Customer experience 2018: these are the trends
These are the eight trends that Pegasystems predicts:1. advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic automation are blurring the boundaries between service, sales and marketing staff - and even between humans and machines. All customer-facing employees can sell or otherwise help customers at any time; customers no longer need to contact different departments. Organizational structures will become irrelevant for the customer experience.2 Customers want to be informed when they are dealing with AI. Companies will therefore have to make AI more transparent. This transparency will ultimately create more trust between companies and customers and thus dispel widespread AI fears.3. new AI capabilities will enable companies to recognize the current mood of their customers - for example, emotional, behavioral, situational and environmental aspects. The ability to understand empathy is becoming a key skill for data experts.4 From May 2018, customers in the EU will be able to have all the data that companies hold on them permanently deleted due to the new GDPR regulation. Companies can only avoid this if they do not give customers any reason to request such deletion in the first place. Customer touchpoints that are not relevant, timely, contextual and consistent pose a challenge. Pegasystems expects other countries to follow suit with similar regulations. Companies must therefore prioritize the customer experience even more, as bad experiences can not only jeopardize a specific sale, but will also lead to the permanent loss of valuable customer data.
5 Chatbots and robotic automation will prevail in sales, service and marketing in 2018. They will be easier to use and deploy and will speed up many everyday processes. Robots will also interact with other robots, further increasing process efficiency.6 Companies will take back control of their cloud environments and increasingly rely on flexible cloud options that can be adapted more quickly to changing customer requirements.7 Services and products will become more standardized. Companies will therefore try to occupy larger parts of the customer journey. For example, banks will increasingly collaborate with real estate agents, insurance companies and other service providers. Those who cover the customer journey as comprehensively as possible will have a clear competitive advantage.8 Programming skills continue to lose importance in the development of business applications. Customer-facing departments in particular are increasingly using visual tools that allow them to develop a better customer experience themselves. This allows companies to introduce new services quickly and adapt functions on the fly in order to respond promptly to trends in customer behavior or to use new channels such as mobile devices and chatbots.
5 Chatbots and robotic automation will prevail in sales, service and marketing in 2018. They will be easier to use and deploy and will speed up many everyday processes. Robots will also interact with other robots, further increasing process efficiency.6 Companies will take back control of their cloud environments and increasingly rely on flexible cloud options that can be adapted more quickly to changing customer requirements.7 Services and products will become more standardized. Companies will therefore try to occupy larger parts of the customer journey. For example, banks will increasingly collaborate with real estate agents, insurance companies and other service providers. Those who cover the customer journey as comprehensively as possible will have a clear competitive advantage.8 Programming skills continue to lose importance in the development of business applications. Customer-facing departments in particular are increasingly using visual tools that allow them to develop a better customer experience themselves. This allows companies to introduce new services quickly and adapt functions on the fly in order to respond promptly to trends in customer behavior or to use new channels such as mobile devices and chatbots.
