Understanding customer expectations 

Editor’s note:  Kaumudi Tiwari is a content writer and digital strategist and is associated with Zonka Feedback. Tiwari is based in India. 

Customer success on a holistic level is impossible to achieve in a single day. It requires a series of events where your customers get wowed by excellent customer service and satisfaction. In the past, businesses believed they could compete on price and drive customer success with relative ease. Today customer experience has surpassed the product's worth as a key differentiator. In fact, 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.

Customer experience statistics for 2022

The following customer engagement statistics provide a quick overview of the latest trends and can assist businesses in planning out strategies to stay consumer focused. 

  • Even before the global pandemic, 96% of consumers reported customer service as essential to their choice of loyalty to a brand. (Microsoft)
  • Two-thirds of customers will share personal information with brands, but only in value exchange. (Accenture)
  • Seventy percent of Americans have spent more money to do business with a company that offers excellent service. (American Express)
  • Ninety percent of global executives who use data analytics reports improved their ability to deliver a great customer experience. (Medium)

What is customer experience? 

Gartner defines CX as "the customer's perceptions and related feelings as a result of one-time and cumulative interactions with a supplier's employees, systems, channels or products."

CX has two critical elements on which you must concentrate. Your customer comes first, followed by your product. You will be able to deliver the experience that every customer admires if you maintain superior product quality and can satisfy your customers.

Why is customer service important? 

Your product/service can be excellent, but that is not enough for your brand to gain a competitive edge. Competitors can match you with the quality of the product/service on offer. Customer service can: 

  • Improve customer satisfaction.
  • Improve customer retention.
  • Reduces customer churn.
  • Boost sales.
  • Creates a competitive advantage. 

Top 5 CX trends for 2022

Here are some critical customer experience trends to be aware of to stay ahead of your competitors. 

1. Adoption of chatbots.

One of the most difficult challenges facing customer service departments in growing businesses is increasing customer support calls and e-mails. Teams may find it challenging to expand their bandwidth without hiring additional employees to run their support channels.

While chatbots can't take the place of a human customer service representative, many companies are turning to them to answer quick and straightforward questions. Consider:

  • Customers are already at ease with bot-assisted conversations, with 48% saying they are.
  • Seventy-one percent of customers said they would be willing to utilize a bot if it improved their experience.
  • According to the report, 71% of respondents believe that brands will already provide message assistance.

The number of messaging tickets is also on the rise across all live chat channels. Think about where your customers are currently hanging out ask if a chatbot makes sense for your business.

2. Customers expect hyper-individualized experiences.

Consumers now expect more hyper-personalized experiences, and big data analytics can possibly deliver the insights needed to make this happen.

According to Accenture, 75% of customers are more likely to buy from a company that knows their name and purchasing history and makes recommendations based on that information.

Companies can accomplish this by segmenting their marketing campaigns based on the characteristics of their target customers. It is common in e-mail marketing and e-commerce web pages. 

People who have previously purchased jeans from a clothing retailer, for example, may receive recommendations for additional pairs of pants or other apparel worn with the jeans. Personalization like this is made feasible by improving the digital client experience.

3. For a better customer experience, use data-driven marketing.

Without a doubt, data-driven marketing is the way of the future. According to a study, 88% of businesses have used data to understand their customers better.

Customers expect businesses to use data to better target, engage and connect with them, and data allows them to do just that. They value your business's experience over the price and quality of your product. 

How has data-driven marketing influenced customer experience?

  • Personalized marketing enables businesses to understand customer profiles better and create customized campaigns that deliver the right messages to the right people at the right time. It is critical to reach out to audiences in a relevant manner rather than broadcasting the same message to everyone.
  • A campaign with data allows closer customer views. Customer satisfaction surveys will enable you to understand areas you need to work
  • You gain valuable insights that assist you in determining where products can get sold more frequently to customers. It also aids in the identification of audience segments that would benefit from specialized and targeted campaigns.

4. The interest in AI is growing, not dwindling.

AI can be one of the most disruptive technologies. 

AI developments have influenced a lot of customer experience trends. Chatbots and personalization are two of the experience trends supported by AI technology.

Some form of AI technology gets used by 38% of businesses. By 2025, the global AI market is expected to be almost $60 billion.

5. Make video marketing a priority.

Your products or services may be excellent, but you won't be able to expand your reach unless you give customers a reason to choose your brand. Here comes video marketing, which is hugely engaging at all customer journey stages.

According to 97% of marketers, videos help customers understand products.

Video marketing strategies are reshaping the digital customer experience. It supports a smooth transition down the sales funnel and assists brands during the early stages of a marketing campaign.

What factors have contributed to video marketing strategy becoming a B2B customer experience trend?

  • Use videos to illustrate pain points. Each video should serve a specific purpose. It can address customer complaints to improve CX. If you want to promote your videos, they should elicit an emotional response from potential customers on a personal level while also clearly providing value.
  • Determine which channels your customers prefer. Social media monitoring and analytics can determine where your target viewers are. You can analyze the performance of different types of videos (format, length, instructional, live, how-to, Q&A, etc.) across channels.

6 important questions to ask in a CX survey

You need to use customer satisfaction survey to your advantage. The questions you ask affect the survey's success rate. The answers to these questions will help you understand how your customers feel about your company, products and services, and the customer experience you provide. 

  1. What can we do to make your experience better?
  2. What did you find lacking or disappointing about your time with us?
  3. How would you rate today's shopping experience?
  4. What was your impression of our product?
  5. What was your take on our delivery service?
  6. How likely are you to recommend (our company/company name) to a friend or colleague on a scale of 0 to 10?

You should also turn to open-ended survey questions and more in-depth qualitative research to get a clear picture of customer issues and identify critical areas for improvement in your business.