I've recently moved to Australia. Coming from New Zealand made the move easier; the shared language, similar cultural values, and similarities between the two countries certainly eased the process.

The experience led me to reflect on the significant role brands play in helping new migrants achieve milestones. From booking flights to finding a place to live, and how that experience would be exponentially more challenging for people coming to Australia or New Zealand from places without those shared characteristics.  

It’s important for organisations to take these experiences seriously as Australia and New Zealand are becoming increasingly diverse. Between 2022 and 2023, 737,000 people migrated to Australia and over 249,000 came to New Zealand, bringing their unique cultural backgrounds, languages, traditions and values from their home countries with them. Within these groups is a significant number of people who have come from countries where English is not a primary language.  

Through thoughtful customer experience (CX), brands can help make these moves a little easier. Understanding the nuances impacting CX and working to ease or lessen the potential barriers faced by migrants is a values-led approach to building brand loyalty.  ‍

Common milestones, invisible barriers 

When establishing themselves in a country, new migrants face invisible barriers that make interactions harder in the beginning, such as understanding local dialects, humour, and cultural nuances in how people interact.  

There are also systemic barriers that are difficult regardless of cultural understanding. How do you set up a bank account, find a rental property, or sign up for a phone plan? While these processes may seem simple to some, they can differ greatly across countries.  

Organisations need to understand that people may need to unlearn previous understandings and assumptions to move forward. The uncertainties and unknowns of moving to a new country can contribute to cognitive overload.

By understanding more about what migrant communities are facing, and using an empathetic approach to designing CX, brands can help individuals feel a sense of belonging more quickly – helping them reach key milestones, adapt to what's new and navigate uncertainty along the way.  ‍

Three ways brands can help: inform, support, empower 

Brands can help ease the cognitive load for people by helping make day-to-day decisions in new social, cultural and physical environments easier.

Drawing on the learnings from our research, TRA’s CX team have observed three key areas for brands to consider when using CX to improve – inform, support and empower. 

Inform

• Less is more, so focus on communicating essential information. For instance, explore the use of AI to customise and simplify information delivery.
• Use visual elements and design features, such as visual aids and iconography, to mitigate language barriers. 
• Focus on building capability the first time an individual interacts with you, to improve their next experiences. For example, providing multi-lingual support and educational resources early on will help build confidence.
• Build flexibility into processes to reduce the consequences of mistakes. This can be done through real-time user feedback, predictive personalisation, employee empowerment and alternative journey routes.

Support  

• Make access to support easy and non-intrusive. Simplify access to community support channels or create tailored support teams.
• Embrace cultural nuances. Explore cultural training for staff and build a diverse customer service team.
• Offer options for customers to engage. Forced interaction channels will have a disproportionally large impact on migrants. Explore ways to leverage family, local heroes and relevant outreach channels.

Empower  

• Provide the tools needed for migrants to engage on their terms. 
• Be transparent in decision-making criteria, processes and policies that impact customers such as pricing, return policies, or data handling practices.
• Explore the use of personalised language and journeys that the different needs of individuals.
• Visually signpost progress to create a sense of positive reinforcement.
• Measure migrant-specific engagement and feedback loops around tools to assess success. ‍

Everyone stands to benefit from a nuanced approach 

Diversity and inclusion are important considerations that extends to the experiences brands offer – not just the stories they tell. Getting CX right for new migrants is an opportunity to deliver on your brand promise, build brand equity and increase customer loyalty with a new audience. Creating a welcoming and inclusive experience for all, regardless of background, is not just good practice, it's good business.