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Customer experience (CX) is increasingly becoming a priority for brands focused on growth—and it should be. It has a huge impact on today’s consumers; 73 percent of customers rank CX as an essential factor when making purchasing decisions. In fact, when it comes to what consumers are looking for, only product quality and price rank higher. These same consumers share that considerations like speed, convenience, friendly service, and ease of use are vital to great CX.
Today, most customer-facing technology can be considered “CX,” and brands looking to improve their customer experience are seeking to streamline the tools, interfaces, and platforms their customers interact with to ease friction and give customers the best possible experience. It pays off to invest in CX and stay abreast of the top trends in customer experience. Eighty-four percent of companies that work to improve their CX strategy report increased revenue as a result.
Every touchpoint your customers come in contact with is part of your customer experience—and all of these combined touchpoints make up the total customer journey. Right now, the most customer-focused companies are starting to meticulously map out their brand’s end-to-end journeys to find opportunities to grow, while also identifying and addressing friction points that frustrate their customers.
So, what are the top customer experience trends in 2023, related to curating an exceptional customer journey? Here are the considerations that deserve your attention in 2023 and beyond.
1. Personalization Is Key
Personalization is sweeping the CX world for good reason: Personalization is important to your clients and customers. Ninety-one percent of consumers report that they are more likely to shop with brands that recognize them for who they are. This includes things like:
● Remembering past transactions
● Offering relevant services, products, and features
● Making recommendations based on who they are
Personalized content used to be a bonus feature; something that was nice to have. Now, it’s a necessity. For many consumers, it can be a deciding factor in determining brand loyalty and the companies that will retain their business.
Personalization must go beyond just populating a customer’s name into emails or sending birthday messages triggered by dates. Customers want unique product recommendations; they want someone to anticipate their needs. Powerful AI tools are empowering hyper-personalization in new ways that exceed anything we’ve seen before.
As Adobe shared in their blog on customer experience trends in 2023, “Our most loyal customers want us to know them, and they increasingly want us to anticipate their needs, consider their best interests, and create a brand experience that feels special.”
Adobe isn’t the only organization noticing this trend or signaling that business-to-business (B2B) companies should take note of the importance of personalization in CX. According to HubSpot, 66 percent of consumers expect companies to understand needs and expectations, and 82 percent of survey respondents expect that brands will accommodate these needs, preferences, and expectations.
2. The Growing Use of Chatbots
A surprising development has surfaced in the world of customer experience technology trends and personalization where customers want to feel seen and understood. Consumers are really embracing the use of chatbots.
Here’s why: Consumers interacting with brands via a digital format want fast (or even immediate) responses to their issues. Chatbots provide consumers with fast answers to their questions and quick responses. There is heightened interest now that ChatGPT and conversational AI have transformed how those conversations look and flow. Although still early, use cases for a dynamic more human-like large natural language processing virtual assistant have massive potential to expand the role of chat and make it easier to for customers to get their needs served the first time around.
As chatbots become more sophisticated and more capable of truly addressing consumers’ needs, they are a smart solution to provide consumers with the answers they need. They also keep the ticket load to a manageable level for customer service reps, helping them better serve those who need more in-depth solutions.
One report shared that 26 percent of companies across 21 countries offer AI and chatbot solutions, and an additional 25 percent are planning to add these kinds of features to better serve consumers and deliver a better CX. The gigantic hype and interest in ChatGPT has probably already blow these numbers out of the water with its potential to disrupt and bring AI solutions to the mainstream in a way its not been envisioned before.
Of course, consumers still want and need service from real people—but they are willing to interact with chatbots, too. In fact, in 2022, Adobe reported that 69 percent of consumers interacted with bots to deal with simple issues. This is a 23 percent increase from the previous year. We can certainly expect to see more chatbots in 2023 and beyond as a solution for better CX.
3. The Option for Self-Service
Today’s consumers are smart, well-versed in technology, and eager to solve their issues quickly and efficiently. After all, they have access to a wealth of information and solutions with just a few taps on their devices. Additionally, they have short attention spans and don’t want to wait for long periods for an issue to be resolved. That’s why one of the new trends in customer experience focuses on providing self-service options.
While customers are indeed craving things like personalization and chatbots, they also very much want these self-service options. In fact, in our 2022 Financial Services CXM Impact Report, nearly one-third of enterprises said they would wait just a few hours for a resolution to an issue with their financial product or service before moving to another option. What’s more, Harvard Business Review has shared that 81 percent of consumers work to address their concerns on their own before they connect with a live representative.
Customers want to take matters into their own hands. They want to access resources to address concerns and issues on their own. Organizations should take note, and invest in knowledge delivery technologies, possibly trained with AI to serve up information that allows customers to resolve issues on their own, in the channels they prefer.
Many of your clients and customers don’t want to pick up a phone to connect with your brand. Today, 40 percent of consumers prefer self-service options to human contact; they appreciate this option as quick and convenient.
What is the benefit of self-service solutions for you? It frees up your team to take on bigger challenges and provide even better support to customers and clients who really need it.
4. The Importance of Data Security
Customers want chatbots, personalization, and the option to help themselves. But they also expect data security to be an integral part of their customer experience. If a customer shares their data with you, they want you to use it to help them AND they want to know you are doing everything in your power to keep that information safe. This means that you must prioritize data security, but also:
● Clearly share data practices in your privacy notices
● Explicitly ask customers for consent to use data and share how the data will be used and the potential threats and issues that could happen
It may not immediately seem like data security is a CX issue, but for today’s consumer, it really is. In fact, 1 in 5 customers want companies to have as little information about them and as little of their data as possible. Your customers need to know they can trust you with their information, and that if you have their data, you’ll only use it to help them.
This can be a make-or-break factor for consumers today. Seventy-one percent of consumers would abandon a brand if they shared their personal data without their express permission. They want to know you are taking steps to protect them instead.
5. Predictive Analytics
There have already been hints of this trend throughout this article, but it cannot be overstated: Predictive analytics is shaping the future of CX.
Brands have more access to customer data than ever, and you can harness this data to provide better, more intuitive customer experiences. It means more personalization, better predictions about what specific customers and target audiences want as a whole, and more data to inform your essential decision-making.
Big data, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) are helping many organizations know when customers need to make a new purchase, when they might need another service, or when they are considering new products.
But it can do more than just improve personalization. It is being used to accurately forecast coming trends and buyer behaviors and come up with future insights.
Predictive analytics is taking the abundance of information you already have on customers and using it to better serve their needs, which in turn, creates more loyal, sticky relationships. You’ll know more about where to invest, the areas that need tweaking, and what are next steps to attract, nurture, and keep your most valued customers.
Take Charge of Customer Experience Management Trends with OvationCXM
Ovation’s CXMEngine was created with exceptional CX in mind. We’ll connect your current technologies and partner ecosystems to unlock visibility into your customer interactions from end-to-end to better serve your customers and drive growth. Without changing your existing tech stack, writing code or rearchitecting. We offer pre-built connectors to some of the world’s biggest platforms, from CRMs to ticketing and phone systems, you may already use, allowing you to act on the valuable data they hold.
Proactively deliver experiences tailored to your customers by connecting your legacy systems to gain a unified view of your customer, whether their touchpoints happen within the organization or outside it with third-parties.
Even though customer experience future trends and insights can change and evolve, OvationCXM is the first platform built to transform customer journeys in the moments that matter, unleashing positive business benefits and leading to happier customers. CXMEngine also has sophisticated, but easy-to-use journey orchestration and automation tools to design unlimited unique journeys so customers feel seen, heard, and cared for on a personal level.
Are you ready to learn more? Connect with our team today!
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