CX or customer experience is the major deciding factor determining the future of any organization. Providing a quality customer service is vital to the growth of the company. One cannot hope to succeed without involving a loyal customer fan base. Most businesses understand this and have started to build their CX strategies focussing entirely on the customers.

More than 70% of businesses emphasize on improving their customer service out of which 63% invest in technological support to achieve that. So what kind of services are you providing to your customers, are they up to the mark? Learn what 2018 has in store for you and apply these top trends to give your customers a unique experience.

Personalization is the Key

Remember while enjoying our favorite movie or sports, ads pop up in between and we start swearing at the television screen or while taking a stroll, a salesperson appear out of nowhere and start nagging us to buy some random product.

You may have heard ‘Patience is a virtue’ but that virtue seems to have lost in the current times. Millennials today don’t want any irrelevant information, and this is the point companies must look out for in 2018.

Personalising the whole buying experience for its customers by showing only what is relevant to them and excluding everything else will be the top priority of companies this year. Always remember, personalization leads to happiness and ‘a happy customer is a loyal customer.

Applying data management

Another trend that will further improve the customer experience will be the reduction in time during communicating with customer service agents. It will be done through better data management skills.

If you ever have contacted any service agent, you must be familiar with the pain of waiting for several minutes while the rep sorts out your history and after searching and comparing among 20 others, come up with a plan or solution based on his understanding of the situation.

Won’t it be better if the rep resolves your query or request in a matter of seconds instead of minutes? For this to happen, companies need to invest more in data managing techniques which are faster. Nobody can deny the fact that, when it comes to data processing, machines are simply better than us.

IoT’s limitless possibilities

IoT or Internet of Things is basically connecting and transferring of data over various machines with as little involvement of humans as possible. It involves connection of uniquely identifiable Things through embedded computing system.

According to Wikipedia, by 2020, IoT will consist of about 30 billion objects. Experts also claim that the global market value of IoT in 2020 will reach an estimate of about $7.1 trillion. Now that is a lot of money.

2018 will see the implementation of IoT in its customer service program through a collection of data over multiple channels or platforms the customer is using and analyzing it to produce a plan that better serves the customer’s needs.

Combining CX with AI

AR or Augmented Reality is a real-world perception of product or environment via computer-generated perceptual information through various sensory organs and combining it with CX will open new doors for customer satisfaction.

Don’t you ever wonder if you could feel a certain piece of cloth or could smell a perfume before you consider buying it? No, it’s not a fantasy anymore, apps like Sephora, kabaQ and ‘View in Room 3D’ by Wayfair are making it into a reality.

Companies who truly wish for their customers to have a unique customer experience will use AR to their advantage to provide its users with a more realistic idea to help them make better choices for themselves and their families.

Befriending Machines

Are you a millennial? If yes, then you already must have encountered with either Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri or at least familiar with them. These are chatbots designed with AI at its core to take user experience to the whole new level.

AI or Artificial Intelligence is the intelligence displayed by machines that perceive actions on its own and react accordingly. Just imagine the endless possibilities of incorporating AI to make unique customer experiences.

It is also a fact that we humans love to interact with machines way more than we do with other humans. And the popularity of chatbots as a personal assistant with round-the-clock service will attract more and more companies to invest in it.

Implementing Blockchain

The blockchain is a relatively new concept still in its initial phase but once fully developed and incorporated into the society with companies actively investing in it, its impact will be huge on the customer experience in the upcoming years.

The blockchain is an ever-growing list of Blocks or records which are linked and secured using cryptography. Blockchain uses bitcoin as its digital currency and so far, provide the safest means of online transactions.

Its possibilities are endless and once fully incorporated, customers will find a whole new way of payment option in the form of digital currency which can neither be stolen not manipulated with, in any possible way.

Bottom Line

2017 has seen its fair share of developments and advancements in research, technology, and humanity to enable companies to provide customers with a homely feeling, working shoulder to shoulder with call centers of India and elsewhere ever ready to assist in any way possible.

2018 will see the renewal of many old trends of last year along with some new trends to enrich the customer’s experience.