As companies around the world adjust to changing consumer expectations, the tools they use to improve employee and customer experience must also evolve.
by Joyce Kim
Genesys consulted industry pacesetters and analysts to identify the most important trends for 2022 and beyond. We discovered valuable lessons on how leading businesses are investing to get ahead in the experience economy.
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The contact center will evolve into a full engagement center.
According to John Gamberoni, Managing Director at Accenture, the contact center of the future is better imagined as an engagement hub. “It’ll be measured on how it delivers exceptional experiences to customers and employees, as well as its contribution to topline results.”
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Companies will rethink customer experience (CX) metrics to align to the true drivers of customer value.
Business success increasingly will depend on understanding people’s values, preferences, expertise, expectations, perceptions and attitudes — rather than traditional efficiency metrics, noted Bruce Temkin, Head of Qualtrics XM Institute. “The COVID-19 pandemic is the instigator; it overturned the status quo and caused people to rethink what’s important to them.”
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Personalization will extend beyond sales and marketing to span the holistic customer experience.
While 80% of consumers will recommend and buy more — and more often — from brands that consistently personalize their interactions, only 44% of CX leaders say their companies deliver a highly personalized customer experience today. “Customers teach you how to serve them the way they want to be served,” said Don Peppers, Founding Partner of CX Speakers and best-selling author of The One-To-One Future. “This is knowledge that only you have. Your competitors aren’t privy to this insight.”
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On the technology front, artificial intelligence (AI) will better orchestrate customer experiences, leading the culture shift toward empathy.
The number one strategic initiative for CX leaders is using data and AI for customer understanding and personalization. “The reward for removing frustration points for customers; showing them they’re listened to and understood; and serving them quickly, proficiently, and proactively is loyalty and trust,” said Brett Weigl, Senior VP of Product Management for Digital and AI at Genesys.
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There will be a clear social contract for fair exchange of customer data to receive an exceptional experience.
“Historically, customer engagement teams haven’t taken advantage of all the data they can access,” said Shantanu Misra, Head of Product for Dialogflow and Interim Head of Conversational AI at Google. “But now, with cloud software, data and artificial intelligence, they can create their own version of Web 3.0 — being intentional with customer data to deliver more precise experiences.”
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Businesses will engage employees based on empathy and values.
The top challenge for CX leaders globally is maintaining staff engagement and service quality. “CX leaders are waking up to the importance of values for attracting, retaining, engaging and motivating employees,” said David Allison, Founder of The Valuegraphics Project. “If you understand what people care about most — what their values are — you have the secret recipe to form long-lasting, engaging bonds.”
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Customer experience will become a talent hub that fuels the rest of the organization with customer-centric staff.
With 70% of consumers saying a company is only as good as its customer service, “businesses at the leading edge of customer experience understand the organizational value their staff delivers,” said Mila D’Antonio, Principal Analyst of Business Platforms and Applications at Omdia. “They’re taking a long-term view of talent, focusing on learning and development as well as setting career paths to attract and retain high performers.”
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Composable platforms will drive CX differentiation at speed and scale.
“Legacy all-in-one contact center platforms prevent businesses from differentiating their customer experience,” said Olivier Jouve, Genesys Cloud CX™ Executive Vice President and General Manager. “In the fast-approaching future, composability will be a key requirement for CX cloud platforms.”
With the future of CX evolving quickly to meet changing workforce and customer expectations, a clear vision for how to navigate technology decisions is critical for success. Learn more about the Top CX trends for 2022 and beyond here.
Joyce Kim is Chief Marketing Officer at Genesys.
This article originally appeared on Genesys.com. Photo by Brent Ninaber on Unsplash.
