Digital transformation is consolidating, accounting for 39% of revenue growth and 75% of customer experience improvements; yet on the flip side, 4 out of 10 companies will disappear for failing to adopt disruptive digital models. Digital transformation is an ongoing process—every day brings new technological advancements as more people and devices join the vast flow of data and interactions driving business transformation. Below are the 10 trends for "digital makers" who will lead Customer Experience from now on:
1. The Consumer as a Digital Emotion Craver: Consumers continue to evolve into a new emotional dimension driven by digital and virtual technology. From the initial thrill of taking a selfie, the past year has seen a quantum leap with no turning back: consumers are addicted to the intense emotions spawned by innovation. Offering an omnichannel contact center is already a quality standard at this stage. This will be the final year to achieve it and avoid getting left behind in the race for innovation.
2. Customer Experience Centers: This year, we will need to redefine many concepts—most importantly, replacing "Service" with "Engagement" in our customer strategy and vocabulary. At this stage, we will speak of Customer Experience Centers. Customer commitment begins with a flawless experience across every service channel, offering the digital thrill of moving seamlessly between channels without losing identity context or specific needs. Furthermore, it adds another emotional plus: the satisfaction of being proactively recognized by the company—what step to take next, what new product they will like, or what information they need.
3. Customer-Fan Journey Map: A new concept: the digital emotion-craving consumer is a fan by nature, with distinct behavior and emotional motivators. In 2017, they will reach critical mass; experience center leaders must map their customer journeys with this powerful consumer-fan profile in mind. Key emotional drivers such as optimism, change, personal empowerment, reputation, and commitment will gain prominence to improve customer experience and close the gaps between importance and perception during "Key Moments of Truth" with the right focus.
4. Digital Makers in the Next Phase of Digital Transformation: They will be in high demand to rapidly expand company capabilities; 80% of businesses recognize talent acquisition as a core pillar of their digital strategy. They bring a new consumer-centric management culture, workforce optimization, agile methodologies for omnichannel transformation, and bold disruption. Numerous initiatives will emerge to train, recruit, and engage with these digital makers.
5. Agile Methodologies to Accelerate Innovation Pace: Customer experience centers need agility to speed up their digital transformation. The trend will be adopting agile methodologies from digital startups, which boost the impact of digital transformation on business performance by 37% and reduce project failure rates from 29% to just 9%. This is achieved through continuous fast deliveries, budget control, rapid launches, and flexibility to adapt or scale—all within a framework that values the human touch, cross-functional Scrum teams, and consumer crowdsourcing feedback.
6. Platform Economy: The Power of Uniting Ecosystems and the Cloud: The paramount importance of customer experience is pushing software into the core business model. The next wave of disruptive innovation will come from 100% cloud-based customer experience centers, designed as an ecosystem with agile omnichannel service architecture, native interaction management, workforce optimization, IVR, self-service, and data collection and management. Software adoption will be efficient and agile, continuously translating customer needs into tailored experiences.
7. More Automated Proactivity, Higher Customer Satisfaction: The top priority for satisfying emotion-craving consumers will be having brands anticipate their needs with proactive feedback—"before I even ask." Managing interactivity will become a central function of customer experience centers.
Digital transformation initiatives increase customer satisfaction by 41% and retention by 33%. Intelligent automation will take center stage in the new wave of innovation, driven by artificial intelligence and a new generation of self-service.
8. The Reign of Self-Service Experiences: Self-service is establishing itself as a dominant trend, with 73% of consumers wanting companies to offer more self-service options. Businesses will invest heavily in this technology, adopting models built around holistic "self-service experiences." The experience must seamlessly start on any channel—whether IVR, text, social media, messaging apps, or a mobile app—switch to another channel, or escalate to an agent without ever losing interaction context. Text and chat messaging, along with chatbot interactions, will see dramatic growth.
9. A New Generation of Chatbots: The desire for automated interactions among digital emotion-craving consumers is up by 44%. The new generation of chatbots will enable businesses to be present on major collaboration and messaging platforms. Equipped with more powerful natural language processors (NLU/LNU), they will address new needs—such as "Edward," a virtual host assisting hotel guests via text messages, or "Mila," a personal assistant simplifying daily administrative hurdles for thousands of call center employees and team leaders with large staff numbers.
10. A New Role for Customer Service Agents: With customer experience centers taking center stage in the digital business model, agent engagement must be exceptionally high. Agents will need to level up their digital technology skills, stay motivated to meet rising customer experience expectations, and gain greater agility and decision-making autonomy so customers view them as experts and trusted advisors.