In part 1 of our look at customer experience in 2023, we looked at how CX will be everyone’s responsibility. We discussed hyper-personalization, experiential retail and self-service purchasing experiences in the B2B space.
This week we have four more customer experience trends to watch out for in 2023. And there will be some big shifts! We will be asking if, in 2023, we will still use demographics? Will there be a culture of greater experimentation? We will also look at how employees are an underused content creation machine. And last, but not least, we will be talking about all things AI.
Let’s get started.
CX In 2023 – User Behavior & Needs Over Demographics
The way audiences online are segmented is going to change. One reason is that the older way of doing things, demographics, does not give a full picture of users anymore. The other reason is down to data. The way Google Analytics reports data is going to change, due to third-party cookies being phased out.
One of the proposed replacements for third-party cookies, from Google at least, is Google Topics. Long story short, Topics puts users into categories based on their interests during a given week, based on their browser history. The Topics data is selected on the users’ device.
Personalization is making customer experience more behavior driven rather than demographics based. While demographics still have a big role to play, CX is likely to become more focused on customer behaviors. User needs, rather than factors like age or gender, will become more important.
So while CX professionals will still use demographics, two factors are bringing about wider change. One change is technical. This has come from users’ demand for privacy, which means the data we use now will not exist. But users’ demand for experiences that appeal to what they want and need is the second change. It means we now have to think beyond demographic factors and look more at wider intent. This is not new. But it is a different way of doing things for most CX professionals.
Data around interests and needs enhance the demographic research CX professionals do. It does not replace it. Combining wider user intent data with demographics gives us all a better understanding of users.
CX In 2023 – More Experimentation
Most businesses, whether they are in B2C or B2B or B2G, will have to enable a culture of experimentation over the next few years.
Experimentation is commonplace within the marketing function of most businesses. They may have been conducting conversion rate and A/B testing for a long time. But now testing will have to become everyone’s business. There are too many channels and too many touchpoints to rely on opinions. Companies will need to instill a testing culture in all areas of the business to see improvements.
But to do that companies have to be prepared to fail. A hypothesis that fails is one that you can learn from. This is very tough, especially in a recession. There is pressure for every test to bring a positive outcome. Which is not how testing works. So businesses who want to adopt a more experimental culture should start with lots of very small tests that work to a bigger goal. This brings in more data and inspires innovation across the whole organization.
CX In 2023 – Your Employees Are Your Influencers
It is time for companies to realize that they are underusing their greatest resource. The people that work for them.
This is true across the board. People need to feel like they can improve and progress to be happy at work. That is a given.
But businesses are underusing their employees when they should be turning them into brand ambassadors and evangelists. Your employees are on the front line, talking to customers. They will be the face of your company that the customer sees/hears. So they have insights that help you make big improvements to your customer experience.
This feeds into the experimental culture outlined in the last point. If you have an experimental culture, you have a creative culture. If you have a creative culture then there is no reason why your employees, for example, cannot create great video content that helps customers.
So if you are a B2B firm that struggles to get media coverage, build your own media platform with your employees.
According to IBM, the same creative instincts that make engaging content also make people better leaders. So unlocking the creative potential of employees not only helps your customers. It helps succession planning within the organization.
CX In 2023 – AI, Chatbots & Content Creation
AI has been in the news a lot recently with ChatGPT and OpenAI making waves on social media. Although, at the moment, the predictions of AI replacing everyone’s job are wide of the mark. It is game changing technology that could have a seismic impact on customer experience.
So where will CX professionals feel that seismic impact?
Chatbots – AI-powered chatbots will become even more popular in 2023 as all businesses look to provide customers with 24/7 digital support. With improvements taking place in AI and ML all the time it will not be long before chatbots can even process orders and returns.
Content Creation – This is a contentious topic and one where the right answer is not “the AI will write everything”. It may also change the nature of support content. With an AI writing the more standard informational content, the types of content customers need will change. This will require a strategic shift in content design for most businesses and CX professionals.
B2B Self-Service – With improved AI, more difficult and intricate b2b purchase funnels could be simplified. Making it easier for B2B businesses to offer B2C style purchasing experiences.
Talk to MAQE
Do you need help adapting to new customer experience challenges? Talk to MAQE via [email protected]. We can help you make data-driven decisions that level up the commerce experiences you can offer to your customers.