As businesses look to open up around the world, social distancing measures are in place to reduce the possibility of more Covid-19 cases along with another shut down of the economy. Employees are going back to work and finding new work environments to adjust and adapt to. Customers are slowly going out to find new environments to purchase needed goods and services. Patients continue to explore and use telehealth as a way to adjust to this new environment and receive needed care. Community services are slow to ramp up as demand for their services continues to build.
As we move forward, every aspect of the human experience is touched by the recent events of the Covid-19 pandemic. With that being the case, every person now has new expectations and perceptions of how they view either being an employee, a customer, a patient, or a citizen seeking government services. For those providing services to other individuals, the importance of obtaining feedback is even greater now than before. This is due to the wide range of expectations in the population and that these expectations will continue to move around quickly.
How do we truly understand how others feel about their safety in social distancing? Ask them.
Ask Questions – Constantly
In this current environment, asking a person how they feel about their safety and social distancing is vital to providing a better experience. As we move forward, expectations and perceptions will change quickly. A person who had a particular feeling last week can have a totally different viewpoint in the next week or two based on changing conditions. The key to building a solid bridge of communication between people is to ask and ask constantly. With so many changes occurring, let’s explore various experiences to see the opportunities.
Employee Experience
As employees go back to work, individual stress levels are elevated adjusting to new work environments along with staying healthy and safe. Organizations can make large improvements in the employee experience they provide by increasing their communication in this time of crisis and making quick positive changes to the pain points discovered. Some important areas to measure and improve include:
- Employees perception of their work environments and safety
- How a person is adjusting to their new role as a remote worker
- Measuring important mental health perspectives
- Learn how individuals feel about their changing work culture
- Monitor employee movement to insure safety for others
- Measure perception of cleanliness in offices, break rooms, and restrooms
- Ask employees if they fully understand new policies and company rules
- Survey employees to ensure they are getting an opportunity to improve their health
- Measure stress levels
Customer Experience
As customers go out and buy essential and nonessential items, they are discovering new landscapes in the businesses that they visit. Expectations are different at each business as the owners of that business will have different and constantly changing safety policies. This can be difficult to keep up with as a customer. Businesses can decrease this uncertainty within the customer experience by measuring and improving these important areas. Here are some ideas to measure and improve:
- Measure how customers feel about their safety and social distancing
- Ask if the customers are comfortable in their new buying journey
- Learn what customers like and do not like about new store layouts
- Obtain feedback on customers perception of waiting time and checkout
- See how customer expectations change at important customer touchpoints
- Measure how customers feel about the cleanliness of the store and restrooms
Patient Experience
Healthcare has witnessed large changes in the patient experience. Regular doctor visits have been moved to telehealth to protect others. Although telehealth was becoming more popular each year, it has exploded as a form of obtaining health services. Visits for care at hospitals and specialists have been limited and are now expanding once again. As hospitals become centers of the pandemic, patients have a new sense of fear to approach these facilities. Measuring to improve patient experiences is vital to improve a person’s health and their overall experience. Some ideas to focus on include:
- The experiences of telehealth
- The perception of patients entering healthcare facilities after this recent shutdown
- Expectations of patients in terms of social distancing and protecting their personal health
- Ask families of patients if they understand the best way to visit a loved one and remain safe
- How patients feel about their health and their doctor patient relationship
- Measure perception of cleanliness in cafeterias, restrooms, and patient rooms
- Learn how patients feel they are treated in this stressful time
- Measure staff perception of stress, safety, and overall daily expectations
Fan and Entertainment Experience
After being locked in their homes, people are seeking ways to get out and enjoy the summer. Whether that is through shopping, participating at entertainment facilities, or attending a ball game, each experience now carries an increased difference in their experience than before. How does a ball game look this summer and fall? How about a concert? An indoor entertainment facility? A casino? What was perceived as just normal experiences has turned upside down. As these facilities do open up, capturing feedback will be vital to making quick adjustments to improve experiences and capture revenue.
Community and Government Services
Many government services are either still shut down or just beginning to open up on a limited basis. These services are essential for the economy and will ramp up at a speed that best serves the public safety. Governments and government services can learn the pulse of their local communities by seeking real-time feedback from local citizens. Going forward through the summer and fall, they can also capture feedback to improve community engagement and overall local pride and morale.
SmileyAnswers can help Capture Real-Time Insight
The HappyOrNot® Smiley Touches and Smiley Terminals have been popular at many businesses and facilities including hospitals, airports, stadiums, businesses, government offices, and more. The HappyOrNot® Reporting System is in over 100 countries worldwide and has over 1.5 Billion Feedbacks. As the current crisis developed, new members were added to the HappyOrNot® Smiley Family to help organizations adjust to the new way of life. The Smiley Link and Smiley Digital were introduced as ways to obtain real-time feedback in a touchless way. This puts SmileyAnswers in a unique position to help organizations capture customer perceptions along a whole journey and in real-time. In this environment of unprecedented change and moving expectations, this can be a great advantage for corporations to lead in the field of service and improving the human experience.
Conclusion
Now is the time to be constantly asking how others feel about their safety and experiences. Individuals are under increased stress due to changing environments and being focused on their individual and family safety and health. Individual perceptions will change quickly so a one-off survey will not cut it in this current environment. To truly improve experiences, measurement needs to happen constantly with positive improvements immediately following. Each experience is more different than it was six months ago. Whether it is an employee experience, customer experience, patient experience, fan experience, or experiences using government services, each has their own unique touchpoints to measure and improve. SmileyAnswers can help organizations quickly understand and improve experiences with the real-time insights provided by the Smiley Family. A new #GoTouchless Page has been developed on the SmileyAnswers website to share information and features of the new Smiley Link and Smiley Digital.
As we move forward, remember to constantly ask how others feel. In this environment, it is too difficult to assume understanding of other people’s expectations and perceptions. In times like the present, a good policy to follow is to ask questions, and ask them often.
