Customer Experience Trends for 2021 That You Probably Didn’t Know

Customer Experience Trends for 2021 That You Probably Didn’t Know

Just few years ago businesses insisted that it is the quality of their products which was the essence to garner new customers. Post pandemic, things have changed for everyone. Now everything revolves around digitalization and customer experience (CX).

By 2021 it was determined that customer experience stood out leaving behind other content marketing and digital strategy platforms. Investing in customer experience trends are the smartest move businesses should make right now!

Customers are willing to spend where they get a better experience. This will in turn make them loyal customers and trust the brand. So, irrespective of the kind of business you are in, it will be your responsibility to get to know them better and provide personalized experiences across their journey.

Desperate times need desperate measures. There may not be a formula to get it 100% right but there are definitely some measures that you can take which will transform your business and take CX in the right direction. Based on our research and industry expertise, we have predicted some customer experience trends for 2021. Take a look.

Empathy is the Need of the Hour

It is the time to follow social distancing and not emotional distancing. We need emotional leadership, people who empathize and are being real. This will be the focus trend this year.

A company should invest in the well-being of its employees. Uncertain times has shaken people’s belief system, they are overwhelmed by fear and frustrations. A leader should be there for his/her team, to relate and connect with them. Sincere discussions and positivity will make employees stick longer and work efficiently.

Focus will also be on loyalty and retention marketing this year. Companies have to re-build their trust during this time and platform (going online vs offline). Companies have to think about effective ways to stay connected with their customers and build loyalty and retention.

Significance of Omni-channel Will Rise

Businesses connect with their customers through various channels and platforms like website forms, messages, live chat, social media, emails and more. Leveraging omni-channel strategies to stay connected with customers is good. But companies should remain consistent while communicating across various channels, both online and offline.

Consistency across multiple channels is the key that will bind customers to your brand. It can be taxing, but definitely doable. Hence companies today are investing in omni-channel customer engagement strategies to reap ROI.

Automation Will be Prominent

Initiation of private messaging platforms is an important part of customer journey planning. Companies must find a centralized channel to strategize and operate for efficiency of CX.

In private messaging apps, all customer interactions are contained within a single channel across their entire lifecycle. This creates better personalized experiences. This has led to people preferring to have their queries resolved by a chat bot rather than interacting with humans, which is something messaging channels are very well designed to manage.

Automation is not only cost-effective but also addresses queries immediately at all times.

Mobile CX Will Take the Lead

Times have changed drastically and “go mobile” is the answer, whatever the question is.  Mobile CX will see a surge this year too. Companies should be capable enough to provide seamless CX across platforms at various touchpoints.

Not all companies are able to meet this trend; either the website is not mobile friendly or navigation, site search and load times are common issues. Negative feedback can hamper your brand. Make sure that the website, services, applications and tools are user friendly and also mobile friendly.

Private Messaging and Interaction with Brands

Including messaging channels in your CX strategy is inevitable today. Last year and this year, being indoors have changed the way customers communicate.  They are not going to take anything lesser than an impeccable and seamless customer experience with a complete feedback loop. These CX trends are going to stay.

To sustain this digital transformation, enterprises should strategize a centralized channel where private messaging is at the core of the CX.

Private messaging offers a sense of customization and intimacy to the customers. It is an effective and simplified approach to a great customer experience. Customers are using mobile applications extensively to connect to companies like never before. So, companies need to amp up their strategies and meet valuable customers at their level.

Striking a Balance Between Privacy and Personalization

To create personalized, compassionate, smooth transaction processing, problem solving and stabilized experience, utilizing customer data to depths is required. Customers today appreciate personalized interactions and services with businesses, but they are also concerned about privacy and wary about how enterprises collect, store and use their details.

It is a huge responsibility of companies to strike a balance by providing personalized customer experience while complying with their data security.

Getting rid of third-party cookies will pave way for enterprises to get up and close with their customers. Working with trusted people in the industry who use first-party data to give flexible, addressable opportunities, supported by consent and control will be pivotal to the companies. This will be next step towards engaging with right message to right audience at right time and providing satisfactory experience. This is what brings customer loyalty and brand value.

Bridging Online and Offline

In the post-Covid era, all types of enterprises had to advance at record speed and shift from offline to digital platforms. People have now gotten a liking towards online experiences. Customer experience has become hassle-free, and every customer expectation can be met in totality now, across online and offline channels.

Companies should re-design themselves to meet this demand. Earlier, having online experience was optional, now it is a business requirement to attain success and retention. Companies should see to it that their online presence and services are better than what it was yesterday.

Going Zero UI

The impact of the pandemic has resonated on customer experiences in 2021 than 2020 predominantly in terms of trust, safety and inclusiveness. Naturally benefits of touchless technologies will be on rise.

Sensatory interfaces like voice assistants and gesture recognition are prompt and intuitive. You can think of a future where our environment is embedded with interfaces which offer smooth, speedy, responsive and predictive interactions.

Touchless interfaces will be imperative for safe and secure indoor environments, offices, restaurants and retail stores. Even when you look at long term, touchless interfaces will provide ultimate user experience, minimized load of applications, settings or passwords. It will surely transform the way we perceive information or make decisions.

When companies transition themselves to zero UI connectivity whether its voice, gesture or proximity; It will be a win-win situation for both customers and companies.

Self Service Will Gain Prominence

In 2021, companies must make sure that customers are able to resolve their primary queries with the help of various self-service options on your site. To cater to this demand, companies have gone all AI.

Your short-term goal can be to ensure that right tools are available to customers to solve simpler questions.

Your long-term goal can be to use AI technology to improve CX with innovative measures.

Conclusion

Today, 9 out of 10 businesses compete on customer experience. Only those enterprises who take customer experience earnestly will be able to make a mark with their customer base and win loyalty.

Be organized enough to understand your customers to create and deliver personalized experiences. Assure that every interaction with your company is seamless, continuous and satisfying, else you might be losing the best gift you have – customers.

Hope the above-mentioned customer experience trends for 2021 come handy to you.

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