Customer needs, at the centre of business strategy post pandemic: Survey

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the way organisations work and carry out business, using a mix of work from home and work from offices.

Top executives are no longer discussing whether remote works or a hybrid model works for them. A global survey conducted by Verizon Communications Inc., provide light on newer models that are emerging around the world to improve consumer experience to boost business for their clients.

“New ways of working aren’t just about remote or hybrid work, indispensable as these have become to many people’s lives. There is a more fundamental shift under way,” it pointed out.

“The principal strategic driver today is improving CX (consumer experience) by organising strategy around customer needs, rather than the needs of the business,” it said.

The survey, titled Business Reimagined - Are you really ready to lead the workforce of the future?, summerises that the principal strategic driver today is improving CX by organising strategy around customer needs, rather than the needs of the business.

“The big lesson we’ve learned over the last few years is that there’s not a single right way to lead, build a culture or execute a strategy,” Sampath Sowmyanarayan, Chief Executive Officer for Verizon Business Group, said.

As many as 600 high-ranking executives were surveyed by Longitude for the survey, which was commissioned by Verizon Business.

“Organisations also report that they are working to improve integration and automation with their supplychain partners,” the report said.

Companies have been devising and deploying several measures in the last 12 months to effectively use the data to improve their employees experience.

“They are also training their leaders with the skills required to manage a hybrid workforce and building more automation into how we serve customers,” the survey said.

Stronger organisations

“Businesses are bouncing back. The majority of business leaders view their organisations today as stronger than before the pandemic. They reported being better equipped to make decisions quickly (71 per cent) and to think strategically about long-term objectives,” it pointed out.

A majority of respondents (73 p.c) said that they have become more agile in adopting new technologies and are able to make decisions more quickly (69 p.c.) post the pandemic.

Strategic uncertainty

The report said that continual upheaval and the growing complexity of the business environment have left many companies with a deep sense of strategic uncertainty.

“Two thirds of business leaders (66 p.c) said the pandemic had exposed weaknesses in their strategy, while 60 p.c. said that they struggle to act decisively in response to new market opportunities,” it said.

The report also found that there was a disconnect between ambitions and actions. For one, though three-fourths of respondents said that a strategic priority in 2022 was improving customer experience. “But only 38 per cent said that they had accelerated the use of data analytics to improve CX. Even fewer (34 p.c.) said they had increased their use of automation,” it observed.

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