Consumers will not be quick to return to their previous buying habits as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Businesses must be prepared to market to these cautious customers. As we head into the summer months, it seems that consumer sentiment is on the rise across the United States.

Restaurants and brick-and-mortar stores are re-opening. People are eager to return to some sense of normalcy, but they are waiting for a few critical milestones 

There is no doubt that COVID-19 has created some serious hurdles for businesses and consumers to manage. Brick-and-mortar businesses realize that they must pivot their business model. Their flexibility will allow them to fit into the ever-evolving future of ecommerce.

Restaurants, for example, have learned to make use of new technologies and services to stay afloat.

Many have begun to work with online delivery companies like UberEats or DoorDash. Services like these have enabled retaurants to nurture their customers while remaining operational.

Businesses must stay attuned to their customer's needs and expectations to keep up with shifting trends. Consumer sentiment surveys, email surveys or other means of polling customer opinions are some ways to do this.

These surveys should ask general questions. They should ask about the changes to customer behavior that were due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example: 

• “How has COVID-19 changed your buying habits?”
• “Has there been a change to your budget?”
• “What source do you prefer to get your marketing from? For example, print, social media, television, and/or through the internet?

These types of questions will help you learn about the lifestyle changes your customers are going through. They will also inform you on how they are changing their consumption and buying habits.

Consumer Confidence Beginning to Rebound

Consumers are beginning to express more favorable sentiment about the future. There has been a decline in the number of consumers who believe that the worst of COVID-19 still lies ahead.

The number of US respondents to this survey that believe the worst is still ahead peaked in late March but has dramatically decreased since. Customers are beginning to realize that business will return and continue to drive innovation in a newly developing consumer market.

Businesses must adapt to a more distanced, online setting. How will businesses determine how the needs and drivers of consumer buying evolved going forward? What changes are permanent? What are temporary?

Companies must adjust their marketing and sales approaches to come out ahead in the coming business rebound.

• Here are some of the data highlights:
• 83% of US consumers believe that their lives are different today than pre-virus.
• 61% of US consumers believe that things have changed permanently and will never revert.
• Looking at past consumer behavior after a crisis, most consumers revert to certain pre-crisis behaviors.

Crafting Your Own Sentiment Surveys

There are plenty of resources out there to make sure you ask the right types of questions in the right ways. Survey Monkey even has a free template for consumer sentiment surveys. Using this template, you can easily adapt one of your own to suit your organization's purposes.

Sentiment surveys results should inform your business spending decisions during these tough times. As long as the questions you as are well thought out, the results you receive should be actionable. By using the data you gather to prioritize your business objectives, you can stay dynamic and proactive.

The information you collect can also inform your marketing efforts. It will show you how to frame your messaging in a way that’s more attenuated to the times.

As we near the end of the “quarantine” phase, businesses must realize a few things. The way they did business in the past will be different from how they will need to do business in the future.

Having data about how your customers are feeling is critical. This is one of the only ways to know their wants and needs. It also empowers businesses to deliver their messaging sensibly and professionally.

Some of Our Research Samples to Guide Your Own

We conducted some of our own research on consumer sentiment surveys in the print industry. To help you craft your own approach to framing your sentiment surveys, here’s a set of notes on the information we gathered:

• For the period of March-June, the print media industry was expected to see a 38% decrease from the original annual plan
• However, only 4% of customers say they want brands to stop their advertising during this time
• 37% say they want advertising to make them feel safe and give them a sense of normalcy
• 31% want ads to make them feel positively
• 83% of customers say that the way companies conduct themselves during this crisis will affect whether they do business with them in the future.
• 78% agree that companies are being “a force for good”
• 67% say they have noticed companies trying to take advantage of the crisis
• 68% of front-line or vulnerable consumers (nurses, teachers, first responders, seniors) say they want brands to donate to programs that supply direct support to medical works.

• 67% would like brands to donate to people who have lost wages
• 88% of these consumers report they would like brands to supply personalized offers
• 56% of marketers say that managing shifting priorities or strategies is one of the main challenges currently
• 42% claim that their team currently lacks the bandwidth to quickly create updated content because of these shifting priorities
• COVID-19 ads are scoring higher on Relevance (+18%), Likability (+11%), and Information (+12%) than the all-industry norm

Some of the sample questions we generated from this research:

1. How has COVID-19 affected your buying behaviors?
2. What is your post-coronavirus marketing budget?
3. Has your company released any COVID-19 centric marketing?
4. How will your company react when reopening begins?
5. What is your current primary source for marketing? Print? Social media? Television? Radio?
6. Have any of your marketing techniques during the pandemic had a positive impact on consumer buying?
• Please describe any of those techniques in detail below (optional).
7. Going forward, how will you buy marketing? By telephone? Digitally? In person?

The COVID-19 pandemic will forever change the market for consumer goods and services.  Through this experience, consumers have more fully realized the benefits of ecommerce.

Ordering online was often the only way a customer could buy anything from a business during the pandemic. Customers have come to see how easy the process of ordering online can be. And they're likely going to continue ordering this way in the future.

The most important thing a business can do is stay smart and focus on the positive. As long as their marketing techniques are directed so they can maintain this tone, a business will be in a much better position when things finally recover. 

Make Proactive Changes to Be Ready for the Coming Changes in Consumer Spending Habits

It is extremely important for businesses to visibly make changes to their policies and purchasing infrastructure to respond to changes in consumer habits. For example, it may become necessary to implement a personal or business credit system with some of your top customers since they may not immediately have the cash needed to cover their required purchases.

Since you want to retain and nurture your top buyers, it is essential you allow them to continue a business relationship with you, even if they may not have the cash right now to maintain it.

To respond to this upcoming need in our customer base, Conquest Graphics brought on Behalf, a digital tool that allows us to offer extended payments to customers so they can buy more now and worry about paying later when they'll have the cash flow return.

Financing your purchases with Conquest Graphics has never been easier. We now offer Net 30 and Extended Terms on all your purchases through Behalf! Check your eligibility without ever leaving our website...