HITS

You probably don’t need a survey to tell you the pandemic has changed the consumer experience, from the way they access content, to how they communicate in their professional and business lives.

But just how much — and how quickly — things have changed, and how long-term those changes are going to be, might surprise you.

That’s the message Joe Jorczak, head of media and entertainment go-to-market strategy for Zendesk, had for attendees of his presentation — “How COVID is Changing Customer Experience in the Entertainment Space” — July 2 at the Global Media & Entertainment Day event presented live, virtually, from London.

“We’re seeing just a lot of turmoil and change,” he said. “But we think there’s a lot of opportunity for firms to adapt and grow in this environment as well.

“When you think about what’s been going on in the market, how companies and customers started to adjust their behaviors, [you see] what they’re trying to do to improve.”

What’s popped out in Zendesk’s data can provide a road map for everyone providing digital experience: since the onset of the crisis, remote work and learning has grown a massive 376%, and gaming, telecom and logistics have all seen huge spikes. Use of WhatsApp grew more than 100%, and everything from social media to email saw growth in the communication space. The only thing that declined as a go-to for communication: phone calls, down 7%.

Customer service requests have grown 63% since the start of the pandemic, and companies are leaning more than ever on AI assistance, with answer bot usage growing 84%.

“What we’re seeing is existing trends were accelerated, people were moving to messaging apps already,” Jorczak said. He added that companies simply weren’t prepared to send staffs home, especially in the support space. That’s proven that companies need to have alternate channels — online assistance, mobile access, etc. — prepared, no matter your business. Companies that have done that have seen growth in customer satisfaction.

What all of this means for media and entertainment players is it’s absolutely crucial now to ease the consumer experience as much as possible, Jorczak said. Allow your customers to self-service their needs wherever possible, make the experience conversational, be flexible, and, maybe most importantly, enable your remote teams in every area you can. Creating a simple, consistent, omni-channel customer experiences can help you tackle the volatile demand and changing consumption trends everyone in the industry is experiencing today.

To view the entire presentation, click here.

The fourth annual M&E Day event, presented by MESA, featured mainstage panels and more than 15 breakout sessions, covering the latest it data, cloud, IT and security across the media and entertainment technology ecosystem.

The event was presented by Caringo, with sponsorship by Convergent Risks, Cyberhaven, Richey May Technology Solutions, RSG Media, Signiant, Whip Media Group, Zendesk, Tape Ark, Sony New Media Solutions, 5th Kind, ATMECS, Eluvio, Tamr, the Audio Business Continuity Alliance (ABCA), the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR), and The Trusted Partner Network (TPN).