CRM

If there was any doubt that consumer behavior can change rapidly, 2020 erased it for the foreseeable future. Last year’s events also erased the idea that customers would tolerate poor experiences during times of massive change. Now it’s clearer than ever that consumers are setting the terms of how, where, and when they engage with…

During the pandemic, brands turned to digital initiatives to reach customers, not only for marketing, but also for other stages of the consumer lifecycle. Here at Vibes, our own data showed a 200 percent increase in automated mobile transactional messages from January 2020 to December 2020. The messages ranged from providing consumers with information about…

“We know that some of our customers’ behaviors will shift back to pre-pandemic, and we know that some will never be the same. The issue is, we have no idea which is which.” In a recent discussion with a Fortune 500 CEO, he articulated to me what so many retail, CPG and commerce executives are…

As Americans hunkered down as a result of stay-at-home orders, they flocked to their screens to shop for groceries, home office supplies, nonessential goods, holiday gifts and more. With this, online retail sales grew 32.4 percent in 2020, a total of $791.7 billion in sales over the course of the year. This momentum continued into…

We've rounded the corner and thank goodness we feel the country is on the backside of the COVID pandemic. What a ride it has been! It's far from over, but under control. For many consumer companies, COVID caused a surge in business with more people working and shopping from home. It has put pressure on…

Over the past year, the shift to e-commerce has accelerated across nearly every industry sector. As customers relied heavily on digital channels, brands needed to create meaningful customer experiences with shoppers through a screen. What consumer behaviors and expectations have changed, and how can retailers and brands adapt? Factors Influencing Customer Loyalty Changed During the…

Consumers are bombarded with sales messaging from dozens (or even hundreds or thousands) of brands across multiple channels throughout the day. The only way to cut through the noise is with meaningful interaction. And the only way to do that is to understand the customer’s needs and where he/she is in their journey, a unique…

We've recently passed the one-year mark for the pandemic economy, with all of its volatility, uncertainty and disruptions. Among the most emphatic takeaways is that direct to consumer (D-to-C) has proven incredibly resilient through these changes. In some sense, it seems obvious in retrospect, that brands built on the potent combination of direct distribution, online…

Customer experience (CX) was gaining importance as a competitive differentiator well before the pandemic. Now, after a year of retailers and brands pivoting to vie for consumers’ attention and dollars online, there's a new definition of great customer experience — one forged by 2020’s drastic shifts in the way we buy and sell. One result…

To reach consumers, brands need omnichannel strategies that deliver a consistent customer experience at every touchpoint. Yet today’s technical and business conversations about omnichannel are often too limited in scope to achieve what’s ultimately possible. Brands typically only focus on customer interactions across one or two channels or fail to break up the many information…