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Determining Which Customer Experience Trends Your Company Should Invest In (+2Ls)

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There are various customer experience trends to choose from, which makes your decision to invest in particular ones even trickier. Many companies invest in every trend without ensuring they’re a good fit for their customers and business direction.

However, pursuing trends that will get you closer to the ultimate experience you want to provide your customers is much more productive. Still, you need to engage in a thorough decision-making process to do that. 

This article will detail four customer experience trends that may be a good fit for your company. Then, it will offer tips for making the best decision for your business. Let’s get started.

Making the Customer Experience More Value-Driven

One of the most notable trends right now is making the customer experience more value-driven. Instead of solely pushing products, companies are focusing more on sharing the lifestyle that comes with investing in their products.

If you’re a product-based business, marketing yourself as a lifestyle brand rather than a company that offers products is a brilliant idea. But if you’re a service-based business, investing your resources in becoming a lifestyle brand may not be the best path.

If you want to provide a more value-driven customer experience, be sure the needs and wants of your unique customer base are at the forefront of it.

 Using Automation and Artificial Intelligence to Aid Customer Service  

Automation and artificial intelligence tools are on the rise. In this case, companies are using automation and AI to aid customer service initiatives. From chatbots on websites to automated email sequences to data collection, AI and automation tools can streamline customer service, which betters a customer’s overall experience with your brand.

It’s important to note that these tools aren’t meant for you to set and forget. Instead, they require a human touch at some point. So, only invest in this trend if you’re prepared to ensure the tools work alongside your team, not in place of them.

Boosting the Employee Experience

There is a connection between employee treatment and customer experience. When employees are taken care of, they’re more inclined to take care of their customers. On the other hand, when your employees aren’t treated well, they don’t do their best work, which spills over into how they treat customers.

This is why boosting the employee experience is an important topic in the conversation surrounding customer experience. If your customer experience is lacking, it’s good to look at how your employees are doing.

Securing Digital Spaces

Cybersecurity is another customer experience trend to consider. People are conducting more business online daily. And that means more personal information is being shared across devices and the internet.

Unfortunately, cybercriminals are always lurking, counting on people to share their private information on unprotected platforms and with the wrong people.   

If you’re asking customers to interact with you in the digital world, ensure your online spaces are as safe and secure as possible. This means investing in top-tier cybersecurity tools that facilitate ethical data collection and protect data from the growing number of cybersecurity threats.

The Process for Determining Customer Experience Trends to Invest In

The above customer experience trends may be worth investing in for your company. But it’s essential to go through the decision-making process below to determine which customer experience trends are a good fit for your company.

Evaluate your current customer experience

The first step in a thorough decision-making process is identifying the problem you need to solve or the question you want to be answered about your customer experience.

The best way to do this is to evaluate your current customer experience. Identify where you’re at and where you want to be, and brainstorm potential solutions for bridging that gap.

Next, consider which customer experience trends could potentially solve your most pertinent customer experience challenge. 

Consider customer experience trends as potential solutions

Carefully consider which customer experience trends have the potential to help you solve the customer experience challenge you defined above.

It’s imperative to visualize how implementing particular trends could help you overcome the issues you’re having with your current customer experience. Write down each customer experience trend you’re considering and how it could improve things.

With your list of potential customer experience trends in hand, weigh the evidence that supports and undermines your investing in them.

Weigh the evidence supporting or undermining each customer trend  

Why is it a good idea to invest in your listed trends? What are the potential adverse outcomes for each trend if you move forward? You must weigh the evidence for and against each trend to determine its worthiness for investment.

Lastly, choose the customer trend you want to move forward with and create a plan to take action.

Choose your trend and take action  

It’s best to choose 1-2 customer experience trends to pursue at a time. That way, you can see them through without feeling like you have to rush the process. You’ll also be able to create a more detailed plan for how you will implement the customer experience trend.

For example, let’s say you’ve decided to pursue the trend of bettering your employee experience. In that case, document exactly how you’re going to do that. Will you make flexible scheduling options available? Will you add more benefits to each compensation package? What about hiring better leaders?

Whatever trend you choose, put a step-by-step plan in place for realizing it and take action.

Conclusion

Improving the customer experience requires an ongoing effort. There will always be new customer experience trends rolling out, and it’s up to you to decide which ones to invest in to continue providing the best experience for your unique customer base.

Consider the trends mentioned above and use the decision-making process we’ve outlined to ensure you’re moving forward with the ones most worthwhile for your business.