The bustling streets of the Junction, no parks on Darby St and the line out the door of the gelato shop on King…
These were all scenes from early 2020 on a warm summers day.
Right now, the same streets are empty.
There is tape across the doors of the cafés and stores to limit numbers and marks on the ground so you know where to stand.
Most people don’t care as much about gelato.*
In the space of a couple of months, we shifted from buying ice cream as the sun went down, to buying the Zoom premium license in order to continue working from home.
While the world view of everyone hasn’t changed, it has certainly shifted for most.
This means that you are potentially serving a different customer altogether: different values, emotions, priorities and desired transformations.
- Certainty over luxury.
- Safety over strength
- Continuity over upgrades
- Short timeframes over long
- Tactics over strategy
If your work or service needs to change, or pivot, cultivating empathy for the people you serve to understand their new challenges could be a great place to start.
*To be honest, this could be incorrect. I’m not sure where true comfort food lies in the hierarchy of needs. It might be lower down than I’m thinking…
