As the Chinese philosopher Confucius once said: “Study the past if you would define the future.”
Unfortunately, the past of customer experience is littered with trends that garnered too much hype too soon.
As a result, businesses sunk lots of money into technology projects that did not deliver ROI.
Some will argue that this is the price many brands pay for daring to be great and doing business on the cusp of CX innovation.
Yet, chasing the latest trends is perhaps not the best way forwards – intelligent creativity is.
Trend Chasing Is Risky Business
Many will consider contact center AI as a relatively new concept. In reality, it dates back decades, with BT running AI service projects in the 1990s.
Yet, the hype around AI died down for approximately 20 years after the first hype cycle. Why? The deep learning capabilities did not exist to provide truly compelling use cases.
These use cases often drive profitability, not bold attempts at AI transformation.
Harvard Business Review research reflects this, noting: “Ambitious moon shots are less likely to be successful than “low-hanging fruit” projects that enhance business processes.”
The advent of customer messaging paints a similar picture. Its first commercial deployment was in 1993, but it has started to become mainstream only in recent years with smartphone advancements.
These examples highlight how technology must catch up with the concept.
The Metaverse Example
Consider the metaverse as an example of a technology that recently enjoyed its first significant wave of CX hype. This buzz resonated strongly with many businesses. Indeed, HSBC, Nike, and Samsung quickly opened metaverse storefronts.
Moreover, the idea of AI-enabled digital bots supporting customers through a metaverse experience also invoked murmurs of excitement.
However, such use cases and thoughts are still in their infancy. As Nuri Gocay, Chief Solutions Officer at Local Measure, says in an interesting interview:
“The metaverse is coming. Customers will want to use it, and companies are going to want to have their products on it. Yet, is it going to be a place where we play, buy things, and what will that look like for customer experience? Only time will tell."
Unfortunately, it may be a long wait. Indeed, Gartner’s 2022 hype cycle for emerging technologies suggests it will take more than ten years for the metaverse and digital humans to reach their “plateau of productivity.”
In addition, a thought-provoking article recently noted: “Silicon Valley CEOs Say They’re ‘Not Interested’ In Current Scenario Of The Metaverse.”
As such, there are risks – and potentially high costs – involved in jumping into the metaverse, especially if a brand commits too much to a single platform.
Instead, history indicates businesses may have more success by first learning, exploring, and preparing before accessing tangible use cases. For now, it seems best to focus on what customers want and use that as a base for creativity.
After all, “A smart person once said that revenue was a trailing indicator of doing the right thing for your customers over time,” notes Gocay.