“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” – Jeff Bezos
For years, marketers have followed a slogan that many believed would always be true.
“Content is king”
There’s no questioning the value of strong content as a crucial component of your marketing mix.
Without it, your target audience won’t have the information they need to make an informed purchase decision.
Marketers who understand the value of the customer experience have altered gears to create a CX-centric marketing approach.
However, like with any marketing approach, ongoing analysis, adjustment, and adaptability to changes in customer behavior are required.
That’s why, from one year to the next, customer experience trends have changed.
Keeping up with the latest CX trends is critical to assure long-term success and engage your customers in the target market.
Take a look at the customer service trends emerge between now and 2022.
How many of these do you use in your own CX strategy?
1. The consumer experience across all channels
Providing outstanding CX entails designing the buyer experience to tell a clear, concise story that represents your business and allows the buyer to easily transition from one touchpoint to the next.
An omnichannel customer experience facilitates contact via several channels at the same time.
This means that a customer can communicate with a brand via any channel, including text, email, social media platforms, without experiencing an interruption in service quality.
This helps to unify the customer journey by allowing for a smooth engagement at every stage.
2. Customer service with advanced AI
Chatbots have been around for a long time.
But they are smarter than ever in 2022, and they frequently provide exceptional customer service and assistance.
Like chatbots, virtual assistants give an interactive voice for clients seeking assistance.
In reality, many customers, particularly millennials, have stated that they are more satisfied with the engagement, information, and support provided by chatbots and virtual assistants than with human customer service.
Adding a chatbot or virtual assistant to your website allows you to deliver real-time customer service, and the advanced AI allows for intelligent assistance with minimal error.
Click to read more can chatbots improve a customer’s shopping experience?
3. Virtual reality and augmented reality
Marketers now include virtual reality and augmented reality into their marketing mix to deliver a more engaging and memorable customer experience.
A brand can set itself apart from competitors in the business by delivering an immersive experience.
Of course, VR and AR have several applications, but they are particularly useful in the furniture, kitchen and bath, and living industries.
AR apps help consumers better picture how things will appear, making the buying process both more fun and influential.
When combined with high-resolution photographs and video, the possibilities for creating an unforgettable consumer experience are endless.
4. Interactive selling aids
Sales tools, like embedded quizzes or price measurement tools, can help a company stand out from the competition.
It can also turn potential buyers into loyal customers by over 90% of marketers.
Interactive sales tools are most effective near the end of the sales funnel, but they can be used at any time as long as they’re well-aligned with other marketing materials.
5. Individualized encounters
Making CX as individualized as possible is one method to truly improve it.
One-size-fits-all marketing is an out-of-date approach that is unlikely to yield positive outcomes.
Today, there are a plethora of easy technologies that can be used to provide a personalized experience for customers.
You can recommend new products based on previous purchases or send targeted email marketing.
Even websites can be customized to display personalized content when a particular customer returns.
Read further on How to achieve a personalized customer experience for your online store?
6. Data protection
It seems like we learn about another company’s data breach every day, with hackers stealing the sensitive information of thousands of customers.
Such an occurrence might quickly cause a customer to lose faith in a company.
As a result, several companies have increased their cybersecurity efforts and improved data privacy for their customers.
Having a solid cybersecurity plan in place demonstrates your company is serious about keeping client data private and secure and increases brand trust.
Today’s CX pioneers understand that offering an exceptional customer experience at every stage of the buying journey is critical.
While new trends emerge and others fade away in the coming years, the ultimate goal remains the same: always keep the customer in mind.
This may require focusing more on the customer than on earnings at times. But your customers will notice, and profits will flow just as smoothly as before.
As you can see from the trends above, a mix of modern and old school tactics can be combined to give outstanding CX.
From advanced technology, to providing immersive experiences you can make them feel valued.
While all of these trends are now very beneficial, understanding the consumer is an important component to get the maximum possible value.
You can provide a better experience to your target audience if you have a deeper grasp of who they are.
This is a trend that is certain to continue. Those that can learn from the data they collect will be able to perfect the customer experience and secure a larger piece of the market.
