Top Customer Experience Trends For 2022
Customer Experience (CX) is becoming a significant concern for most business owners. In recent years we have seen many small and large companies investing a fortune to improve customer experience and stay ahead of the competition.
Whether it’s for keeping the customer data safe by opting for IT security risk assessments or using AI-powered chatbots to engage with the prospects 24×7, customer experience is evolving very fast. Professional marketers are forced to keep on track with the latest trends in customer experience.
Some studies have shown that customizing customer experience can lead to customer satisfaction. At least 55% of companies believe that enhancing customers’ experience should become a top priority for any business intending to grow in 2021 and beyond.
If you are looking forward to improving the customer experience with your brand, you don’t want to skip the following trends for 2022.
1. Balancing humanity and automation
In 2021 brands are going to find a balance between humanity and automation.
Marketing automation is a proven way for any company to reduce costs related to customer services and speeding up the resolution time for inquiries. However, how customers feel about automation is a major deal for most brands today.
While businesses want to have a chatbot responding to some of the FAQs from customers, some prospects would like to have real people respond to their inquiries. In 2021 most consumers are still reluctant to trust responses from chatbots. This means that human customer service is still a major requirement for any brand looking forward to growing.
To improve the service aspect of digital CX, having a human touch in customer support is still crucial for most brands. For instance, chatbots like Zendesk live chat can be used along with human customer care to boost CX in the long run.
2. Increase in multi-channeling service
Today, most companies are focusing on keeping their customers more engaged on different platforms.
Brands are using more than one platform to keep in touch with consumers.
In one of the recent surveys by Adobe, it is established that companies investing in omnichannel customer engagement can increase their closure rates by 25% and enjoy a 10% increase in growth rate.
For this reason, the number of companies investing in omnichannel experience for customers has increased significantly from 20% to 80%.
Customers may accept communication from different channels as long as the business is consistent. It is also important that the business chooses the most ideal and effective means and platform for communication.
Providing consistent and reliable communication across different channels should be the primary objective of any business.
3. Improving customer experience on mobile devices
Most customers are using their mobile phones to shop online. Mobile is the leading source of internet traffic today, followed by desktop.
That means when businesses come up with eCommerce apps and websites, they should focus more on developing different versions of the site and app for screens. Increasing usability on mobile is one of the best eCommerce customer experience strategies to generate more profits.
Mobile customer service is expected to soar when it comes to providing a positive experience to customers. A brand with lousy mobile expertise is likely to lose most of its customers.
Around 57% of customers are more concerned about how a brand’s website appears on mobile and would not recommend a business with a poorly designed website.
Also, 50% of customers are not likely to visit a website if it is not functioning well. That means, in 2022, a business should focus more on providing a better mobile experience for customers to boost engagement and sales.
When consumers are seeking customer support on mobile devices, they should find the process swift.
Companies that want to adopt this trend in boosting CX should focus more on increasing website navigation, decreasing load times, and improving site search on mobile.
4. Customer frustration leads to churn
There is more than a business should know when handling customers.
At least 72% of customers are likely to share their positive experiences with six other customers. Conversely, when customers are not satisfied with a brand, they are likely to share their expertise with 15 potential customers. Therefore, improving the Customer Satisfaction Rating (CSAT) score is vital for businesses.
The only dark side of customers is that they won’t share their frustrations with the business directly. Only 1 in 26 customers are likely to complain when you are not handling them well. Most customers will leave when they feel unhappy.
This data also points to the fact that it doesn’t mean customers are satisfied with your services when they are not complaining. Since most customers don’t share their frustrations with the business, the absence of negative feedback is never a measure of satisfaction.
In most cases, customer expectations will always remain at peak, and it’s the responsibility of any business to meet and exceed them. When you decide to provide the best customer experience with your brand, you should ensure consistency.
According to a report by PwC, 1 in 3 customers will leave a brand they are loyal to after one bad experience.
What is a bad experience? Customers have their unique perception of what constitutes bad CX. Sometimes not following up on customers when they make inquiries can qualify as a bad experience.
5. A change in the role of the contact center
In 2021, we should expect the role of a contact center in a business to change. There has been an increasing focus on contact center operations by most brands. The trends show no signs of reducing.
With most customers facing difficult times in 2021, they are likely to turn to contact centers for reassurance in these uncertain times. Therefore, the contact center will continue being the face and touch-point of any brand. Any restrictions on the contact center will affect how customers receive in-person customer service.
The responsibilities of a contact center continue to grow as we approach 2022, and so does its significance to any brand. We should expect contact centers to have full ownership of inbound customer interactions.
This will include revenue generation, affiliate marketing operations, and customer support. In 2022 we should expect businesses to collect a lot of information from customers through the contact centers and apply data analytics in other areas of the business.
Final Thoughts
As 2022 is nearing, we should expect a lot of changes in how brands approach customer experience. Companies are more likely to integrate technology like CRM and improved communication in attempts to improve CX. We should also expect customers to do competitors and customer research to establish what most customers like.
Source: Top Customer Experience Trends For 2022 | CustomerThink
Eelco Krikke