No CX professional will forget 2020 any time soon. Surging voice call volumes during the Covid-19 pandemic saw severely understaffed customer experience teams struggling to cope as creaking contact centre technologies meant they were unable to WFH. But, arising from these challenges, there were at least some positive outcomes. This pressure on voice channels prompted customers to try out and adopt other channels more quickly than expected. And it worked, with web chat and video now the stars of the show.
As we head into 2021 nine out of 10 customers say they want an omni-channel experience. The challenge for businesses is to ensure their technology and teams are fit for purpose.
Here are my predictions for the year ahead.
Omni-customers become omnipresent
The omni-customer will be everywhere, hopping between available channels dependent on need, from phone and email to web chat and Twitter - and increasingly video for troubleshooting and help with installation. Businesses will move away from a siloed multi-channel model and integrate their channels so customers can enjoy a consistent, friction-free experience across them all, without having to start over every time. To reach this nirvana, businesses will have to start planning how to become truly channel agnostic, offering a gold-standard service to increasingly digital-savvy consumers.
Fed-up customers switch allegiances
Customers will lose patience with organisations that continue to blame the pandemic for long call waits and generally substandard customer care. Some will be so fed up that they will vote with their fingertips and switch allegiance to competitors who used 2020 to migrate to a more resilient, digital-first model. In a double whammy, these omni-channel pioneers have raised the customer experience bar so high that consumers’ expectations are rising too. This will lead to a widening chasm between the businesses with slick customer engagement models and those still stuck in the siloed slow lane.