McKay Borbon | Content Marketing Manager
With 2022 right around the corner, brands are gearing up to put their CX to the test. More companies than ever before are now competing primarily on a basis of customer experience. So not only are do brands need to meet customers’ increasing expectations, but they need to stand out in a highly competitive landscape.
The countdown has already begun and the pressure is on. To get ahead of the competition, implement these leading strategies into your business’s CX.
The experience customers have with your brand sticks - both with them and everyone in their network. In essence, excellent customer service now serves as marketing, with two main outputs:
Retains customers
Positive interactions drive customers to stay with you. 65% of customers say that great experiences are more influential than advertising. Each interaction that a brand has with a customer is an opportunity to boost loyalty.
Attracts new customers
Survey data shows that after a single positive experience, 77% of customers would recommend a brand to a friend. Thanks to the digital transformation and ubiquitous use of social media, your customers’ experiences spread farther and wider than ever before. Within seconds, a customer can share a negative or positive experience via social media and reach hundreds or even millions of followers and friends.
Not only is the power of word-of-mouth advertising expanding, but brands with the best customer service are known for it and attract even more customers. 55% of consumers become a customer of a company because of their reputation for delivering great service.
Over the past few years, especially since the start of the pandemic, the CX industry has utilized AI more than ever before. According to MIT, customer service is now the leading application of AI being deployed today. AI will continue to be a leading force in the customer service industry in 2022 and beyond. In fact, by 2025, AI will power 95% of customer interactions.
Today, CX professionals say AI implementation is critical for customer service and overall business success. Brands that use AI are able to further scale their support without sacrificing quality. It allows companies to grow exponentially while continuing to deliver the level of service customers expect.
It’s not just CX professionals that are backing the greater adoption of AI in customer service. 82% of consumers desire maintenance or expansion of AI-powered service solutions. With the use of AI surging during the pandemic, customers now have a completely new and heightened standard for service experiences. In order to keep up with customer expectations, brands that are not currently leveraging AI for customer service should start looking into the value it will bring to their business.
Personalization is essential to the customer experience. It is what makes customers feel seen and heard, which in turn builds loyalty and boosts business. Brands that get personal and take a customer-centric approach find that they are 60% more profitable than companies that don’t.
Each interaction between a brand and customer should be tailored to that individual. In order to provide these personal experiences, brands should be using technology that remembers everything about each customer and their relationship and history with the brand. This information will elevate each customer engagement with true personalization.
When brands fail to deliver personalized service experiences, customers are 4 times more likely to leave for a competitor. The reality is that customers have numerous companies vying for their attention. If you’re not giving them the level of personalization they need, many other companies will. In order to stay competitive, personal experiences must be a primary focus.
Customers want to be able to contact you via their preferred channel of choice, so it’s no surprise 90% of consumers want an omnichannel experience. A key component of an omnichannel experience is omnichannel support. By providing service across all channels, brands make it easier for customers to reach out for help when they need it. This makes each service experience more accessible and efficient. Plus, when customers have the option to choose how they reach out for support, they feel more connected, in control, and are often happier with the end result. It’s no wonder that businesses with omnichannel strategies have a 91% higher YoY retention rate.
In order to successfully provide omnichannel support, companies need to focus on delivering equally quick and personalized service across every channel. If the experiences are not high-quality and consistent, it defeats the purpose of an omnichannel strategy.
To learn more about what customers expect from your omnichannel support, download our free ebook.
Empathy has an important role in CX. Especially since the pandemic began, it has become increasingly necessary for brands to lead with empathy. It is key in strengthening the relationship customers have with a brand. Findings from a Gallup survey revealed that customers are 9 times more likely to be highly engaged when they receive empathetic support.
The need for empathy-driven experiences has risen, but so has companies’ use of technology. There is a common misconception that high-tech means a lack of human touch. As a result, brands are left wondering how they can deliver empathetic support while also keeping up with technological innovation. Fortunately, there are true high-tech service solutions that actually provide a sense of humanity.
Many companies are already providing personalized and empathetic experiences via AI and business intelligence software. The most advanced AI is capable of understanding what customers want and delivering the empathetic service they need. Now, brands are able to create human-like experiences with machine levels of speed and expertise.
To stay competitive in 2022, brands will need to take their CX to the next level. Prioritizing customer-centricity and implementing high-tech solutions are essential to turning your resolutions into a reality.
Get the results you want before ringing in the new year and schedule a demo with Thankful today! 
Additional Resources:
AI in Customer Service | AI Ecommerce Platform | AI Email Automation | Artificial Intelligence in Customer Service | Customer Service and Support Automation | Customer Service Platform | Customer Service and Automation | Ecommerce Customer Service Automation | Ecommerce Customer Service Outsourcing | Future of Customer Service
Topics: Blog, Customer Service, Artificial Intelligence
McKay Borbon | Content Marketing Manager
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