Customer experience trends refer to emerging patterns or significant changes in the way companies interact with their customers and how customers perceive and experience the products, services and processes offered by those companies. These trends often reflect changes in customer expectations and behaviours, as well as technological and cultural developments.
In the digital and highly competitive era of 2024, Customer Experience becomes the battleground where brands fight for loyalty and recognition. In this context of constant change and ever-increasing demands, Customer Experience trends emerge as beacons that guide business strategy towards success or stagnation.
We tell you the 5 trends for this year:
1. Hyper-personalisation
Hyper-personalisation is redefining the way businesses interact with customers, tailoring offers and services in real time through the use of behavioural analytics, data science and artificial intelligence. Through this analysis, companies can provide content, offers, products or services that are uniquely tailored to each user.
Fact: According to Reset’s article “Hyper-personalisation in the future of business”, companies such as Amazon and Netflix have derived 35% and 60%, respectively, of their sales from hyper-personalised recommendations, while Starbucks’ incremental revenue tripled through personalised offers.
A company’s revenues tend to increase after a certain level of adoption of product or service customisation.
Example: Amazon uses predictive algorithms and collaborative filtering to personalise the user experience, offering recommendations based on purchase and browsing history.
Obstacles: Implementing hyper-personalisation requires robust data analytics infrastructures, as well as ethical handling of customer information and privacy management.
2. Customer service powered by artificial intelligence (AI)
One of the most prominent aspects of AI in customer service is its ability to automate repetitive and manual tasks. AI-powered chatbots, for example, can answer frequently asked questions instantly and accurately. This frees up customer service agents to focus on more complex and higher-value issues.
Fact: According to Qualtrics XM Institute’s “Consumer Trends Report”, 48% of customers are comfortable interacting with the company’s AI.
However, most still prefer human channels to digital channels, especially for sensitive tasks such as resolving a problem with an invoice. Digital channels are often left for simpler, more transactional activities, such as checking the status of an order.
Example: The company that has had success using a chatbot for customer service is Aeromexico. After the implementation of the “Aerobot”, the airline quotes, sells flights and handles more than 90% of customer queries via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. In addition, passengers can check the status of their baggage in real time automatically.
Obstacles: Acquiring specialised talent represents a challenge for companies in AI projects due to its complexity. In addition, trust in AI systems is compromised by the potential for bias in training data and lack of transparency in decision-making, while privacy and security are significant concerns still under regulation.
3. Proactive customer service
Proactive customer service involves anticipating customer needs and problems by predicting them, offering solutions before they arise and providing a satisfactory experience at all times.
Fact: According to Gartner, proactive customer service and outreach solutions will outperform reactive strategies by 2025.
In addition, a study by inContact revealed that approximately 87% of customers want companies to communicate proactively and 73% admitted to having developed a more positive image of the company as a result.
Example: An outstanding example of proactive customer service is provided by Delta Air Lines. Delta has implemented a number of measures to anticipate the needs of its passengers and provide them with a satisfactory experience. For example, it sends flight notifications (schedule change, boarding gates), automatically assigns seats based on pre-registered preferences and availability, and has a proactive compensation programme in case of flight delays or cancellations, offering flight credits or travel vouchers before passengers even approach the customer service desk.
Barriers: These include complex data management and the need for staff training to use data effectively, as well as associated costs and concerns about the privacy and security of customer data.
4. Omni-channel experience
Redefines the interaction between businesses and customers by seamlessly integrating multiple communication channels, such as physical shops, websites, mobile apps and social media. It enables customers to initiate and complete transactions at any touchpoint, providing a consistent and personalised experience across all channels. Omnichannel empowers consumers by offering them flexible options for interacting with the brand, which improves customer satisfaction and fosters long-term loyalty.
Fact: According to Invespro, companies with omni-channel strategies retain 89% of their customers on average, compared to a retention rate of 33% for companies that do not have a consistent omni-channel strategy in place across all channels.
Example: Disney demonstrates a deep understanding of the omni-channel experience from its responsive and functional website to the mobile app, which facilitate planning and the in-park experience. Its MagicBand programme takes the experience even further by serving as a room key, storing photos with characters and facilitating food ordering, as well as integrating the Fast Pass to further enhance the vacation experience.
Obstacles: Challenges include integrating data between digital and traditional channels, ensuring consistency in brand representation and messaging across channels, and internally coordinating deep understanding of the customer journey and collaboration with suppliers to maintain consistency and quality of service.
5. Focus on the customer journey
The customer journey represents the complete journey a consumer takes from discovery of a product or service to purchase and beyond. Understanding this journey is critical for businesses as it allows them to identify critical touch points, customer needs and wants at each stage. In addition, understanding the customer journey makes it easier to personalise the experience, optimise sales processes and build lasting customer relationships. We must focus on customer journeys rather than isolated interactions.
Fact: Customer journey mapping can identify customers at risk of churning. While not all may be retained, it is worth the effort as acquiring a new customer, according to Bain & Company, can be 5 to 25 times more costly than keeping an existing one.
Example: Companies such as Lancôme, Lego and Starbucks use the customer journey to make strategic decisions by understanding and improving the Customer Experience at every touch point. They use a variety of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) at different stages of the customer journey, such as customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, conversion rate and customer retention, among others, to measure the success and effectiveness of their strategies and continuously improve the Customer Experience.
Obstacles: Implementing the customer journey in a company can face obstacles, such as lack of customer understanding, resistance to change, organisational culture and limited resources. Overcoming these challenges requires a strategic customer-centric approach, strong leadership , executive support and the adoption of appropriate technologies to improve the customer experience.
These trends reflect the increasing importance companies are placing on Customer Experience and how they are evolving to meet the demands of an ever-changing marketplace. Effective implementation of these trends can help companies stand out in a competitive business environment and build strong relationships with their customers.
What did you think of these 5 trends and have you been able to identify any new ones?
PS: This article was written with the help of GTP chat, an artificial intelligence tool.
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