Changing customer behaviour – the impact on Learning & Development
As our business prepares to host a panel discussion ‘Adapting to new normal customer behaviour’ that explores amongst other things, the impact of the Covid19 pandemic on changing customer behaviours, it seemed timely to take stock and consider the impact on my own customers’ behaviour. How have they adapted over the past few months and and what longer term changes might they embrace as their ‘new normal’?
How were we operating?
At Customer Attuned I predominantly look after our People Capability programmes with our clients and over the past few years these typically involve the development and delivery of programmes designed to improve capability in areas such as Account Management, Sales, Customer Management, Proposition Development, Procurement and other related topics. Interventions have ranged from:
- stand-alone one day workshops
- coaching support on a 1-1 basis
- Academy type programmes consisting of the development of capability frameworks, capability assessments and subsequent delivery of a blended approach of virtual and face to face sessions, coaching, and other ongoing activities over a period of several months
Our client preferences have generally been for much of the behavioural improvement type activity to be delivered via focussed face to face sessions but then Covid19 came along and that has all had to stop in that format.
So – what’s changed?
It would have been easy for our clients to put on hold existing programmes and stop investing in the development of their people but this hasn’t happened – like the customers their businesses serve, they have adapted to the new environment remarkably quickly and if anything, focussed even more on the development and wellbeing of their people. They have recognised that not only do their existing development needs still need addressing, there are new additional requirements to help their teams provide the service their end customers need. And whilst some development activity can be deferred other support is needed immediately – but the common factor is that the use of virtual delivery platforms is essential.
At Customer Attuned we were very fortunate in having access to, and experience of, delivering virtual solutions (training and coaching) using a variety of platforms such as Zoom, Teams, Webex and Skype for Business so were well prepared to respond to requests from our clients.
As a result, the team have been extremely busy helping our clients over the past few months with their requests to:
- Adapt their existing material for virtual delivery
- Provide virtual coaching support on a 1-1 basis
- Develop new material to support their teams manage virtual relationships, negotiate over a virtual platform, manage business development meetings and virtual presentations effectively, etc.
- Continue with existing development programmes but design and build for virtual delivery
What might the new normal look like?
Based on my conversations with clients, colleagues and fellow L&D professionals, the view is that the world of training and coaching delivery has changed by necessity and will remain changed for the future. Eyes have been opened to the increased capability and functionality of the virtual classroom platforms and the flexibility it offers in delivery.
As a result, the collective view is that virtual training will command a much bigger share of training time with the higher cost (both budget and time) face to face interventions being reserved for those highly interactive, role play based, or complex training solutions that are much more difficult to replicate in a virtual environment. In addition, the virtual platforms will not only be used to replace some existing face to face sessions, they will also be used more extensively to provide follow up engagements to reinforce learning in a cost effective and flexible way.
At Customer Attuned we have kept abreast of the advances in virtual training capability and we firmly believe that well-constructed and delivered virtual classroom sessions can be a key element of any blended development programme. We will continue to work with our clients to develop programmes that make use of a range of learning approaches that meet their own unique requirements.
Alan is a very engaging classroom tutor, and has enjoyed working with a variety of global clients over the past few years to deliver highly successful people development programmes.
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