William Higham on the importance of understanding consumer behaviour in volatile times

Recent disruption has reshaped the workplace, as well as the customer attitudes which are key to future growth. In an exclusive interview with the Inspirational Leadership Speakers Agency, corporate strategy expert William Higham explains how businesses can more accurately predict and respond to changes in consumer behaviour.

From your perspective, how have recent global disruptions reshaped the modern workplace, and which structural and behavioural trends should business leaders be actively preparing for?

Forward, the events of recent years have kind of created an understandable anxiety amongst business owners, employees, um, and so on. And I think there is this nervousness about what’s going to happen. And I think we need to make people feel more comfortable about that.

I think business owners need to create this vision. They need to understand that things aren’t going to suddenly go back to normal and that they have to be ready for the uncertain world. But that uncertain world can be an exciting one. And actually, for the smart company, they can use this uncertainty to identify new business opportunities, new growth opportunities.

I think if you look at something like Covid, it showed that actually, if we have to change, we can change very quickly. It’s amazing how quickly people changed. If you look at, you know, just a few months for people to organise that, some of the office managers and COOs did a remarkable job. Employees changed remarkably quickly and we got very used to it.

Yes, there were teething troubles, and yes, some companies adapted better than others, but we did really well. And it just shows that you can do that. It also shows that traditional ways of working, the old-fashioned ways of working, aren’t necessarily the best ones for this time.

It forced us, in effect, to sort of see the future of the way that business is done. And I think that was a good thing.

In terms of what trends businesses need to prepare for, I think the key really is uncertainty. Companies need to be aware that the world is going to be volatile. That means companies themselves need to adapt to this and be more agile and more resilient, ready for whatever comes.

It also means that there are certain things you can predict about consumers. In a volatile, unstable world, consumers will be looking for, I believe, three things. They’ll be looking for control, because the world’s been out of control. They’ll be looking for comfort, because it’s all a bit stressful and anxious. And they’ll be looking for community, a sense of support.

As consumers, we’ve lost a lot of trust in big institutions, governments, media, some of the biggest businesses. This third thing, the three Cs, control, comfort and community, is going to be a key trend moving forward.

I’ve actually created a new talk around this. This is a really important trend. It’s one where I think it’s a huge win-win opportunity for businesses. You have very stressed, anxious customers out there. They don’t have the same support networks they used to have from business or government. They are looking for support.

If companies can offer that support, if they can provide the best kind of customer experience, give them advice on how to live their lives, give them advice on how to save money, help them in this new time, make them feel supported, make them feel part of what I call a brand community, then I think we’ll see huge levels of loyalty.

All of the stats show it. The more engaged people are with a brand, the more they’ll spend with it, the more loyal they’ll be. And in this really unstable time, your customers are looking for help where they can get it. If you can provide that help, you really are going to gain a huge competitive advantage.

Why does consumer behaviour remain such a critical driver of commercial success, and how should organisations rethink their approach to the buying journey in today’s highly competitive landscape?

To me, everything really hinges on the consumer. I’ve always been into people, as it were. I started off in the music industry, working with everyone from Michael Jackson to the Rolling Stones, doing marketing.

And as much as I love the musicians, I realised that my fascination was with music fans and customers. And I think that’s what’s led me through. I believe wholeheartedly, and I think all of the statistics and examples are proving me right now, that the customer-led company does best.

This is going to be true more and more as we move forward. Increasingly, you need to focus on customer needs. You need to be much more customer-focused than you ever were. Customers don’t have to be loyal. They can move wherever they want. They’ve got all this choice.

So, if you can make sure that your customer is kind of your North Star, then that’s, I think, the best way forward.

I also think it’s really important to look at consumer attitudes. People talk about consumer behaviours all the time. Are people going online? Are they using mobile for this or that? And I think that’s hugely important. It’s a great way of creating platforms for sales and marketing.

But actually, I think the key is to look at consumer attitudes. Consumer attitudes predate, and therefore help you predict, consumer behaviours. We don’t suddenly do something for no reason. We don’t suddenly decide we’re going to be greener for no reason.

It’s much more important to focus on consumer attitudes than consumer behaviours. Consumer behaviours are vital, but if you can identify how consumer attitudes are changing, it’s easier to predict how consumer behaviours are going to change in the future.

We don’t suddenly change our behaviours for no reason. There must be something driving that. We change our behaviours because our attitudes have changed. If you keep an eye on consumer attitudes, it really helps you predict what your customers are going to do.

What practical frameworks or insights can businesses use to develop a deeper, more predictive understanding of consumer behaviour beyond surface-level data?

I think, basically, it’s really useful to understand some basic human psychology. Anything you can do, whatever department you’re in, if you are consumer-facing, it’s really important to try and get some understanding of that.

I’ve learned so much over the years and it’s really helped me. Typically, any human is motivated by their emotions, whether that’s fear, happiness, loneliness, embarrassment, whatever it is.

If you can pick up on some of those emotions, you can understand what is motivating customers right now. Try to identify what might affect those emotions. It might be the economic situation, the geopolitical situation, or new personal technologies coming through.

If you can pick up on what some of those drivers might be, then you can understand what the new emotions might be, and therefore what the new attitudes are, and therefore what the new behaviours are.

It’s really key. Sometimes I feel like I’m a cross between a journalist and a psychiatrist, understanding what’s happening in the world, looking at the news, and understanding how that’s going to affect customer attitudes and behaviours.