What is the “Loneliness Crisis” and Why It Matters For Businesses

Connections Have Plateaued — It’s Time for a Radical Change in Tech-Powered Communication

Connection is what fills our cup and makes us human — but recent evolutions in how we live, work, play, and communicate have changed the way we connect with people and brands.

We’re experiencing major macroeconomic and sociocultural shifts, rapid advancements in technology, and new generations influencing culture. There’s been a plateau in growth since 2021, and the global economy is predicted to grow slowly in the coming years. 

Many business leaders are hitting walls trying to achieve growth in an unpredictable global economy. In APAC, we’re only just beginning to feel the tension from inflation easing up. And the post-COVID rebalancing phase is slowly starting to transition to a period of upward growth.

With that, there’s an opportunity and a challenge for businesses to adapt early and meet consumers’ new needs. Business leaders will have to rethink some of what they know, and go back to the chalkboard to map out a new strategy. As businesses plan their growth strategy to capitalise on the predicted surge in demand, they’ll need to fundamentally reconsider how they approach connecting.

How Does Connection — Or a Lack Thereof — Impact Businesses? 

Over the past decade, people have gotten comfortable with technology — perhaps too comfortable. They’re opting to do almost everything digitally. And the “loneliness epidemic” that’s followed has gotten so bad, it’s been deemed a public health crisis. 

Businesses evolve how they communicate with customers and potential buyers based on societal trends — so by now, most brands have invested in the digital experience, making their way online and going omnichannel. But recently, customer expectations have skyrocketed, particularly in APAC. Consumers expect superior customer service, a seamless digital experience, and communication channels that meet them where they are — no matter the size of the company they’re buying from. 

51% of companies in APAC have had to restructure their customer-facing teams to meet customer expectations.

In response to new digital expectations, disruptor brands, focused primarily on the customer experience, have flooded the scene and taken market share from incumbent brands. And today, nearly every successful business understands the need for a strong digital presence and quality customer service.

But there’s a new challenge — consumers are overloaded with online noise. It’s getting harder and harder to reach prospects and customers — and almost impossible to establish genuine connections.

It’s gotten noisy out there, and the current strategies to engage audiences aren’t working.

Something Isn’t Working in APAC Digital Marketing

Over 90% of decision makers in Australia and Singapore are currently experiencing business challenges. Both for the B2B and B2C brands, growth struggles are coming from 1) connection issues and 2) market conditions — and they only have control over one of these.

More than 90% of decision makers in APAC businesses are experiencing challenges. Disconnection shows up when a brand is unable to reach its customers in a meaningful way.

While technology kept us connected and functioning during the height of the pandemic, it’s possible that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of tech-powered convenience. Has this come at the expense of true and meaningful connections with our customers? Have we gotten to a point where we’re unnecessarily spamming them with information that doesn't add value and isn’t personal to their experience?

Brands need to find the balance between technology and people, and use tech to give teams more time for relationship-building

The future, as determined by customers, is in connected experiences. The pendulum is swinging back — so, as always, businesses need to adapt and respond. A connected customer growth strategy, built on community and mutual support, can help your business grow and your customers succeed. What does this mean? It means ensuring that your customers (and prospective customers) are receiving the right, most helpful information at the right time, and on their preferred channels. To do this, brands will have to do a lot of listening and connecting.  

To learn more about how APAC businesses can adjust to today’s consumer needs, we asked 1,000+ Australian consumers and 1,000+ Singaporean consumers, as well as 750+ business leaders from the region, about their experiences as both consumers and buyers in 2023. Let’s dig into the data.

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