Future of Customer Experience – Experience is Everything. Get it Right.

The future belongs to those that can create incredible, tangible customer experiences. So, make sure you are giving them a great experience of feeling heard and appreciated. It will minimize fiction, maximize efficiency, and maintain a human element.

Are You Ready for the Future of Customer Experience?

Get ready today, because your customers are ready now. Instead of treating customers based on transactions, treat them as real people. The reason is, customer experience is now the new currency that’s overtaking price and product as the key differentiator. Did you know that 32% of customers worldwide parted away with a brand because of just one bad experience?

You’d wonder what constitutes a bad experience? Although the surface reasons may be broad, often the root cause is a failure to adopt the customer service solution. See how the digital disruption and shifting customer habits are impacting customer service on a micro and macro level every day. When this process is valid now, it becomes suddenly obsolete the next moment, often overtaken by new expectations, strategies, and best practices.

In order to stay competitive, companies need to navigate to this shifting landscape, tapping into the latest technologies and customer experience trends.

Here are 6 Customer Experience Trends Every Company Must Get Ready for.

1 Understanding Customers

Surface-level understanding of customers no longer works. Companies need to know who their customers are, where they live, how old they are, and various other basic information. In-depth information is necessary. With fast-evolving technology, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), they can get a complete view of customers and markets. Consider the biometric banking system today. Banking ATMs do no longer need their customers to carry cards. Facial recognition technology allows their customers to do cardless banking transactions, using artificial technology (AI) to extract human data on the fly.

2 Anticipating Customer Needs

The more you care for your customers, the better you can predict what they might want or need in the future. That is predictive analytics at work to improve customer experience. Facial recognition technology can be a great aid at a restaurant to learn many things about your customers as they sit down to dine. It can help you to identify their likes or dislikes, allergies, and more, and you can offer recommendations to them that fit their preferences. It also allows you to better plan and predict demand and therefore reduce waste.

3 Adding Value to Relationships

Unlike the past, now your customers expect you more than just offering a product or service. In the past, banks used to provide checking and savings accounts, health insurance companies used to provide health insurance. Today’s customers want more value-added to the relationships you offer. You can add the value customers expect when you understand who they are and their needs.

4 Augmented Customer Experience

Latest technologies like augmented, virtual and mixed reality facilitate interacting with customers in innovative ways. See the eyeglass companies, providing customers a chance to try on different glasses through their smartphones. It streamlines the decision-making process with augmented reality.

5 Services Over Products

In the next few years, we will see a shift from selling products to selling services around products. In new generations, a shift from consumerism is being observed. Figuring out new ways to sell consumers new versions of products they already have is no longer a good business. Companies now understand they have to re-imagine many of their business practices, specifically what they actually sell to customers. They have to think more about the help that customers actually need instead of simply offering new products to sell customers. In fact, new generation consumers are reported to prefer spending money on experiences over things to having access to something instead of owning them outright.

6 Culture Over Customers

Customer experience isn’t all about customers. Excellent customer experience starts with superior employee experience. Companies now realize it and, therefore, are focusing on employee experience and create a cohesive culture. No matter how much a company beats their customer experience drum, until it manifests in their own work culture, they’re not going to have the culture they need to achieve velocity.

In this time of COVID crisis, it takes a lot to ensure customer experience. In fact, many companies are seeking primarily to stay afloat, let alone overwhelm their customers when it comes to CX. The point is, however, overwhelming customers with the CX may be the things that will keep your company alive and future-ready. It’s up to all of your leaders to figure out innovative ways to do it.

Are you sure your leaders have the leadership skills to find unique ways to continue with CX during pandemic?

Promise Training & Consultancy is offering both virtual and classroom customer management training.

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