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As the world continues to battle a global pandemic, the same fight is now also one of economic survival.

For many service-based industries, mandates demanding operations be reduced—and in extreme cases, reduced to zero capacity—is a crushing blow to say the least.

To add to the challenge, many also struggle with customer engagement as a whole. Simply put, how does one maintain let alone foster customer loyalty, when the customer is absent from personal contact?

Many organizations have adopted the so-called contactless shopping experience. Some are doing far better than others. But even those rising to the top are in many instances lucky, because they already had a business model that could be easily migrated to a hybrid of eCommerce pre-ordering and in-person pick-up—or, at the very least, simple tap-and-pay technologies.

Even in those cases, customer loyalty is maintained only as a convenience based on ease-of-use paired with geography more than it is with true experience—necessity being the only true factor.

But like any adverse situation, positive outcomes always rise to the surface; necessity breeds ingenuity, as they say. This pandemic is no different. The need to follow health standards and guidelines to keep people safe has opened up a world of possibilities that will be around for decades to come—long after the last case of the virus has faded to nothing more than a bad memory.

So how does one embark on this new contactless—yet still fully connected—experience with customers? It’s easier than you think.

First, you need to re-evaluate the value exchange that you have with customers. This one is actually quite simple. Ask yourself these three questions:

Why do should customers spend money with you?
Why should they share their time with you?
And why should customer love you?

Each and every one of these points can be boiled down to customer experience. If every interaction is easy, rewarding, personalized and highly engaging, your customers will continue to come back again and again—making your brand an integrated part of their life.

This is the part where you say, “Okay sure, that sounds great, but how in the hell do I do that?” A perfectly reasonable question, that deserves a perfectly reasonable answer.

This is where organizations need to invest in the right tools and technology.

Now, before your heart rate goes through the roof picturing high costs and long implementation cycles, I assure you this is anything but that. Luckily, we live in an era where technology has become easily consumable and even easier to implement—all at easily affordable cost structures.

By identifying the easiest tools that combine insight with seamless experience, the simpler it becomes to make your brand a part of a person’s life. These tools should deliver a sense of safety and security, be easy to adopt, and be fully functional in delivering a highly customized and personal experience to the customer.

Oh, and we have all these tools readily available for you today.

Lastly, you’ve scoped out your desired experience along with your required technology. Now it’s time to do what you do best—go back to making those emotional connections with your customers that you’ve always done.

Yes, the environment has changed. And yes, the way you connect has changed. But what hasn’t changed is the want and desire to connect with your customers. Now, it’s simply done through things like mobile apps that enable scan-and-pay or pre-ordering with ease. It also means that every bit of data you collect can be used to offer highly personalized connections on a one-to-one basis, just like you used to.

All of this craziness that is COVID shall pass. Your customers will be yours forever. All you have to do now is keep connecting with them, and live life side-by-side. The rest will be history in the making.