Forget FOMO: Businesses need to fight Brits’ FOGO
“Remember pubs?” my friends and I joke over Zoom.
We’ve all dreamt about ‘getting back to normal’ after COVID-19; bars, screen-free meetups, a cup of tea somewhere other than our living rooms.
But as lockdown lifts, the reality of this freedom – this closeness to others – can feel frightening. The University of Cambridge actually named the UK the most frightened nation during COVID-19, and it’s understandable. Coronavirus made us scared of everything; exercising, shopping, talking, even our own families. And the longer our isolation the more our apprehension has grown roots, with only a tiny minority of Brits apparently wanting life to return to normal.
Our FOMO (fear of missing out) is more FOGO (fear of going out) today, and its businesses that can help us overcome it for the sake of the economy and our sanity.
But how? And, more importantly, when?
Three steps to overcoming FOGO
The easing of the lockdown is a double edged sword. On the upside for businesses, there’s a pent up demand to get back to those simple social pleasures we used to take for granted, like shopping and eating out. On the downside, businesses need to go the extra mile to ensure that people feel safe to do so; another headache to add to the pain they’ve been experiencing.
Read more: London without hospitality is nothing
What’s more, businesses need to come to terms with the fact we’ve changed over the last couple of months. The scale of the pandemic and its economic impact has led us to create a new normal in terms of how we shop, where we shop, what we can afford, how we like to spend our time. In short, we’ve got used to staying in.
So, encouraging people to go out again will take three steps. Firstly and obviously, businesses need create a safe space for people to shop and socialise. Secondly, they need to unravel some of those behaviours that have become hardwired over recent weeks. Thirdly, they need to tap into the thing we crave most, and the thing that that’s kept us going (albeit virtually); the joy of human connection
1. Creating a safe space
It goes without saying that businesses will need to ensure that their customers are safe, even if official guidelines are unclear. To give us confidence, they’ll need show us every little thing they’re doing to go the extra mile: things like, offering masks on entry, insisting on pre-registration to avoid crowds, signage that tells people how they’re minimising risk.
Businesses can also harness the ROPO (research online, purchase offline) effect to their advantage. Enhancing digital customer service, through things like chatbots, or visual search can reduce in-store browsing time and help people to get in and out more quickly; mission accomplished.
2. Evolving around our new hardwired behaviour
The pandemic has pushed us even further online, and there really is no going back. We’ve learned new ways to work, new ways to shop, new ways to entertain ourselves through digital channels.
Businesses will need to evolve around these new behaviours, rather than fight against them.
We’re sure to see businesses using online channels to promote ‘store only’ deals, or ‘store only’ products to entice people to shop in person.
People have fallen back into the old routine of the weekly shop, and with it, store cupboard cooking. As lockdown eases, supermarkets will encourage people to be more spontaneous with their dinner choices, and to pop to the shops to pick up tonight’s menu
3. The joy of human connection
There’s been a palpable resurgence of community spirit over the crisis, best typified the Clap for Carers every Thursday. Mutual aid groups have sprung up across the country, thousands have volunteered to help the NHS, and millions are looking out for their neighbours in an attempt to get through this together.
Businesses have leaned in to help, making hand sanitiser, offering special deals for key workers, using digital channels to help us stay fit at home, or to help entertain our kids
This desire to connect on a human level is reflected in our shopping behaviours over the last few weeks. Many of us have turned to local, independent businesses to get us through the crisis, inspired by their human stories, and the way they’ve ‘kept calm and carried on’ and pivoted their businesses in the face of huge adversity.
As we emerge from lockdown, I hope that this sense of community and connection persists, and that businesses can harness it as a way to banish FOGO
Will we see a resurgence of ‘shop local’ initiatives, bringing together independent shops and financial institutions who are co-reliant?
Can shops, restaurants and bars sell the human charms and qualities of their people against which no online retailer or delivery service can compete?
Can businesses reframe what they offer from something transactional to something more meaningful? Shopping for a new dress is a chance to make future memories. A pizza with a friend is precious time to connect. Surely that’s a reason to go out?
Forgoing FOGO for freedom
It may not feel like it now, but business will play a huge role as we edge towards a new normal. The actions they take today will have a huge impact, not just on their own bottom line, but on society as a whole.
People’s FOGO will eventually ebb away, replaced with desire to get on with life. What the crisis has proven, however, is that both people and businesses can change rapidly when they need to. And now is not the time to slow down.