What is Customer Experience?

Customer experience describes how customers feel about your brand as a result of any of the interactions you have with them.  It can include everything from the image they see of the product they are considering for purchase to the reviews they see and customer service reps they encounter.  PwC found that 17% of customers will walk away from a brand after just one bad experience.  Customer experience is often underrated, but shouldn’t be overlooked, especially with all of the means to provide an improved customer experience in 2020.

Here are the top 10 trends in customer experience for 2020:

Customer Experience Trends for 2020

Trend #1 AI-driven Support

Making sure the customer experience is ideal for each and every potential and existing customers may be a tall order, but the good news is you don’t have to do it alone!  Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), there are numerous interactions that can be automatically performed for you, making customer’s experiences more consistent, less likely for error, and trouble-free for you.

Trend #2 Mobile Experience

If you haven’t already, start putting your focus into your mobile presence.  Most customers first experience your brand on their smartphone.  Make sure your website is mobile friendly and any content you share or post is going to enhance the mobile experience as well.

Trend #3 Enhancing Support 

One of the customer experience trends includes enhancing your support.  Make sure you have plenty of ways for your customers to let you know if there is an issue with any of your products and address it immediately if they do.  ZenDesk found that 49% of customers communicate bad experiences through social media channels.  Make sure you are listening to social media channels for any mentions of your product or brand so you can address issues professionally.  This will give customers a very good impression of your brand.

Trend #4 Personalization

The customer experience trends in 2020 dictate that your marketing should be personalized.  With the assistance of technology, there’s no reason you wouldn’t be able to address direct marketing pieces to individuals.  Better yet, personalize their journey based on their individual behaviors.

Trend #5 More Human Connection

Believe it or not, despite having so many more capabilities with AI and bots, trending in 2020 is actually more human interaction, not less.  Part of the reason for this is that while some brands automate all of their interactions with their customers, you can stand out by having actual people interact with them.

Trend #6 Purposeful Brand

In 2020, customer experience trends find it’s more important than ever for brands to take on purpose outside of their products.  Community service or support of a cause of some sort is going to go a long way, especially with younger generations.  That doesn’t mean you have to take on something that will end up being political and losing half of your customer base, but just making sure you are doing something to make a difference in the world.

Trend #7 Help Them Help Themselves

Many customers want to be able to troubleshoot their issues on their own quickly and easily.  To help them have positive customer experiences, give them ways to do so.  This can be anything from a FAQ page to YouTube videos showing solutions to common problems.  They will often appreciate not having to call customer service as a first resort.

Trend #8 Improving the Omnichannel Experience

We’ve spoiled our customers in the last couple of years by providing them with a whole new and effective concept called the omnichannel experience. This has provided potential customers with the ability to start their interaction with your brand on one channel and continue it where they left off on another channel.   In 2020, improving upon this experience to make it even more seamless will make a difference.  Plus, according to the Harvard Business Review, the more channels customers use, the more valuable they are.   Encouraging them to do so will help.

Trend #9 Introducing Augmented Reality

Okay, well, maybe you were already introduced to this through your latest and greatest game on your phone, but now you can use it for marketing too!  Imagine showing your potential customer your product in their living room as if it’s really there?  This is a whole new customer experience that you can now provide.

Trend #10 Reducing Errors

With all the tools available to businesses to collect and store information on each of their potential and existing customers, errors are no longer as acceptable as they once were.  If you are conducting a drip campaign based on the information you know about a potential customer, for instance, and you get the product they are interested in the wrong, you’ll lose them.  Make sure you collect and access accurate information before interacting with your customers.

How a CRM Can Help

Many of the details that go into the customer experience are collected and stored in software such as customer relationship management (CRM).  An effective CRM will make all the difference in your ability to provide an optimal customer experience in 2020.  With features such as the ability to automate sales, marketing, and service capabilities, you’ll avoid errors, provide a consistent experience, and be able to personalize as well.

Solutions such as Agile CRM by 500apps is an all-in-one solution that can provide the foundation for the best experience for all of your potential and existing customers.  Business News Daily considers implementing a CRM a game-changer for small businesses in particular as it acts as an extended sales team.

Conclusion

Improving your customer experience capabilities in 2020 is going to bring your ability to build brand loyalty to the next level.  This means going beyond regular touchpoints with contacts within your CRM and ensuring their entire journey is flawless and positive.  Following these customer experience trends will get you there.  It has worked for brands such as Apple and Google extremely well and it can work for you too.

If you would like to see if Agile CRM will help you improve your customer experience in 2020, try it for free for your first 10 users.