Do you know how your customers will react to Brexit and your business will be affected? Is your post-Brexit customer experience plan ready to go?It’s not necessarily all gloom and doom. In fact, Brexit could put UK shoppers off buying from abroad over the internet, because of additional costs – offering a great opportunity for UK retailers.A new study shows that post-Brexit nearly a third of British consumers will expect brands to make the country of origin clear for the items they are buying online, to avoid paying additional taxes on their purchases.Research by marketing automation suite Pure360 , which surveyed 2000 British consumers, highlighted that a quarter want clarity from brands on the country of origin for products they are buying after Brexit, in order to avoid the longer delivery times that could be associated with purchasing items from outside of the UK.If the pound falls against the Euro post-Brexit, then European imports will cost more and goods of UK origin become more attractive.So there are a range of issues and possible scenarios to consider. It’s crucial for retailers to understand how they will be affected and what they need to do to plan ahead – for the opportunities as well as the downsides.Brexit-related uncertainty is affecting an already troubled high street. How is it affecting your business? Here are a number of key issues your teams need to consider – your CX, sales, marketing, training and other managers all need to be involved:-
- What are the possible Brexit scenarios and how will they impact your business?
- Will Brexit affect product selection, customer spend and other issues?
- How will your customer experience be affected?
- What is the consequential impact on your customer service and omni-channel service proposition?
- How will you deal with Brexit related enquiries and handle complaints across all touchpoints: social media, phone, online and face-to-face?
- Be agile. Get organised, and ready to change any and every element of your CX programme. Are you regularly evaluating the programme via mystery shopping and other feedback channels? You need a process to review the implications with your managers and implement change fast.
- Understand the difference between Customer Experience and Customer Feedback: your responsibility is to prepare now and have ready a customer experience that is responsive to Brexit changes – don’t wait for customer feedback, when it may be too late.
- Be transparent. Trust will become more important than ever to customers in the wake of post-Brexit uncertainty and apprehension. What do you need to do to reassure customers, to give them the information they need, to support your proposition?
- Prepare a Brexit statement for customers: reassure them that you understand their concerns; give them reasons to continue buying from you.
- Train staff how to handle related queries and complaints – provide FAQs and prompt sheets. Make sure that your staff understand how consumer rights will be impacted, as well as the wider implications of Brexit for their roles.
- Tough to do, but gauge how Brexit is affecting your customers’ shopping habits, whether online or instore. And keep an eye on what your competitors are doing so that you’re aware of any policy changes they put in place in a bid to win customers..
- Use mystery shopping to evaluate the customer journey; and regularly stress test across all touchpoints. It’s imperative that you stay ahead of the curve.