Customer experience (CX) has become one of the most popular topics of discussions in our present business world. It was ranked high as a major determinant for enterprise success in 2016, and the year before that, it was the leading concern of business and technology leaders. This new interest in CX is not unfounded. Businesses that focus on CX are observed to have stronger revenue growth and to do better than the competition by no less than 30 percent.
To this end, companies are currently interested in what the future of CX holds and how best they can leverage technology to optimize their customer experience. However, CX is evolving at such a fast pace that keeping up with the changes can be very challenging. Here are some of the key trends that will shape the future of CX and will provide insight to companies.
Data centralization
By centralizing customer data, less effort is spent by the customer in accessing products/services, and the customer experience can be better personalized. This simplification process is currently being adopted by software companies and will undoubtedly become the norm in the coming years.
CX and Marketing
Companies are currently experiencing a trend where positive customer experiences create a more competitive advantage than the product itself. This has caused a reinvention of marketing as contemporary marketing campaigns are more CX driven. The battlefield has changed, and those companies who do not adopt this engaging and collaborative marketing run the risk of losing their customers.
Predictive Analytics
Consumer behaviors are being monitored by companies and this data when coupled with consumer emotion provides unimaginable insights. Predictive analytics although at its formative stage shows great promise and will be extremely important in framing the CX future.
Data Driven Marketing
As more marketers realize that customer experience is the new criterion for enterprise success, more efforts are being put into optimizing CX. This has made data-driven marketing all the more necessary.
CX Driven Organization
Major companies and organizations the world over are updating their customer experience offerings in an attempt to retain their relevance. This trend is not bound to slow down anytime soon.
Other trends that are worthy of mention and will be instrumental in shaping customer experience includes the increase the number of customers that demand better CX from companies over social media, embedded customer service becoming more prevalent, and the extinction of traditional customer engagement tools.
The truth remains that the single most important factor in customers experience is gaining the customer’s attention. And with the average human attention span being nine seconds, the struggle is always on to get as much customer attention as possible. Marketers in this economy who want to compete favorably in the hyper-competitive futuristic digital economy will have to adopt creative customer experience strategies to promote their brand.
In this regards, the future of CX affords these companies two options: seize or save consumer attention in an attempt to create a monumental customer experience.
