Why Customer Experience Optimization is Vital in 2023 – 5 Trends You Should Know

In any industry these days, customer experience is king. A seamless, consistent brand journey across all of a company’s channels is what customers now expect. So why invest in optimizing your customer experience? Because it increases the potential for business growth, helps to gain and retain loyal customers, and increases team productivity and engagement. As this phenomenon continues to adapt and change, let’s look at the newest trends on the horizon.

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Artificial Intelligence

Chatbots have become essential tools to help customers get to the most qualified agents. Problem resolution is more manageable when customers speak to agents who understand the issues and can offer a quick solution. AI is also helpful for agents, as it can improve efficiency, accuracy, and the time it takes to solve a customer query. Agents benefit from intuitive call routing, multichannel support, and access to the entirety of customer information. AI also provides customers with immediate responses, helping them to feel their issues are being addressed swiftly. And AI can help identify patterns so ongoing problems can be flagged and resolved in advance.

Personalization

Customers now expect a more personalized experience, and studies show that 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase when a customized experience is offered. With technological advances, agents can make recommendations based on previous customer history or the types of questions the customer is asking. It’s vital to provide training and education to agents on your company’s entire suite of products and services that allow them to identify opportunities for customized recommendations.

Predictive Analytics

Recent research shows that 90% of global executives who use data and analytics report that it improved their ability to deliver a great experience. It helps improve insights across all customer points of contact and can identify buyer patterns and potential issues. It also helps internally, giving sales teams a view of consumer behavior, monitoring agent performance and productivity, and finding ways to reduce operational costs.

Video Engagement

Video has been around for a while, but its importance to customer experience is critical. Video allows you to build trust with customers on multiple channels by addressing pain points, highlighting new products and services, and getting to know your brand and your teams. 94% of marketers state that videos help customers understand products and services, 87% say videos have helped to increase traffic, 86% say video has helped to generate leads, and 81% say videos have directly increased sales.

Employee-Centric Technologies

Engaging technologies that help your teams allow for added value. Thanks to new customer expectations, having access to internal collaboration tools, integrated communications, case and workforce management tools, and the ability to monitor productivity and performance is necessary to provide that optimal customer experience.

Providing an optimal customer experience means you must offer avenues for continuous customer satisfaction and have appropriate systems and processes in place for your teams to operate at their highest levels. This sets your business up for constant growth, engages your teams, and creates happy customers.