At Credico, we place customers at the forefront of decision-making. Here are our predictions for upcoming customer experience (CX) trends for 2022:
Balancing humanity and automation
As we progress through the COVID-19 pandemic, automation, such as the use of chatbots, is at an all-time high – but some jobs are simply more difficult to do away from an in-person office environment. The drive to replace humans with machinery is accelerating as companies struggle to reduce absenteeism and keep operating costs low. The U.S. shed around 40 million jobs at the peak of the pandemic, and while some have come back, others will never return, with one group of economists estimating that 42% of the jobs lost are gone forever.
Brands must find a balance between humanity and automation and ensure that they don’t lose the personality of their businesses by cutting out face-to-face communication indefinitely. While many firms have a chatbot responding to some FAQs from customers, most consumers are still reluctant to trust those responses. Human customer service is still an essential requirement for any brand looking to grow and support the initiative of having a positive customer experience.
Increase in multi-channel services
Today, customers are spread across multiple platforms, and companies must make sure that their marketing efforts are aligned to keep consumers engaged across all channels.
A recent survey by Adobe showed that companies investing in omnichannel customer engagement can increase their closure rates by 25% and enjoy a 10% increase in growth rate – much faster than those only using a single channel to market – which is virtually unheard of today.
For this reason, the number of companies investing in omnichannel experience for customers has increased significantly, from 20 percent to 80 percent.
However, brands must keep their messaging consistent across all platforms and choose the most effective platforms as their lead for communication with customers.
Customer frustration leads to churn
72 percent of customers are likely to share their positive experiences with six other people. However, when they’re not satisfied with a brand, they will share their negative experience with fifteen potential customers.
The dark side is that those unsatisfied customers complain to friends rather than directly to the business; only 1 in 26 customers actually take the time to send a complaint when customer service isn’t up to scratch. Therefore, we must assume that lack of complaints doesn’t necessarily mean that customers are wholly satisfied. Even ⅓ of loyal customers are likely to leave after just one bad experience.
These three customer experience trends, as we have observed through our work with clients across the USA, Canada, UK, and South Africa, represent very real opportunities – and risks – for businesses.
Consumers have more choices than ever before. Creating a positive customer experience is crucial to the success of a business. Happy customers become loyal consumers, who will buy more and, in turn, boost revenue. Speak to us here at Credico to gain more real-world examples and key trends that will shape the future of your business and maintain a high level of customer satisfaction.