11 Customer Experience Trends that you must track in 2022

Customer Experience trends that will take over in 2022!

If you’re trying to take your business to a different class, focusing on Customer Experience should be your priority and something that needs extra attention. 

The expectations of customers keep changing and so do the trends. So, to put forth your A-game you must keep track of the ever-evolving customer experience trends and inspiring CX stories to come up with the best CX strategies to get into your customers’ good books and grow your business.

Top customer experience trends in 2022

Customer expectations are constantly changing, and keeping on par with it to meet your customer needs can help you enhance your business’s CX. Various aspects of customer experience have evolved. 

For example, about 40% of customer experience-centric organizations believe AI tech to be exceptionally significant in helping with decision-making and giving out recommendations to employees, which in turn helps you to predict what the customer requires and this helps you to improve the overall customer experience for the customer.

Now, If you are looking to find some more ways to take leverage of CX trends and build your brand, Then taking a look at the following Retail Customer experience trends for 2022 will definitely give you an edge. Let’s dive in!

1. Giving automation a human touch

Maintaining equilibrium between human sense and automation is one of those things that will receive extra attention in 2022. 

Companies adopt marketing automation to power their customer services as it can reduce labor, decrease errors, give out instant answers to queries, and cut down on costs related by a wider margin. 

Although automation gets the job done, businesses now wonder about the customer’s opinion on dealing with automation. While responding to customers with the help of a chatbot is much more time-saving and less expensive, Businesses begin to realize that specific customers expect the experience of communicating with an actual person. 

As of 2021, most customers are still skeptical about accepting responses from a chatbot. So, as a brand, you should dig out ways in which you can add a human touch to automation. For this purpose, you can make surveys more conversational, add an option to talk personally or chat with customer executives, and more. These strategies are crucial for humanizing AI and enhancing customer trust and engagement.

2. A boost in multi-channel service

Gone are the days when companies target a single channel to keep in touch with their customers. Instead, organizations are finding ways to leverage different channels to keep their customers engaged with their presence.  

This has been pretty much the core reason for companies to drift more towards adopting an omnichannel experience for customers. Omnichannel is the new norm for businesses, and customer experience managers are starting to confirm that omnichannel offerings have become a major priority for them. 

Prospects are also seen to accept communication from various mediums as long as they are prompt and consistent. Therefore aiming to provide consistent and reliable communication through all your channels should reap the maximum benefits in terms of delivering a quality customer experience.

3. Optimizing customer experience for mobile devices

Everyone you know has a mobile, and there is no denying that. More than half of the internet traffic is contributed by mobile devices, and not focusing on mobile users would not be wise. 

Therefore, companies should plan on optimizing their websites for mobile versions so that their website supports and works on mobile devices seamlessly. The more the ease for customers to use your site or app on their mobile, the more time they are going to spend on it. This is why it is important to pay attention to your digital customer experience.

Keep in mind that your customers do care about the outlook and design of the website on their mobile devices. Therefore, it is said that people are not likely to recommend a business with an improperly designed website.

Add on to the fact that your customers are most likely not returning to a website if it doesn’t work seamlessly. So, focus on providing a seamless mobile experience and watch your sales skyrocket. 

4. Meeting customer expectations

Take it from us, this customer experience trend is never going to die. Customers who experience a positive and satisfying experience with the website are 72% likely to share it with other potential customers. 

But, let’s not get all hyped. Likewise, when customers aren’t content with the functioning and service of a website, they are most likely to share their experience with 15 other people or even more.

A fact that runs true about customers is that most customers do not contact the business directly to complain about their issues; customers immediately take their reviews to public forums and mediums. Therefore, working on the  (CSAT) score is essential for all business modules. 

As a well-functioning business, It is your responsibility to meet customer expectations and hold high standards for CX. 

5. Alteration in the operation of the contact center

We can expect the contact center’s operations in a business to alter quite differently. In 2022, brands have been targeting contact center operations for the most. Customers are predicted to contact centers for reassurance for better clarity of details when they face particular difficulties. Therefore, the contact center isn’t going to become invaluable anytime soon. 

With that being said, any restrictions imposed on the contact center will have an impact on how customers perceive in-person customer service. Therefore, the responsibilities of a contact center will remain significant to all brands in 2022. We can also expect inbound customer communications to be entirely dominated by contact centers. 

6. Data-driven insights based on employee experience

This one’s a customer experience trend that was often overlooked. Understand that 30% of teams at workplaces are going completely remote. Nearly 3 times as many employees will work from home on a permanent basis than before the COVID-19 pandemic, as people have seen how productive employees are when working from home. This also means that stable and secure cloud security, robust internet connectivity like spectrum, and intelligent work management tools become absolute requirements for fueling a successful business, especially for Internet startups. Brands need to self-prep for a remote working future as building an ‘Engaged Workforce’ is amongst the top 3 challenges that CX leaders are facing in their organizations today. 

Taking employee experience into account is a fantastic opportunity for product innovation to amend the rapport between employees and employers. Strive to eliminate employee churn and boost productivity with the help of real-time feedback. Then, you can get an understanding of employees’ reactions to alterations and transformations and cultivate an extraordinary employee experience. Always remember, a happy, educated, and engaged workforce means better productivity which in turn means better CX delivery.

7. Creating a purpose for your brand

We live at a time when consumers are intrigued and interested in what your brand stands for, and customers even purchase from brands depending upon the values the particular brand endorses. It is said that, in 2022, purpose-related shopping will surge and be an essential criterion on par with the price and quality. 

Understand that younger consumers are mostly diverted towards this segment. One can argue that this movement has been going on for a long and brands have recognized this, but there’s a difference between being aware of a campaign and taking action towards it. We truly believe that organizations and brands are taking this seriously, and 2022 will be a year where brands will have a specific purpose of operation and functioning. 

8. Providing instant fulfillment for queries

If there’s one thing that we can attest to, it’s that modern customers lack patience and want things to be done instantly. Customers will never compromise on speed and convenience, and they shouldn’t compromise either. Brands that structure themselves in a way to deliver instant gratification put themselves in a position to stay at the top.

Improving customer experience by responding immediately and providing instant solutions for problems. Being consistent with your way of communicating and acting responsively can put you ahead of your competition. 

Bottom line: Nobody likes to wait, Don’t make your customers wait for anything. 

9. The switch from face-to-face customer conversations to an online forum

With the advent of the ‘new’ normal, more customers are beginning to use a brand new support channel (online channels) as of 2020, and the number is predicted to increase in the coming years. There’s also been a boost in customer support requests as ticket volume is at an all-time high with a 24% spike in the total ticket volume. The shift from traditional face-to-face conversations to social media conversations requires more training as more staff are shifted to social media support teams. 

Whatsapp and Instagram are amazing platforms that encourage this. They have made it so much easier for customers to communicate with brands and sellers and buy products with the utmost confidence. 

10. Higher investment in tech

With data analytics being prevalent, customer experience managers understand and emphasize the need to target more on customer data and its real-time analytics. In addition, businesses are vying to invest more into product analytics tools used by the product teams to comprehend how customers engage with their web and mobile applications. 

Moreover, AI enhances CX remarkably. Enrolling in an artificial intelligence course can empower your team to offer personalized customer experiences using machine learning and predictive analytics.  A few examples are conversational chatbots, listing product recommendations depending on customer behavior data, personalized emails, and many more.  The more personalized your content is to the customer, the better they feel when interacting with your business and AI helps you do that. Using ChatGPT prompts in conjunction with a powerful ChatGPT copilot, you can leverage immediate Artificial Intelligence support for content creation, enabling you to differentiate yourself effectively from industry competition.

11. Data and Security

Today’s customers are always concerned about the ways in which their data is being extracted and used. Customers have evolved to be super conscious about letting their details out without a valid reason. As a brand, always make sure that you only extract particulars that you absolutely require. Always be transparent in the way the customer’s data is being used. Leaving your customer clueless is definitely not something you want to do. 

Also as an organization, you never want to jump out of your security regulations in terms of data security. Always ensure that you follow and practice your security guidelines. A breach of customer data is not worth what it can cost you. Integrating CWPP security can significantly enhance your data security measures. CWPPs safeguard cloud environments, ensuring that you adhere to security guidelines and protect against data breaches.

Conclusion

With the genesis of 2022, we should anticipate and be ready to evolve along with the changes and trends in the eCommerce domain in terms of how brands approach customer experience. Organizations are more likely to take leverage of tech more aggressively and integrate technology like Customer relationship management (CRM), Machine learning, AI, and improve communication with customers to enhance CX. As we understand and gravitate towards catering to customers with their utmost requirements by going along with the CX trends, We begin to comprehend the pulse of consumers. Therefore, we can shape our brand to facilitate more towards the convenience of the customer. Good luck!

Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs]

A change in customer behavior, a newly developed attitude of the customer, and the rise of new consumer expectations can be termed as customer trends.

Various trends come and go from year to year. As of 2022, the new trend in customer satisfaction is about implementing digitization and tech programs like Machine learning & AI. 

Omnichannel communication, digitalization tools & software, speeding up the digital timeline, data transparency are all some of the key trends that will have a major impact on customer service.  

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