As the end of 2015 draws nigh, writes Ocular Technologies COO Ebrahim Dinat, savvy customer experience managers are looking to plan out their strategies for 2016.
Separating an organisation from the competition is no longer just about features and price; it's about providing a higher quality - dare we say it, emotional? - customer experience (CX).
So, what are the top five key CX trends that you should focus on? I've picked out five of my favourites from a Fonolo white paper, entitled Top 10 Customer Experience Trends for 2016:
Omni-channel
It's no surprise that customers think brands need to put more effort into providing a seamless experience, therefore the risk of not properly servicing your omni-channel customer will continue to grow, meaning customer service departments must bring all channels together in a more integrated and consistent manner.
Time to invest
Sadly, businesses continue to seek customer loyalty, without investing in the experience. Let's face it, it's highly unlikely you would return to the best restaurant in SA if everyone there treated you poorly, right?
According to Gartner, the landscape is changing and, by 2017, 50% of product investment projects will be redirected to customer experience innovations. The best place to start will be on improving the collection and analysis of customer feedback.
Self-service tools
Even today, customers think it's important to solve product issues themselves and they expect a company's Web site to include a self-service application. Self-service adoption will continue to increase year after year. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2020, the customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human.
Mobile first
Even though this trend has been obvious for several years, some companies have been slow to adapt. This simply won't do as we expect mobile customer service to soar in the next year.
Don't lose sight of voice
When it comes to customer service, there will always be a role for a live conversation with a company representative. There are always going to be cases where self-serve tools fall short. This means the transactions that end up with a live agent are going to be more complicated and more likely to involve an upset customer.
In short, it doesn't matter what kind of business you're in - improving the experience for your customers is the key to increasing sales and customer loyalty, and reducing employee turnover. Who wouldn't want that?
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