2020 twisted and adjusted the way companies operate for years ahead. If you plan to stay at the top of your game, here are the most important business trends to follow in 2021.
Business trend #1: Less office hours
After the year we had, a new approach to work space comes as no surprise. Up to 67% of companies worldwide will adjust to the new reality – some plan to work from home full time, others are dividing work hours between office and home and allowing their employees a more flexible schedule. The median number of hours per week worked from home in post-pandemic New Zealand, according to the Household Labour Force Survey, is around 10.
This unexpected opportunity to throw employees into a completely different work environment taught many leaders a valuable lesson – when the tight frames of schedules and cubicles are removed, the company often becomes more efficient. If that’s your case, think about how you can support your employees now. Do they need special work equipment installed at home? Will a weekly Zoom meeting be in order? How is their mental health doing?
Read also: 5 ways to keep yourself sane when working from home.
Business trend #2: Bend and adjust your ideas
Business owners will have to reflect on what they’re offering their customers and how they’re doing it. The forced upgrades under the COVID-19 restrictions allowed companies to emerge stronger on the other side. Think of car manufacturers that switched to producing ventilators for hospitals and created many new technologies along the way. Even focus is not standing still – our 2021 shift towards regular offline events was inspired by a long and lonely lockdown.
A few years ago the best advice was to look at what your competitors were doing and do it better. In 2021 start looking at what the businesses outside your industry are offering – how are they promoting their brand? What tools are they using to communicate or deliver the goods? Wine producer? Get inspired by the business strategies of that awesome sneakers brand! Gardener? Snatch marketing ideas from a hotel you’ve enjoyed staying at. Industries are transforming, so don’t just stick to the familiar – look around, experiment, branch out, collaborate.
37% of consumers want to see advertising that makes them feel safe and gives them a sense of normality.
impactmybiz.com
Business trend #3: Virtual reality is for everyone
We might complain about staying at home but the fact is there is nothing more comfortable and easy! Today’s customers want not only goods but also services delivered online. We’re talking virtual changing booths for fashion brands, Stories’ filters with various makeup options for beauty brands, interior design configurators for furniture companies, etc. How can you do what’s currently being done in person via online tools? The answer ‘there is no way’ is no longer an option.
67% OF CUSTOMERS PREFER SELF-SERVICE TO PERSONAL CONTACT.
zendesk.com
Business trend #4: Delegating to chatbots
No matter how small your business is, you don’t have to do everything on your own. If you’re not in a position to hire help, create a chatbot! The most obvious example is Facebook’s automated messenger that can reply to basic questions for you. But truly progressive businesses will re-evaluate all the processes that can be done automatically. A few simple upgrades and your chatbot will take orders and bookings, send out invoices and schedule your phone calls. Less workload and a smoother process? Yes, please.
Business trends #5: High speed service
Our customers are becoming smarter and more demanding each year. As soon as someone experiences ‘the next day delivery’, would they want to wait a week for you to wake up and post their order? When they can pay with PAYWAVE elsewhere, would they bother with direct bank transfers? Before the pandemic, delivery was a nice ‘extra’ businesses could either offer or ignore; now it’s an expected service.
‘Impatient customer’ is how Forbes magazine describes today’s shoppers in its 2020 Achieving Customer Amazement Survey. The same one that suggests a whopping 96.2% of people will never return to the business that didn’t satisfy their customer service expectations the first time. The good news though? This survey shows 67% of customers are happy to pay more for amazing customer service, so you won’t have to implement the innovations at your own expense.
What are the weak points of your customer service? It’s time to acknowledge, improve and speed them up! We’re living in the world of ultrafast fibre, muscled cars and slow cookers that cook fast. There is no time for ‘awaiting the reply in 2-4 business days’.
50% OF CUSTOMERS WON’T RETURN TO A WEBSITE THAT ISN’T MOBILE-FRIENDLY.
truelist.co
Business trend #6: Purposeful, meaningful and sustainable
The word to build your business around in 2021 is ‘empathy’. Gen Z, who are now entering the workforce and becoming the most active customers, are the most open-minded, tolerant, vocal, environmentally-friendly generation in history. They don’t want to buy from or work for a brand with no values. Want to appeal to them?
Set and clearly define a new purpose of your brand. Recycling ocean plastic to create your products, donating products to the homeless, supporting local charities or a mental health organisation – do not exist just for the sake of selling.
The 2020 Zeno Strength of Purpose study shows that people are four times more likely to buy from a brand that has a strong, valuable purpose. Think wider, be kinder and come up with a way to help both the planet and people with what you do.
Read also: The future of fashion – sustainable New Zealand fashion brands
Business trend #7: Show the faces behind the brand
Just like in 2020, authenticity on social media is one of the key business trends this year. Faceless brands are a thing of the past. Your real-life, here-and-now,unfiltered selfies, funny Boomerangs and honest conversations are what attracts people these days. Forget being serious and respectable, be fun, be YOU! You can celebrate, you can behave silly, you can even cry when something went wrong – nothing is forbidden as long as you’re showing what’s really happening behind-the-scenes of your business.
Remember Gen Z from the paragraph above? These guys would rather support their neighbour with his awkward, slightly crooked, amateur candles/cookies/whatever, than go to a big store to pick something perfect but with no story behind it. So, become that neighbour! Even if your customers are spread all over New Zealand and further away, social media brings us all together – you can still be everyone’s neighbour online.
This trend actually goes hand-in- hand with automatisation. As soon as you no longer have to manually create invoices, email payment reminders or add your meetings to your Google Calendar, you’ll have more time for personal updates and getting to know your clients on social media.
Customers share a positive experience with 6+ PEOPLE and negative experience with 15+ PEOPLE.
huffpost.com
Read this and more articles in our February/March 2021 edition online.
