Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Five Trends to Expect in The Year of the Customer
By Andy MacMillan, CEO of UserTesting
In 2020, companies
were tasked with reimagining all aspects of their processes. Enterprise
organizations accelerated their digital transformations to accommodate remote
work, retailers leaned on methods like curbside pick-up like they never had
before, and consumer needs changed rapidly. Now, as companies look forward to
2021 and settle into the "new normal," they must relearn their customers in
order to make strategic, customer-centric decisions. With this in mind, there
are five key trends that we can expect to see in "The Year of the Customer."
The rise of the new CEO-Chief Empathy Officer
The role of the CEO
in its traditional sense is evolving as we know it. The need for empathy has
never been more important than it is today. Empathy will become a determining
factor in whether your company is perceived as a customer-centric organization,
or not. And it starts with a new kind of CEO-the Chief Empathy Officer. This is
not a new, standalone role to add to the C-suite, but a characteristic the
leadership team must possess; a charter they must steward. The business
challenges brought about in 2020 have made it clear that company leaders need
to go all in on empathy-they must tap into the human perspective to help them
make customer-informed decisions, they must see the world from their customer's
perspective. Empathy might sound like a fluffy word, but it will be what sets
apart the leaders from the laggards in 2021-and it starts with a new kind of
leadership: empathetic & understanding towards its customers.
Don't let digital be the death of your company
Once a buzzword, the
pandemic quickly transformed digital transformation into a business imperative.
Not only did the pandemic accelerate digital transformation for companies large
and small, it also revealed that the process doesn't have to take years. What
2020 has made clear is that organizations must have a digital presence with a
strong customer experience in order to stay relevant and remain competitive now
and in a post-pandemic world.
It's time for organizations to get emotional about their
customers
Big data can tell you
a lot. It can reveal patterns and trends that can help an organization make
important decisions. However, big data alone lacks emotional intelligence.
Discovering the ‘why' behind the patterns and trends is critical. Emotional
data provides companies with the ‘why' context, to help them build customer intuition
and give them the added assurance that the decisions they are making are right
for their customers. In today's rapidly changing business environment, the
ability to use emotional data at scale to foster customer empathy is one of the
most important opportunities for companies.
Companies will need immersive AR to bring their buying
experiences to life
This pandemic has had
a severe impact on businesses around the world. It changed consumers' shopping
behaviors and the way they consider and purchase goods and services. The
pandemic may be responsible for accelerating the pace of AR adoption.
ResearchAndMarkets.com has recently predicted for the AR/VR market saying that
the global market is expected to reach $94.4 billion by 2023. For eCommerce and
real estate industries especially, a high quality AR experience is a must;
consumers want to be able to see/visualize how the product looks within the
environment, and AR offers the next best thing to in-person viewing. While the
AR experience is not designed to replace the in-store experience, it is set to
enhance it. The expectation of great AR experiences has never been higher.
More companies look to close the empathy gap with their
customers
What is the empathy
gap and why should companies care about it? Many companies suffer from what's
been called the empathy gap. In a study by Capgemini, it's been shown that although 75%
of organizations think they're customer-centric, a mere 30% of consumers agree.
And I wouldn't be surprised if the pandemic has widened this gap! If you want
to have a customer-centric organization and close the empathy gap, you have to
be able to put your customer at the center of that business model. Now more
than ever, companies must focus on going that extra mile to relearn their
customer post-pandemic. The more emotional data a company can collect on their
customer, the more effective they will be at anticipating their challenges and
needs. By and large, this customer motion will help to close the empathy
gap.
As companies continue
to innovate and iterate on the technological advancements made during 2020,
keeping customers at the center of every business decision will prove
increasingly important, in order to provide great experiences for 2021 and
beyond.
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About the Author
Andy MacMillan is CEO of UserTesting to
which he brings 20 years of enterprise SaaS experience. As a former product
executive at Oracle and Salesforce, he saw the critical role that customer
centricity plays in creating great experiences. By helping companies become
more customer-centric, he has helped grow multiple enterprise-SaaS businesses
to values in the hundreds of millions of dollars.