CX: WHAT’S NEXT? BRANDS FORCED TO RESPOND TO CHANGING CUSTOMER PATTERNS

‘COVID-19 has changed the customer experience — perhaps forever.’ BARE shares an article by Ray Schultz for MediaPost with changing CX trends for brands to focus on.

‘That’s one takeaway from Customer Experience in a Post-COVID-19 World, a study from Precisely, conducted with Corinium.

For starters, 86% of CX leaders in this study have updated their strategies because of COVID-19. With good reason: 79% report that the pandemic has increased digital interactions with their brands, and 50% say customers now demand seamless, integrated digital experiences.

Moreover, only 31% believe customers will return to the old way of doing things after the pandemic.

In line with this, businesses are eyeing a range of CX-related investments for next year. Email is way down the list, but personalization is even further toward the bottom:

Invest in data integration, integrity or enrichment technologies —60%

Integrated multichannel CX platforms — 46%

Chatbots with “live takeover” functionality — 42%

Chatbots that use Natural Language Processing — 37%

Digital self-service platforms — 37%

Interactive voice-response phone systems — 33%

Interactive and personalized video — 32%

Email communications — 30%

CRM systems — 28%

Customer analytics platforms — 24%

Marketing or communications personalization — 13%

Social listening or media monitoring tools — 13%

Behind all this is the fact that 83% of the respondents have been hit with serious disruptions, with 51% describing them as major.

The biggest issues are with marketing and sales and product usage journeys — 71% report them.

In addition, 70% cite issues with reordering or renewal, 66% with issue resolution and 62% with needs identification.

Among the customer journeys, the one facing the most major upheavals is onboarding — 50% report it. Second is marketing and sales (over 40%) and third product/service usage (30%).

The biggest challenges overall are:

• Prioritizing key investments
• Securing company-wide support for key investments
• Securing budget for key investments
• Reimagining existing customer journeys
• Ensuring business processes are changed and new CX tools are adopted
• Measuring the business impact of CX initiatives
• Securing executive buy-in for the CX strategy

Two caveats about this survey: First, it is a UK study. Second, the sample size is only 101 CX leaders. That said, the challenges are similar to those reported in the U.S., and globally, and could be a harbinger.

How are CX leaders assessing customer needs? Here are the ways:

• Customer feedback surveys — 53%
• Digital customer analytics — 49%
• Social listening or media monitoring tools — 48%
• Focus groups — 48%
• Dashboards built into our systems — 39%
• Employee feedback — 28%’

Read the original article in full here.

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Disclaimer of endorsement: Any reference obtained from this article to a specific business, product, process, or service does not constitute or imply an endorsement by BARE International of the business, product, process, or service, or its producer or provider.