These seven trends determine customer expectations
Customer loyalty through better customer churn forecasts
Outsiders are often surprised at how much money is spent on customer acquisition. No expense or effort is spared to find customers and win them over to a brand. Forward-thinking companies are investing primarily in researching how to retain their customers forever. By the end of the year, companies will be able to recognize potential "deserters" so well that they may even know it before the customer does.
Immediate service and delivery as a standard service
Every customer experience manager preaches that support should respond to customer complaints and inquiries as quickly as possible. Thanks to today's forms of communication, users are used to processes in many areas of life being quick and smooth. Next-day delivery or delivery as quickly as possible is another challenge for companies, and Amazon and Walmart are leading the way: They are investing massively in 24-hour shipping and fast request processing. Many providers will follow suit. As instant service is increasingly expected, companies should find a way to provide it. Unless they offer a product that is so valuable and rare in itself that it is worth the wait.
Shorter paths between customer feedback and product optimization
The customer would like to have the opportunity to provide feedback on the products. However, they do not expect the defects they are complaining about to be rectified within the next few months - or at all. Manufacturing costs and complex product development processes contribute to this delay. However, one of the biggest obstacles on the way to product optimization is the so-called "information chain". This refers to the process in which - following feedback - an employee first learns about and understands the problem, then approaches the next link in the chain and convinces that person of the need for a change - and so on until the problem reaches the right employee. To shorten this information chain, feedback mechanisms can be used for the product itself, so that customer problems end up directly in the production facility and with the product manager. This increases the urgency and strengthens transparency between the two areas. The result is faster production and marketing processes. The company's internal processes for implementing the necessary changes will have to adapt to the shorter paths between feedback and innovation.
A new era for the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things will become smaller and more personal. Everyday objects will have "intelligent" features - for example, a technical device inside a container that determines how quickly a product will be used up and places it on an automatic order list. The customer himself will no longer be active. The new developments will be even more sophisticated than a refrigerator with an integrated camera. Here, for example, the milk carton itself detects that it will expire on Sunday and adds itself to the current shopping list. Here, the medicine informs the doctor and the pharmaceutical company whether the patient is adhering to the prescribed dosage, and food could also be delivered to stores or restaurants exactly when it is needed. This would ensure that the products are fresh and optimally stored. At the same time, food could be prevented from spoiling and having to be thrown away. A number of product-related and other new patents are expected in this area before the end of the year.
Optimized marketing responds to anomalies in purchasing behavior
Recognizing deviating behaviour is very easy, but understanding its meaning is extremely difficult. For example, if the customer has never ordered jewelry before, an order for a diamond necklace will catch the eye. But what does this order mean? Are there fraudsters at work here? Does the customer have a new partner? Has he received a pay rise and is therefore giving away more expensive items? In the past, marketing companies used to bombard potential customers with intensive advertising. But advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence will enable more sophisticated detection of deviations. They will reduce unnecessary marketing activities and ensure timely offers that better match the content of the customer's purchase decision.
Self-service for routine tasks
Consumers are increasingly impatient. They often refuse to recognize that a simple thing requires a complicated process. Entire sectors - from healthcare to automotive retail to the university admissions process - are just waiting to offer modern services. Like the self-service checkout at the supermarket, many customers prefer to forgo human interaction and solve their problems themselves. Their motivation is understandable: no one takes care of them as well as they do themselves.By anticipating their customers' needs and using intelligent software, companies can leave the solution to their customers themselves. This allows the valuable time of service teams to be invested in more complex tasks. However, for companies that see service as part of their value proposition, the performance of these teams must clearly outperform self-service alternatives.
Better personalization through more comprehensive data
The personalized customer experience is nothing new as a guiding star in the CX sector. This year, many companies will see significant progress in this regard. They are finally converting their legacy systems and optimizing them with the help of customer experience measurement and management platforms. By merging operational data with behavioural data and analytics, a huge potential of information will be unlocked to better personalize the customer experience.* Luke Williams is Head of Customer Experience (CX) at Qualtrics, an award-winning market researcher and co-author of the New York Times bestsellers "The Wallet Allocation Rule" and "Why Loyalty Matters."
