Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

We’ve heard it a thousand times: “the pandemic is unprecedented.” And it’s true—COVID-19 has changed the lives of billions of people around the world and many of those changes are here to stay. The good news is that the pandemic has also shown that many businesses are able to adapt and thrive. Bernard Salt AM, one of Australia’s leading social commentators on trends, business, and society, has a hopeful view for the future.

In 2020, tens of thousands of retail professionals descended as usual on the Javits Center in New York City for the National Retail Federation’s Big Show. Barely a year later, the annual conference was entirely virtual, your parents knew what “Zoom fatigue” was, and the Javits was a Covid-19 vaccination center.

It seems like everyone is talking about the customer these days, but it hasn’t always been a top priority. Long viewed as a cost center by many businesses, customer service has been thrust into the spotlight during the pandemic. With so much uncertainty in the air, we are reaching out to businesses for help more than ever before.

As the world adjusts to the “new reality” of the pandemic, industry leaders look back on what has worked well for them and share advice about what to expect in the future. In case you missed it, here are some highlights from recent interviews with industry leaders, as part of Zendesk’s CX Moments virtual events series.

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) originated with companies having to clean up after their mistakes. “It was born from when a company polluted a river, their corporate social responsibility program was how they offset that damage,” says Tiffany Apczynski, Zendesk’s former vice president of Public Policy and Social Impact. Today, companies are expected to take more proactive stances and resulting actions and to lead the way on important issues.

Even before the virus forced us all inside and online, messaging was taking over the world. It’s how many of us shared news, collaborated with colleagues, and — most importantly — kept in touch with friends and family. As with all things digital, the pandemic simply accelerated the inevitable. It also showed us that messaging was made for customer service. Customers are reaching out for help more than ever before, and messaging is their channel of choice.

Now more than ever inclusion is a measure of workplace culture and inequality across industries. But what does it mean in the context of survey creation? From their language to their respondent experience, the best surveys are built to be inclusive. In a broad sense, this means surveying with empathy, respect, and clear motives. You create an inclusive survey when you’re thoughtful about how you ask respondents about things like religious affiliation, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

The second time I speak with Colleen Berube, CIO and SVP of Operations at Zendesk, she greets me over Zoom from her backyard in San Mateo, California. The scene looks idyllic, though the reality is that wildfires are raging all over the state, the air is tinged with smoke, and we all remain hunkered down at home as Covid wears on.

You may think that “Mayochup” is a great topping for fries, an abominable Frankenstein’s condiment, or just a hilarious example of ’90s satire predicting the future. Regardless of your personal preference, though, there’s no denying that it represents a huge social listening triumph for Kraft Heinz. The polarizing combination of ketchup and mayonnaise was originally sold only in the Middle East.

Customer segmentation involves classifying customer data by specific traits to learn more about the groups that make up your customer base. The more you understand them, the better you can serve them. There are countless ways to segment customers - by age, location, occupation, account type, company size, and more. Unless you’re prepared to keep a few thousand Post-it notes on hand at all times, you’ll need a sophisticated software solution for capturing and analyzing all that data.