While the difficulties we’ve collectively faced as individuals, businesses, and a society in 2020 are impossible to ignore, this year and more specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic, has also ushered in some silver linings in how we approach communication technology and helping (as opposed to merely selling to) customers.

In particular, this pandemic has highlighted the universal need for easy, digital-based access to health care and education, and the importance of safety and security across both. Because of this, more companies are creating technology that hands the reins over to their customers to access information on their own terms.

In seeing this shift, we’ve identified seven major ways that businesses have used COVID-19 as a time to build a better customer experience model focused on autonomy. Scroll to find examples of how innovative organizations are using tech to make people healthier, safer, and more educated about the world today.

Self-service—addressing common …

Financial services companies face a growing list of challenges (and opportunities) that increasingly require digital solutions. COVID-19 has brought that reality into stark focus, and has made digital capabilities a key differentiator in the financial services space.

With limitations around in person interactions, the pandemic has completely transformed how consumers interact with their banks. In fact, one BCG study found that 24 percent of consumers plan on visiting branches less—or not going altogether.

And why should they? If they can buy a car, order food, or even work and learn from home, why shouldn’t the same be true for their financial dealings?

The pandemic has undoubtedly created a lot of challenges and highlighted barriers to operations over the past couple of months. But, it has also served up a multitude of opportunities for banks to differentiate themselves through digitization.

For instance, one Bain study evaluated new account openings across national, …

The uncertainty created by COVID-19 has sent ripples through the world economy. The financial services industry has been impacted in major and unexpected ways, and has forced industry leaders and company decision makers to rapidly adapt, respond, and evolve to meet the demands of an unpredictable and rapidly morphing crisis.

To better understand how leaders across all industries are facing this new challenge, Twilio surveyed more than 2,500 enterprise decision makers in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Singapore about how COVID-19 is impacting their digital engagement strategies.

Let’s look deeper at how this global pandemic is affecting the digital communication strategies of financial services, focusing on some key areas:

Almost all companies are looking for new ways of engaging customers and stakeholders as a result of COVID-19; 60 percent of financial services companies say the pandemic sped up their digital transformation a great deal.

COVID-19 has …