The year is 2023, and according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, customer satisfaction is the lowest in the last 15 to 20 years. This doesn’t bode well for customer experience (CX) enterprises. Why is this happening?
The answer may lie in the past – or, more precisely, in the circumstances of the past. Looking back, we fondly remember when life seemed wrapped up in the telephone wire and when ’90s and ’00s hits first made waves on MTV and other channels. There’s an important throughline: our technology was different, and the powers and expectations that technology provided have shifted dramatically.
To put it more directly, there are more ways for people to interact with the social and CX spheres now, which means that the way CX enterprises handle consumer relations must adjust accordingly.
People communicate over social media more than they do over the phone—many don’t even have landlines anymore—so communication methods have to move into the digital space to reach anyone. People aren’t usually getting their music and shows from CDs and TV nowadays; they find them online, on their favorite streaming services, and in content generated by fellow fans, so marketing efforts must focus on these platforms.
The world is evolving, so CX needs to do the same. But now that we know that CX enterprises must step into the future to keep up with consumers, what do consumer expectations look like in 2023?
Knowing your customer is everything in the digital age, yet it’s as tricky as ever. People are no longer confined to limited channels and methods of self-expression; they have many platforms at their fingertips and are not afraid to use them. Building a consumer profile would be a lot easier if you could just look at one source of information, but that’s not the case. Instead, expert analytics and attention to detail must be employed to create a holistic profile from email, social media, online messaging, and more.
This is how an enterprise can set itself apart from the competition. By developing a robust understanding of the individual consumer, CX professionals can create intimate, tailored experiences that give every consumer reasons to keep coming back.
Special care must be put into gathering and organizing information to facilitate this. First, a system must be crafted to collect and organize relevant data, and then measures must be in place to assess that data according to predetermined KPIs.
To apply this information, trained CX professionals must be present to decide how data can be wielded as a valuable tool in consumer interactions and to facilitate the use of technologies that can reach across channels, predicting what consumers will need and be interested in ahead of time.
Developing a solid understanding of the consumer in a world flooded with different avenues for information and communication is no small task. However, with a dedicated CX partner, the benefits are overwhelming – even more so than the problems they solve.
