Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Changes in customer experience
By Ryan Tamminga, VP of Customer Success at Alchemer
The global pandemic has already fundamentally changed the way people engage with companies. No longer can businesses rely as much on face-to-face interactions to control the relationship they have with their customers. They now need to meet their customers where they are interacting with them, which is digitally, and across more of the organization as many interactions touch multiple departments. One-to-one is now truly one-to-many. In 2021, businesses that have not already gone through both a digital and customer-centric transformation, will need to accelerate these initiatives to not fall behind in meeting their customers’ expectations.
Here are a few of my predictions for the coming year:
Customer experience will shift from department ownership to a corporate initiative. With customers engaging companies at multiple points in their journey, each department will need to understand how they impact the journey. A centralized initiative driven from the top will ensure that all departments understand their contribution and that the customer experiences the same level of engagement across the company.
Digital transformation efforts will accelerate dramatically. In many instances, customers can no longer engage with a company face-to-face. Their entire experience with that company is likely to be digital. Having the right systems and tools in place, as well as processes and procedures, to connect and delight their customers will be critical in 2021.
The sophistication of CX will skyrocket. There will be a new wave of automation at the customer level that will eliminate all the background activities and give time back to customer-facing teams to truly be customer-facing. AI will help in that regard and organizations will need to apply higher skillsets to free up their ability to engage with customers to build hyper-personalized experiences.
Some companies will over-rotate toward automation. In doing so, they will remove the human element of their customer experience which will further alienate customers. Automation is critically important, but it should not replace human engagement. It should be used to get the right feedback to the correct human endpoint.
Employee experience will become just as critical as customer experience. Without offices to work in, it will be easy for employees to feel disconnected from their own company. When they’re disconnected, it will be very hard for them to provide the personal touch customers expect and require. Keeping connected to employees, and keeping them connected to the business, will be key to successful customer experience programs in 2021.
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About the Author
Ryan has spent his entire career working inside companies to help improve processes and customer service. His energy for solving complex business problems shows in the solutions and processes he is building at Alchemer, as well as in our incredible customer support team. Prior to joining Alchemer he was VP of Professional Services at ReedGroup after leading similar groups at consulting firms Deloitte and Accenture. Ryan is a graduate of Santa Clara University.
