffs within the organization as needed to balance supply/demand needs. It should review contact center demand and supply forecasts and align on expected and worst-case scenarios that the contact center may have to handle. These should be reviewed and updated throughout the day.   It is important to care for your people while you care for your business. And, keep in mind the impact of the crisis on your employees mentality throughout the disruption period. Some accommodations may be required to help offset the impacts on their lives to enable optimal customer service. These may include enabling the workforce with the latest information, ensuring frequent communication of daily changes that have customer impacts, and making time every day to celebrate jobs well done.   How customer service and responsiveness can be improved during COVID-19:   Address the most critical contacts first   and handle the less urgent but important contacts with tools such as callback assist. Lean on analytics to inform agile workforce planning, modify IVR menus and messaging, and adjust the prioritization and distribution logic on existing platforms. Activate and augment alternative support channels.   Identify customer needs that can be shifted, use queue messaging to address quick FAQs and increase awareness of other options. Queue messaging can even help to move customers directly into other channels, such as digital, asynchronous messaging and virtual agents.     Use the workforce differently.   Make temporary changes to the operating model to support the right mix of proactive and reactive customer needs, shift agents to flexibly support inbound and outbound contacts and capture customer preferences for communications as COVID-19 progresses. Do the work differently   by utilizing more collaboration tools, delivering field service virtually with the use of photos, chat or video chat and creating more guided help and proactive communications as policies evolve.   Most importantly, care for your people while you care for your business. Understand the workforce mindset throughout the disruption period to ensure any impacts on their lives won’t undermine optimal customer service. Enable the workforce with the latest information, ensure frequent communication of daily changes that have customer impacts, and make time every day to celebrate jobs well done. Augment and automate service: Virtual agents Before the COVID-19 crisis, the expression “The best service is no service” held true. When customers serve themselves—or better yet—have issues resolved for them, satisfaction is at its highest and operational costs are minimized.   Right now, customer contacts are at an all-time high. Some industries are experiencing new customer intents specifically related to COVID-19. But volume increases are not limited to the virus alone. The continued disruption of daily life is driving spikes in other types of inquiries, such as payment extensions, travel cancelations, late fees, unemployment benefits and stock inquiries… each with varying levels of urgency.   Artificial Intelligence (AI) channels for customer service have never been so critical. But what about organizations that have yet to achieve maturity in this area? With volumes spiking and the contact center workforce being disrupted, now is the time to double-down on AI and create a multi-speed human and machine workforce. Virtual agents, built using AI technology, offer customers instant, on-demand service. They provide automated support, deliver a conversational experience, and can handle the same intents as human agents. They can both understand and satisfy individual customer needs. Regardless of their maturity, organizations can still harness virtual solutions to relieve the pressure on contact volumes.   For those with established virtual agent programs scaling up AI-powered support is now an imperative:   Expand existing virtual agent environments   with prioritized intents, urgency triaging and 24/7 activation. It is vital that human agents are available to focus on the most complex and valuable customer needs and that automation can handle everything else. Deploy COVID-19 specific virtual agents for public service use cases.   Define new intents, build on existing solutions and ensure content relevancy with the rapidly evolving global situation.   For those without established virtual agent programs, all is not lost:   Quickly stand up one-way virtual agents.   To do this, focus on the volume that matters most, start simple with informational experiences and partner for success with vendors who have prebuilt environments. Maximize the success for new virtual agents   by adopting open architecture principles, including prioritization of configuration over coding, use of a federated/broker bot model and a focus on modular design.   In addition to using AI virtual assistants to provide more customer support,   AI Human Assist   is another critical capability that can be implemented within days to handle demand and improve the customer experience. AI Human Assist creates a mechanism to convert phone traffic to chat and provides access to digital experts, building significant capacity to resolve customer inquiries. AI supported agents are empowered with up-to-date and relevant information in real time with robust conversational coverage and detection of emerging topics. TAKE ACTION: Now and Next The impact from COVID-19 is evolving daily, and this changing landscape means that guidance, restrictions and policies are also continuously being updated or adjusted. Every deferred decision has real consequences for customers, the workforce and the business. Time is of the essence.   The following actions should be taken now in order to quickly and effectively create remote contact center operations:   Adopt new ways of working: Contact centers + remote access.   Fully acknowledging that this process will be difficult and risky, we recommend the following priority actions to stand up a successful remote contact center model: Establish infrastructure   including connectivity, secure laptops and software licensing to enable work-from-home models. Enhance management systems   by optimizing contact routing configurations, extending ancillary systems to new scenarios and enabling end-to-end security with a “Zero Trust” model. Look after your people   by conducting rapid training needs analysis, creating community and collaboration and checking in daily to calibrate on the new ways of working and care for team mindsets. Modify processes   to implement clear policies, update internal schedules, processes and metrics and reflect changes in published customer-facing information. Improve contact center management: Data, workflow, analytics.   We recommend some key actions to best serve customer demand throughout the duration of COVID-19: Address the most critical contacts first   and handle the less urgent but important contacts with tools such as callback assist. Lean on analytics to inform agile workforce planning, modify IVR menus and messaging, and adjust the prioritization and distribution logic on existing platforms. Activate and augment alternative support channels.   Identify customer needs that can shifted, use queue messaging to address quick FAQs and increase awareness of other options. Queue messaging can even help to move customers directly into other channels, such as digital, asynchronous messaging and virtual agents. Use the workforce differently.   Work with your account and contract teams to see where you can make temporary changes to the operating model to support the right mix of proactive and reactive customer needs, shift agents to flexibly support inbound and outbound contacts and capture customer preferences for communications as COVID-19 progresses. Do the work differently   by utilizing more collaboration tools, delivering field service virtually with the use of photos, chat or video chat and creating more guided help and proactive communications as policies evolve. Augment and automate service: Virtual agents.   For those with established virtual agent programs scaling up AI-powered support is now an imperative: Expand existing virtual agent environments   with prioritized intents, urgency triaging and 24/7 activation. It is vital that human agents are available to focus on the most complex and valuable customer needs and that automation can handle everything else. Deploy COVID-19 specific virtual agents for public service use cases.   Define new intents, build on existing solutions and ensure content relevancy with the rapidly evolving global situation. For those without established virtual agent programs, all is not lost: Quickly stand up one-way virtual agents.   To do this, focus on the volume that matters most, start simple with informational experiences and partner for success with vendors who have prebuilt environments. Maximize the success for new virtual agents   by adopting open architecture principles, including prioritization of configuration over coding, use of a federated/broker bot model and a focus on modular design. Explore developing an AI Human Assist,   which is another critical capability that can be implemented within days to handle demand and improve the customer experience. AI Human Assist creates a mechanism to convert phone traffic to chat and provides access to digital experts, building significant capacity to resolve customer inquiries. AI supported agents are empowered with up-to-date and relevant information in real time with robust conversational coverage and detection of emerging topics.   Once organizations have these capabilities in place, they should next focus on the following longer-term actions:   Scale at pace.   None of the capabilities described here are built perfectly overnight. In fact, in all cases where Accenture has implemented contact center analytics or virtual assistant capabilities, MVP solutions were put in place initially and were evolved or extended over time, based on lessons learned. Getting started is critical. Evolving is to be expected. Continuous learning is the name of the game. Reimagine the future.   The current environment is accelerating future trends. Post-crisis, companies will need to continue to build on capabilities they have stood up in crisis mode as a sustainable and evolving part of their business. Prioritize choices that align to long-term business strategy (in addition to urgent needs) and innovate solutions that can sustain for the long-term.   The response to this crisis is likely to accelerate the future of customer experience in categories such as agent agility, channel choice, real-time workforce management and prevalence of AI virtual agents. And while experts don’t know how long it will take to contain the virus, leaders must prepare for the short-term, while developing new capabilities and ways of working that could seamlessly enable longer-term operational changes.     Dawn Anderson Senior Managing Director, Global Lead, Customer, Sales & Service Stephanie Arnette Managing Director, Global Lead, Accenture Technology Customer, Sales & Service Lan Guan Managing Director, Accenture Applied Intelligence Danielle Moffat Managing Director, Intelligent Sales and Customer Operations Offering Lead, Accenture Operations     Originally posted on accenture.com ... View more

What’s happening? The COVID-19 pandemic presents a serious threat to people, businesses and economies across the world.   Gartner’s recent Business Continuity Survey   shows just 12 percent of organizations are highly prepared for the impact of coronavirus. Smart leaders must focus on how they can best protect their people, serve their customers and stabilize business continuity.   During times of crisis, business operations—the intelligence engine of an organization—are more important than ever. Business continuity and disaster recovery plans are being tested by rapidly evolving challenges, such as travel restrictions, and as large-scale remote working becomes a reality.   Just 12% of organizations are highly prepared for the impact of coronavirus, according to Gartner’s recent Business Continuity Survey.   32% of senior executives rarely update their operating model, according to initial data from an ongoing Intelligent Operations survey by Accenture and Oxford Economics.   Act now Organizations must respond rapidly and robustly to maintain business continuity. Accenture recommends the following:   PREVENT: What to do now Take immediate steps to ensure the safety and well-being of employees. Prioritize actions that put your people first and exploit the capabilities that global business services offer: Enable people to work and connect with colleagues from diverse and secure locations and create safe working environments through regular sanitization. De-densify workspaces, curb large meetings and ensure that protocols are followed in canteens, elevators and areas of common use. Limit all non-essential business travel and client visits and align with local health and safety guidelines.       PREPARE: What to do next Identify priority processes and establish a command center. Take actions to meet the needs of your key stakeholders: Identify priorities and critical processes, including functions such as employee payroll, healthcare and supply chain (to keep goods moving and services ongoing); also, highly important processes and other services such as payments, and necessary services in healthcare, insurance and banking. Establish a command center for a virtual workforce to measure quality, productivity, compliance, insights and intelligence, people engagement and workforce well-being.       PREDICT: What to do for the longer term Be proactive and create a customer-oriented plan that is sustainable. Prioritize actions that help you pre-empt the impact of volatility: Bring together highly skilled, distributed teams that can log in anytime, anywhere and deliver on customer commitments at scale. Build a broader ecosystem around the organization’s workforce to enable collaboration across a broader set of priorities—including healthcare and childcare. This will lead to improved morale and engagement levels resulting in better business outcomes.     Remember, empathetic leadership and communications are two key areas that aid human resilience in difficult times.     Where next? Here are five ways to help your organization achieve intelligent, resilient operations:   1. Establish a resilient culture Organizations should continue to execute work in a   collaborative manner—with critical knowledge workers augmented by digital capabilities.   2. Create broader ecosystems based on social collaboration Move beyond employee workspaces to broader ecosystems that employees can access, such as healthcare or childcare.   3. Employ agile, elastic workplace models The best combination of   working from home and the office, depending on the nature and type of work and relevant skills required, can be enabled by technology, data, security and cloud computing.   4. Build a human+machine workforce Make transactional processes more digital and focus on value-led, proactive operations driven by data and analytics to reduce stress on operations.   5. Adopt a distributed global services model Use a mixture of service models to de-risk the organization in a volatile world. Distributed global services mean that high performance can be delivered anytime, anywhere.       Kaushal Mody Lead – Operations, Growth & Strategy, Lead – Operations, Offerings & Innovation Paul Jeruchimowitz Managing Director – Global Lead, Intelligent Operating Model and Zero-Based Organization         Originally posted on accenture.com ... View more

The state of COVID-19 for Retail COVID-19 is an unprecedented public health emergency that is rapidly transforming the way we all live our lives. It is also mandating significant changes to retail and commerce. In this dynamic time of humanitarian and social uncertainty, what we buy, how we buy, and when and where we buy is undergoing a seismic shift.   Retailers are serving their communities on the frontline, where the health and safety of customers, employees, and partners remains paramount. Retailers must put responsibility at the heart of their operations and act now to address the far-reaching implications of COVID-19 on their businesses.   How retailers can respond—now Retail’s distributed workforce leaves the industry vulnerable to employee safety concerns and workforce management challenges. The most immediate hurdles? Dealing with changes to operating norms in physical stores and supply chains, as well as the sudden migration of corporate employees to remote working.   The first step in response is for   retail leaders   to ensure the health and safety of frontline, store employees, as they deal with the general public.   Embedding resilience in supply chains   is critical step number two. Disruption to supply chains as a result of COVID-19 is sending shock waves through the industry and the impact is already severe. The third is to enable an   elastic digital workplace   that supports and protects employees in corporate headquarters, but also minimizes business disruption. In the short term, activating a business continuity strategy will depend on one question: in this time of crisis, do customers consider your products and services a “need to have” or a “nice to have”?   Retailers must put responsibility at the heart of their operations and act now to address the far-reaching implications of COVID-19 on their businesses.   Priorities for retailers of essential goods and services Radically different lifestyles and working patterns caused by self-isolation, social distancing and homeworking mean consumers will prioritize spending on the essentials: food, health, hygiene, household cleaning, as well as online entertainment and exercise services. Some retailers in these essential categories need to meet unprecedented demand that exceeds even holiday levels. For these retailers, the key priorities are:   Ensure the health and safety of employees in-store, in DCs and those doing last-mile delivery. Manage store opening hours to allow for cleaning and sterilization, to protect shoppers and employees. Ensure the timely replenishment of essential products on store shelves and rationing volume purchases to ensure provision for all customer groups. Meet increased labor requirements to accommodate higher demand for ecommerce, click-and-collect, delivery and DC operations. Adopt new digital experiences for consumers by entering into 'personal contactless' delivery of goods, either directly to home or for curb-side pickup.     Challenges for retailers of non-essential goods and services As stores, offices and manufacturing facilities close down across the world to manage the spread of coronavirus, retailers operating in segments like apparel, beauty, luxury goods, and home improvement face different challenges:   Manage financial impacts of temporary store and office closures (even with offers of government subsidies, in many countries). Leverage new connectivity tools and ways of working to support corporate staff working remotely. Scale ecommerce operations and switch focus to digital consumers experiences and inventory levels, as consumers turn to online ordering and home delivery. Create strategies to manage inventory stuck in closed stores and ports that needs to be moved to make way for next season’s product. Adopt scenario planning with value chain partners for global supply chain disruptions likely to impact sourcing, manufacturing, and logistics.   What's next for the retail industry? The realignment of purchasing priorities, personal lifestyles, and working practices forced on us all by the COVID-19 pandemic may represent a seismic shift in the   retail industry. Consumer adoption of technology-enabled commerce is likely to deepen and broaden permanently, even in segments like grocery which have to date resisted the large-scale migration from stores to online seen elsewhere. Values-driven buying behavior accelerated by this crisis will become the norm. The appetite for digitally enabled retail models will grow.   The retailers that are most adaptable to change will be best positioned to ride out the immediate challenges and build stronger, more customer-centered businesses. Retailers with resilient operations and an adaptable ecosystem will be rewarded. This, more than ever, is a time for   Responsible Retail. That means demonstrating responsibility to consumers, to employees, to partners, and to communities as societies around the world manage this health and humanitarian emergency.       Jill Standish Senior Managing Director – Global Retail Consulting Practice         Originally posted on accenture.com   ... View more

In brief Consumers attitudes, behaviors and purchasing habits are changing—and many of these new ways will remain post-pandemic. While purchases are currently centered on the most basic needs, people are shopping more consciously, buying local and are embracing digital commerce. To manage isolation, consumers are using digital to connect, learn and play—and they will continue to. Moving forward, we will see an increase in the virtual workforce as more people work from home and enjoy doing so.   New behaviors will transform the industry’s future The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the world as we know it. People are living differently, buying differently and in many ways, thinking differently. Supply chains have been tested. Retailers are closing doors. Consumers across the globe are looking at products and brands through a new lens.   The virus is reshaping the industry in real time, rapidly accelerating long-term underlying trends in the space of mere weeks. Our research indicates that new habits formed now will endure beyond this crisis, permanently changing what we value, how and where we shop, and how we live and work.   Even as this crisis continues to evolve, by exploring the changes that are happening now, we can consider what consumer goods businesses should do today to prepare for what’s next.   Getting to know the consumer in crisis Consumers are deeply concerned about the impact of COVID-19, both from a health and economic perspective. People are responding in a variety of ways and have differing attitudes, behaviors and purchasing habits. People across the globe are afraid as they strive to adapt to a new normal. Fear is running high as individuals contemplate what this crisis means for them, but more significantly, what it means for their families and friends, and society at large.   Consumers are responding to the crisis in a variety of ways. Some feel anxious and worried, fueling panic-buying of staples and hygiene products. At the other extreme, some consumers remain indifferent to the pandemic and are continuing their business as usual, despite recommendations from government and health professionals. CPG companies will need to understand how their own consumers are reacting, and develop customized and personalized marketing strategies for each. The days of one-size-fits-all marketing are over.   Consumers are more fearful of the economic impact of COVID-19 than for their health Source: Accenture COVID-19 Consumer Research, conducted April 2–6. Proportion of consumers that agree or significantly agree.   New buying behaviors in this new normal Why, what and how consumers buy is changing due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Consumer priorities have become centered on the most basic needs, sending demand for hygiene, cleaning and staples products soaring, while non-essential categories slump. The factors that influence brand decisions are also changing as a “buy local” trend accelerates. Digital commerce has also seen a boost as new consumers migrate online for grocery shopping – a rise that is likely to be sustained post-outbreak.   In times like these, our need for the basic necessities of life takes precedence. It comes as no surprise that personal health is the top priority for the consumers we surveyed, followed by the health of friends and family. Food and medical security, financial security and personal safety were other leading priorities.   New—and everlasting—shopping habits The outbreak has pushed consumers out of their normal routines. Consumers are adapting new habits and behaviors that many anticipate will continue in the long term.   The virus has accelerated three long-term trends: The ever-increasing focus on health CPG brands should heed this change and make it a priority to support healthy lifestyles for consumers, shoppers and employees. Having a “health strategy” will be a strategic differentiator for the foreseeable future.   A rise in conscious consumption Consumers are more mindful of what they’re buying. They are striving to limit food waste, shop more cost consciously and buy more sustainable options. Brands will need to make this a key part of their offer (e.g. by exploring new business models).   Growing love for local The desire to shop local is reflected in both the products consumer buy (e.g. locally sourced, artisanal) and the way they shop (e.g. supporting community stores). CPG brands will need to explore ways to connect locally – be it through highlighting local provenance, customizing for local needs or engaging in locally relevant ways.       Consumers expect their shopping habits to change permanently Source: Accenture COVID-19 Consumer Research, conducted March 19–25 and April 2–6   The social impact The COVID-19 outbreak has slowed the pace and changed daily life for many consumers, and this is having a profound impact on the way we view personal hygiene, health and how we engage with our communities, friends and families. People are embracing technology more than ever to support all aspects and consequences of isolation. There is also positive evidence to suggest that this crisis will build communities, rather than separate them.   80% of consumers feel more or as connected to their communities 88% of consumers expect these connections to stay intact long after the virus is contained   The ways in which people spend their leisure time are changing because of the outbreak and related social distancing measures, and again, these habits are likely to be sustained. More than half (61%) plan to continue watching more news after the outbreak, while 55% will prioritize more time with family. Entertainment, learning and DIY have also seen a rise.   This trend is reflected in the types of apps that consumers are downloading, related to entertainment, news, healthcare and education. Underlying consumer needs (e.g. to connect, to be entertained, to learn, to be informed) remain the same, yet technology is changing the way it happens. CPG companies must increase their focus on digital vs. traditional tools to engage with consumers and improve experiences.   A new virtual workforce People are working from home as businesses close doors and encourage remote work. Many employees who have not worked remotely before—or not often—plan to do so more frequently in the future. High percentages of employees feel they have the right environment and tools for remote work, but some miss social contact. Overall, employees feel their employers have taken the right steps to protect their health and keep them well informed.   Employees who now find themselves working from home are broadly positive about the experience. Unsurprisingly, those who worked from home previously are more likely than newcomers to feel they are more productive at home and feel they are more professionally satisfied than they are in the office . CPG companies that have a virtual working strategy will strengthen their employee value proposition and show that they are in-touch with their employee preferences.   46% of people who never worked from home previously now plan to work from home more often in the future     Change in work-from-home frequency from pre- to post-outbreak Source: Accenture COVID-19 Consumer Research, conducted April 2–6, N = 1,118 respondents working from home   Staying connected with consumers COVID-19 is a health and economic crisis that has a sustainable impact on consumer attitudes, behaviors and purchasing habits. CPG companies can adapt to these changes by taking action to respond, reset and renew to be positioned even stronger for the future. Respond Stand up a cross-functional command center with KPI tracking Create an Elastic Digital Workplace task force Reshape your marketing plan around new demand and brand purpose   Reset Redefine relationships with consumers, customers and employees and reimagine your organization and ways of working Rethink and redefine relationships with ecosystem partners Reconsider your product and service portfolio   Renew Accelerate the move to an intelligent data-driven operating model Reprioritize enterprise investment plans for post-COVID era Scan market for M&A opportunities     Contact Us Oliver Wright Consumer Goods & Services Global Lead Emma Blackburn Consumer Research Manager       -----------------------   Originally posted on accenture.com ... View more

State of the COVID-19 Crisis COVID-19 is a humanitarian and societal crisis of unprecedented speed and scale. It has both immediate and long-lasting implications for how people work and participate in society. The top priority is to protect the health and safety of people, including in their workplaces. Leaders must make rapid, highly-informed decisions, and take immediate actions to protect and support their people and ensure that critical business operations continue in order to help societal continuity.   How to Manage Now With COVID-19, the time to act is now. Deferred decisions and delayed actions have immediate and longer-term business continuity impacts. To minimize business disruption and protect employees, organizations must take steps now – starting within the next 24 hours – to start creating an Elastic Digital Workplace. Accenture’s Elastic Digital Workplace solution enables a highly extendable workplace environment that allows you to quickly scale and dynamically adapt to changing business needs based on global and local conditions.     Within 24 hours – Assess your current state: Analyze your current technology capabilities and your ability to scale out internally, including your current communications plan and support structure.     Within 72 hours – Identify how you can leverage existing technologies more effectively     Within 5 days – Develop a leadership and culture awareness and change plan: Design a change management plan, including leadership communications that encourage employees to adopt key technologies that will facilitate connections to their team members and leaders in this new environment, internal meetings and even large-scale external events.     Within 2 weeks – Rapidly modernize and scale your collaboration capabilities as well as your workforce engagement plans: Identify how to expand your workplace to the periphery, including a focus on home networking, broader networking, security, upgrading other tools and capabilities and helping your people learn and embrace new ways of working with each other. What’s on the Horizon While COVID-19 is the catalyst for an immediate implementation of an Elastic Digital Workplace, we anticipate that the crisis will fundamentally alter how we work and engage. Leaders should develop a comprehensive Elastic Digital Workplace implementation plan, focusing on 6 key dimensions.     Keith Lippiatt Senior Managing Director, Accenture Technology Eva Sage-Gavin Senior Managing Director, Global Lead – Talent & Organizational / Human Potential Jill Goldstein Managing Director - Accenture Talent & HR BPS Operations       Originally posted on accenture.com   ... View more

In brief Consumers attitudes, behaviors and purchasing habits are changing—and many of these new ways will remain post-pandemic. While purchases are currently centered on the most basic needs, people are shopping more consciously, buying local and are embracing digital commerce. To manage isolation, consumers are using digital to connect, learn and play—and they will continue to. Moving forward, we will see an increase in the virtual workforce as more people work from home and enjoy doing so.   New behaviors will transform the industry’s future The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the world as we know it. People are living differently, buying differently and in many ways, thinking differently. Supply chains have been tested. Retailers are closing doors. Consumers across the globe are looking at products and brands through a new lens.   The virus is reshaping the industry in real time, rapidly accelerating long-term underlying trends in the space of mere weeks. Our research indicates that new habits formed now will endure beyond this crisis, permanently changing what we value, how and where we shop, and how we live and work.   Even as this crisis continues to evolve, by exploring the changes that are happening now, we can consider what consumer goods businesses should do today to prepare for what’s next.   Getting to know the consumer in crisis Consumers are deeply concerned about the impact of COVID-19, both from a health and economic perspective. People are responding in a variety of ways and have differing attitudes, behaviors and purchasing habits. People across the globe are afraid as they strive to adapt to a new normal. Fear is running high as individuals contemplate what this crisis means for them, but more significantly, what it means for their families and friends, and society at large.   Consumers are responding to the crisis in a variety of ways. Some feel anxious and worried, fueling panic-buying of staples and hygiene products. At the other extreme, some consumers remain indifferent to the pandemic and are continuing their business as usual, despite recommendations from government and health professionals. CPG companies will need to understand how their own consumers are reacting, and develop customized and personalized marketing strategies for each. The days of one-size-fits-all marketing are over.   Consumers are more fearful of the economic impact of COVID-19 than for their health Source: Accenture COVID-19 Consumer Research, conducted April 2–6. Proportion of consumers that agree or significantly agree.   New buying behaviors in this new normal Why, what and how consumers buy is changing due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Consumer priorities have become centered on the most basic needs, sending demand for hygiene, cleaning and staples products soaring, while non-essential categories slump. The factors that influence brand decisions are also changing as a “buy local” trend accelerates. Digital commerce has also seen a boost as new consumers migrate online for grocery shopping – a rise that is likely to be sustained post-outbreak.   In times like these, our need for the basic necessities of life takes precedence. It comes as no surprise that personal health is the top priority for the consumers we surveyed, followed by the health of friends and family. Food and medical security, financial security and personal safety were other leading priorities.   New—and everlasting—shopping habits The outbreak has pushed consumers out of their normal routines. Consumers are adapting new habits and behaviors that many anticipate will continue in the long term.   The virus has accelerated three long-term trends: The ever-increasing focus on health CPG brands should heed this change and make it a priority to support healthy lifestyles for consumers, shoppers and employees. Having a “health strategy” will be a strategic differentiator for the foreseeable future.   A rise in conscious consumption Consumers are more mindful of what they’re buying. They are striving to limit food waste, shop more cost consciously and buy more sustainable options. Brands will need to make this a key part of their offer (e.g. by exploring new business models).   Growing love for local The desire to shop local is reflected in both the products consumer buy (e.g. locally sourced, artisanal) and the way they shop (e.g. supporting community stores). CPG brands will need to explore ways to connect locally – be it through highlighting local provenance, customizing for local needs or engaging in locally relevant ways.       Consumers expect their shopping habits to change permanently Source: Accenture COVID-19 Consumer Research, conducted March 19–25 and April 2–6   The social impact The COVID-19 outbreak has slowed the pace and changed daily life for many consumers, and this is having a profound impact on the way we view personal hygiene, health and how we engage with our communities, friends and families. People are embracing technology more than ever to support all aspects and consequences of isolation. There is also positive evidence to suggest that this crisis will build communities, rather than separate them.   80% of consumers feel more or as connected to their communities 88% of consumers expect these connections to stay intact long after the virus is contained   The ways in which people spend their leisure time are changing because of the outbreak and related social distancing measures, and again, these habits are likely to be sustained. More than half (61%) plan to continue watching more news after the outbreak, while 55% will prioritize more time with family. Entertainment, learning and DIY have also seen a rise.   This trend is reflected in the types of apps that consumers are downloading, related to entertainment, news, healthcare and education. Underlying consumer needs (e.g. to connect, to be entertained, to learn, to be informed) remain the same, yet technology is changing the way it happens. CPG companies must increase their focus on digital vs. traditional tools to engage with consumers and improve experiences.   A new virtual workforce People are working from home as businesses close doors and encourage remote work. Many employees who have not worked remotely before—or not often—plan to do so more frequently in the future. High percentages of employees feel they have the right environment and tools for remote work, but some miss social contact. Overall, employees feel their employers have taken the right steps to protect their health and keep them well informed.   Employees who now find themselves working from home are broadly positive about the experience. Unsurprisingly, those who worked from home previously are more likely than newcomers to feel they are more productive at home and feel they are more professionally satisfied than they are in the office . CPG companies that have a virtual working strategy will strengthen their employee value proposition and show that they are in-touch with their employee preferences.   46% of people who never worked from home previously now plan to work from home more often in the future     Change in work-from-home frequency from pre- to post-outbreak Source: Accenture COVID-19 Consumer Research, conducted April 2–6, N = 1,118 respondents working from home   Staying connected with consumers COVID-19 is a health and economic crisis that has a sustainable impact on consumer attitudes, behaviors and purchasing habits. CPG companies can adapt to these changes by taking action to respond, reset and renew to be positioned even stronger for the future. Respond Stand up a cross-functional command center with KPI tracking Create an Elastic Digital Workplace task force Reshape your marketing plan around new demand and brand purpose   Reset Redefine relationships with consumers, customers and employees and reimagine your organization and ways of working Rethink and redefine relationships with ecosystem partners Reconsider your product and service portfolio   Renew Accelerate the move to an intelligent data-driven operating model Reprioritize enterprise investment plans for post-COVID era Scan market for M&A opportunities     Contact Us Oliver Wright Consumer Goods & Services Global Lead Emma Blackburn Consumer Research Manager         Originally posted on accenture.com ... View more