Customer experience has progressively risen to the forefront of businesses' priorities in recent years. It has become a widely discussed topic, generating considerable buzz across industries. Brands are eager to gain insights into customer experience as it undergoes rapid evolution, and they are actively seeking to identify the upcoming major trends in this area. If you share this enthusiasm, you've landed on the perfect page. This blog will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of customer experience and highlight the significant customer experience trends for 2023.
Another year has passed by, and customer experience has been evolving faster than ever. Since the past few years, CX has continued to keep pace with the advancement of technology and has kept growing rapidly. Every year, we can see something new in the CX industry. Since the pandemic, the way companies interact with customers has changed a lot. This is because businesses have shifted to using digital methods more, and people's behaviors as consumers have also changed. This year, there is a whole list of CX trends that are predicted to be ruling the CX industry. Here are 6 noteworthy customer experience trends to watch out for:
Undoubtedly, personalization and customization are the ways to go about CX in 2023. According to Salesforce, about 52% of customers want personalized offers and services as compared to 49% of people in 2019. With technology, customer expectations have also advanced, and they have become smarter with time. In the modern era, personalized experiences have become universally appealing. With the rise of AI and technology, there is no justification for providing generic experiences to your customers any longer. Experience management software allows you to capture feedback from your customers and strategize accordingly. You need to carefully collect and analyze the collected data to cater to every pain point of the customer. This data analysis would help you provide a better overall experience to your customers in a more personalized approach. Such personalized strategies are the way to go this year. For instance, Personalized email headers have higher click-through rates. This might look trivial but in the macro environment, these micro-steps will do wonders for your brand. In 2023, one of the most prominent customer experience trends would be personalization. This trend empowers businesses to effectively target specific customers at the optimal moment and address their precise challenges, resulting in exceptional customer experiences.
The upcoming important change in customer experience CX is automation. As your company gets bigger and serves more customers, it becomes difficult for humans to handle everything. So, technology steps in to help. Automation means using technology to make things easier and provide a better customer experience. It's not about replacing humans but using technology to our benefit. This trend has already started and will keep advancing in the CX industry. According to a report, about 67% of customers prefer interacting with self-help tools over actual human interactions in the initial stage of customer service. Some automation applications that we might experience in 2023 are the rise of chatbots and voice assistants. These AI-powered assistants allow you to create a seamless experience for your customers and help in alleviating any issues that your customers might have. To roll out automation efficiently, you need to understand your customer personas and their expectations of your brand. It is essential to your brand that you are well aware of the pain points of your customers and offer meaningful solutions accordingly.
It has been three years and all of us are still living in a pandemic. The pandemic has forced many businesses to change the way they function. One such substantial change due to the pandemic is the shift to digital customer experiences. Since most of the customer interactions are happening online, it has become really necessary for brands like yours to provide a seamless digital customer experience to your customers.
“The Customer Experience Is the Next Competitive Battleground”- Jerry Gregoire
Digital Customer Experience is not a new thing but rather an old one. It’s one of the simplest concepts to understand and may get complicated for some people to understand at the same time. In simple terms, digital customer experience refers to improving the experience your customers have when they interact with your brand online, i.e., visiting your website, purchasing something from it, etc. The process of visiting a website, surfing around that website, and finally making the purchase decision, all comes under the digital customer experience journey. Some important aspects of improving digital customer experience are-
Many such factors come together to form a good digital customer experience. In 2023, if you want your brand to reach new heights, you need to understand everything about your target audience and create a digital customer experience strategy accordingly.
Back in 2018, PwC released a report indicating that within the next few years, Customer Experience (CX) would surpass price and product as a significant factor in consumer decision-making. Now, in 2023, it appears that this prediction is indeed becoming a reality. However, the aspect that often perplexes many individuals is the reason behind CX becoming such a crucial differentiator for customers. They question why customers would prioritize a better experience over a more affordable product. The reason for this is quite simple: A good CX provides value for money, as simple as that. In this competitive world, where customers have an abundance of options to choose from, no customer likes to buy from somewhere where they have a negative experience during their customer experience journey. In that same report, PwC also mentioned that almost 16% of customers were willing to pay more to get a better customer experience. This shows that the product and price are not the only things that matter anymore and it’s time for brands like yours to start investing in customer experience in 2023.
Predictive analytics in customer experience means using data to guess what customers might do in the future. Let's say you have a store, and you collect information about your customers, like what they buy and when they visit. With predictive analytics, you can analyze this data to find patterns. For example, you might see that customers who buy one item often buy another related item later. Using these patterns, you can make predictions about what individual customers or groups of customers might do next. Then, you can use these predictions to improve the customer experience. For instance, you can send personalized recommendations or offers to customers based on what you think they will like. This way, you can give them a better shopping experience, which makes them happier and more likely to come back to your store.
By 2025, The Global Predictive Analytics Market Is Expected To Be Valued At $23.9 Billion.
Predictive analytics allow you to identify your potential customers and target the right set of customers at the right time. The most important thing in any business is understanding the perspective of your customers. Predictive analytics, with the help of technology, allows you to target the right product to the right set of customers based on their buying patterns. This would help you in understanding upcoming trends, and potential customer churn and allow you to provide more personalized experiences for your customers. Doing so would allow you to take the necessary actions today. Thus, predictive analytics is one of the next big customer experience trends in 2023.
This point may come as a surprise to many readers as everyone always talks about automating everything. In fact, this blog also talked about automation in CX in detail. However, one important thing to understand while learning about CX is that each part of the customer journey requires to be dealt with differently. While everything has shifted to digital means and automation in CX is the way to ease up and scale CX, a term called ‘digital saturation’ has also arisen. Digital saturation refers to the phenomenon where people are tired of having just digital interactions and want actual human touch in their conversations with empathy, sympathy, etc. To create an effective CX strategy for your brand in 2023, you need to create a mix of AI-powered automation and human-centered customer experience.
Substituting The Phrase ‘Humans Vs AI’ With ‘Humans And AI’ Is A Clever Way To Go About CX In 2023.
Technology can be really helpful in creating a seamless customer experience if the roles are clearly defined. Using technology to help humans in providing a good customer experience is the most effective way of creating an overall good CX for your brand.
Understanding customer experience trends is crucial for brands in 2023. As we explore this blog, we recognize the significance of comprehending customer experience in its entirety. Your focus this year should be developing an effective CX strategy for your brand. To achieve this, begin by assessing your current CX performance and identifying areas for improvement. Managing customer experience is an ongoing journey that involves real-time feedback collection and continuous improvement. A dependable experience management platform is essential for handling this process. This is where we come into play. Survey2Connect provides you with one-stop customer experience solutions. With S2C, you find the right answers to take timely action. Don't wait a moment longer, reach out to us for a demo and embark on your journey to the greatness of customer experience!
