The CX landscape is constantly changing. Knowing what's relevant and what isn't is a major challenge - especially when these trends seem to develop so fast. Something that seemed exciting and fresh yesterday now seems old school or so last year.
To help you out, we’re going to look at four CX trends that simply aren’t going away.
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1. Establishing a great company culture & embedding the customer into the heart of your organisation
The culture of a business is fundamental to its success. It defines the way staff interact with one another and influences the way the outside world sees your brand. The right culture will be dynamic, unafraid to change and capable of permeating every level of the organisation.
A great company culture also blends the beliefs, values, rituals and taboos every business develops over time. Your culture leaves an impression on all the customers you come into contact with and is a cornerstone of CX.
It’s vital that you embed the importance of Customer Experience within your business culture because a culture that's customer obsessed is one that will ensure every employee knows exactly how they provide a great experience for their customers.
2. Rethinking your strategy, along with a plan of execution so you can deliver on the promises you make
Saying that the customer is at the heart of your business culture isn’t enough - you have to act upon that promise.
It is why strategy is so important when evaluating your CX. Renowned management consultant Peter Drucker once suggested that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, and he’s right - culture drives action, but a clear business strategy is integral to every business.
Does your board meeting include references to Customer Experience? If not, you’re missing a vital opportunity to make customer insight a driving force for the business as its culture.
Research suggests that companies often make hollow promises about CX, with 80% of organisations claiming they provide ’superior’ customer service, yet just 8% of customers believing they deliver on that pledge. One caveat to all this is that strategy is nothing without execution. If you’re just talking about it, it’s not going to work for your customers.
3. Extracting real customer insight - asking the why behind the score to understand what motivates your customers
We alluded to this above, but customer insight is a goldmine for businesses and will help drive an organisation forward.
Information gained directly from customers following their experience of dealing with the company will provide an invaluable insight into who they dealt with and how it made them feel.
Most importantly, customer insight will tell you why they’re interacting with the business. It’s easy to get lost in customer satisfaction surveys, CX effort scores and collecting NPS, but if you’re not asking “why” or capturing customer emotion, you’ll never get to the bottom of what’s driving those scores.
4. Taking action so you can make positive changes for your customers
A customer-centric culture, clear business strategy and focus on customer insight will only result in a constantly-improving CX if you're proactive.
By taking action, you’ll be proving to customers that their interests lie at the heart of the business. Today's customer needs to feel that their insight is valued and that brands act on their feedback. There are three ways you can do this:
1) Tactically, by focusing on resolvable issues fast and in real-time.
2) Operationally, by challenging existing processes and removing barriers to create a more efficient Customer Experience.
3) Strategically, by changing the way the business positions itself in the market, creates propositions and develops its services.
To put the importance of swift CX action into context, Econsultancy suggests that 72% of customers expect a response to their complaint on social media within one hour.
If that statistic frightens you, then you need to work on the way it approaches CX. If it excites you and you have the tools in place to deal with modern customer interaction, you’re already taking advantage of one of the most important CX trends.
Want to learn more? Dive into our eBook: The Anatomy of a Great Customer Experience to find out what defines a CX story and tactics you can use to build customer experiences with memories in mind...
