Top 7 Customer Experience Trends of 2022

Right now, the need for exceptional customer service is at an all-time high. Pricing is no longer the only element influencing consumer loyalty; 86 percent of online customers are willing to spend more for a superior brand experience. As a result of this need, technical breakthroughs in all forms are required.

 

As a result of the challenges created by the shutdown, studies show that the world saw a decade of technological acceleration in a matter of days and weeks. The main question is, what are the customer experience trends that will elevate brands' game in 2022, and how can technology play a vital part in unlocking them?

 

 

Major Customer Experience Trends

 

In 2022, you may expect to see the following seven major customer experience trends:
 

1. Experiences that are both immersive and hybrid

 

This could include marketing-focused experiences that help businesses communicate their brand in new ways and engage with new audiences. 

 

Allowing brands to create fresh and engaging customer experiences via virtual platforms is expected to be a fundamental reason for the metaverse's appeal to businesses, especially since integration with Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) will be a key element. 

 

Businesses, such as Ikea's Everyday Experiments, will look to these experiences in 2022 to offer new ways for us to interact and engage from the comfort of our own homes. Companies of all sizes will find it easier to join this trend thanks to a rising number of services like Snapchat's AR Lab.

 

2. Data & Privacy

 

This may not come as a surprise to you, but we're seeing an increase in interest in online data and security measures as a result of the continuing pandemic's push towards digitization. In reality, when it comes to data and privacy, customers have done their research this year.

 

Customers today are more aware of how their data is utilized, and as a result, they are less willing to provide unneeded information unless there is a compelling reason to do so. If you don't need to know, don't ask, we always say while creating surveys. 

 

Marketers used to collect whatever data they could get their hands on, leaving the typical consumer in the dark about how their information was being used.

 

(Worried about Your Privacy? Here are the Best Data Security Practices you should know about)

 

3. More intelligent products and services

 

Devices we carry and interact with are increasingly capable of gathering data from us and the world we live in, thanks to the IoT and wearables revolution. In fact, Gartner predicts that the worldwide wearables market will be worth $81.5 billion by 2022. 

 

A driver of this is the increased interest in personal health, as well as the additional free time many of us are experiencing as a result of converting to remote and from-home working.

 

Businesses that focus on the customer experience are quickly learning how to use this data to improve the richness and utility of our interactions with them. 

 

Smart clothing that powers itself, can be washed in a conventional machine and can transfer many different types of data to apps on your phone or watch to give you insights into your health will be possible thanks to new smart materials that are being created. 

 

It's also likely that we'll see the first fruits of Google's acquisition of health-tracking device maker Fitbit, which might lead to more smartwatch innovation. Many organizations focused on improving customer experience will do so in 2022 by inventing products that leverage data to better integrate themselves into our lives, offering us more valuable insights and deeper user journeys.

 

Watch this: Customer Experience Trends in Banking, Insurance, and Capital Markets

---

---

4. The customer's pace is proactive

 

The customer's speed isn't just real-time anymore, it's proactive, thanks to the broad usage of cloud technology. For example, if a company fails to anticipate its wants, 45 percent of customers will transfer brands (Salesforce). This number is increasing as digital-first experiences improve, which is why 2022 will be a key year for this.

 

When it comes to reactive service, the customer bears the brunt of the support responsibility. Proactive assistance entails having a thorough awareness of who your clients are and what causes or could cause friction in their path, as well as optimizing the experience to avoid or eliminate the friction.

 

5. Customer service automation

 

Customers' satisfaction with the amount and quality of service provided by businesses is an important aspect of the experience they have. 

 

Customers are less likely to rate their experiences with a firm highly if they know they will spend a lengthy time "on hold," get passed between many departments or end up chatting with poorly qualified advisors who can't assist them address their problems. 

 

Automated call handling systems were established to address some of these concerns, but they didn't always work as intended, as callers were increasingly frustrated navigating menus or interacting with hit-or-miss voice recognition technologies.

 

Businesses are relying on their capacity to supplement existing systems with AI – for example, customer service chatbots that use natural language processing (NLP) – to solve these problems. 

 

This should result in chatbots that become more adept at comprehending our input and anticipating the response we require. Voice assistants in offline shopping, for example, may start to become a reality in 2022. 

 

For example, in a supermarket, we might ask Alexa to direct us to the products we need in the aisles. This year, McDonald's is expected to begin implementing speech recognition at its drive-through terminals. 

 

And sentiment analytics will be increasingly utilized to decipher the substance of written and spoken communications and route it more efficiently to the people or computers who can best help.
 

 

6. Employee experience

 

Customer satisfaction is important, but brands must never overlook employee contentment. It is a well-known fact that a negative staff experience will definitely lead to a negative customer experience.

 

"Companies are suffering from holes in their CX supply chains because they can't fill customer service roles or retain people," says Megan Neale, co-founder, and COO of Limitless. 

 

As a result, HR departments will have a new responsibility to guarantee that their employees' physical and mental health is taken care of. Companies must begin to pay attention to the expectations, needs, and desires of their employees.
 

 

7. Remote Collaborations

 

It's easier to engage outsourced remote teams to give you a competitive edge and employ a customer experience professional round-the-clock now that working from home has become a part of modern work-life. 

 

A BPO partner can help you save money while simultaneously introducing new methodologies, processes, and approaches to take your customer service to new heights. 

 

Customer Experience outsourcing gives you access to top agents throughout the world, extra layers of tech protection (required for remote teams), and 24-hour coverage, all with data redundancy. 

 

This means that your customer service crew may attend to any client anywhere in the world, regardless of time zone, and handle difficulties in real-time. Because there is so much competition to provide outstanding outcomes to your customers, no alternative should be overlooked.

 

(Suggested Reading: Total Experience (TX) - What is it all about?)

 

Check out this video too: 8 Biggest Consumer & Customer Experience Trends In 2022

---

---

 

Bottom Line

 

As you can see, customer experience management is becoming increasingly difficult. The evolution of customer experience has accelerated in recent years, and we are seeing an increase in the need for personalized yet seamless interactions. 

 

It's no surprise, given that the pandemic forced businesses and customers to alter their behavior indefinitely. Companies must now invest in the necessary technology and solutions to deal with the ever-changing nature of client behavior if they want to thrive.

 

Before you can create a customer experience strategy that meets your company's needs, you must first understand: what your customers want, create a process map for the customer's journey, address all actionable pain points, base your goals on data, and have the latest tools and teams to make them a reality.

 

Whatever customer experience trends you follow, certain features have become inextricably linked to the phrase. Personalized, multichannel, AI-powered, data-centered, and customer-focused customer experiences are now the norm. As archaic models no longer support modern consumer needs, you must learn to digitally transition at every step to succeed as a firm.