4 New Customer Experience Trends

The role of the customer is increasing in importance. Listening to the voice of your customers is vital to the success of your company. For much of this year, we have talked about the role that customer service should play within your organization. Gartner predicts that by 2017, 50% of consumer product investments will be redirected to customer experience innovations. 65% of large enterprises polled have a chief customer office or similar role. The most telling fact that illustrates the change in the customer service dynamics is that 58% of the time, that chief customer officer reports to a marketing executive. Here are 4 important customer experience trends to watch:

1. Blending of Online and In-store Experiences. Customers are expecting a seamless experience between online and offline shopping. Retailers should prepare to offer in-store pick up for online purchases, and online ordering in-store for delivery at home.
2. Expect an Increase in Co-Browsing. More and more often customers are shopping online from their smartphones or tablets while they are in the store. They might be looking for something that store carries, or they might be price comparison shopping the retailer’s competitors. Either way, this should be expected and even welcomed. Offering price match or better experiences can offset pricing differences. Consumers are willing to pay more for a better customer service experience.
3. Geotargeting is one of the newest technologies that is changing the face of shopping. Geotargeting comes in a few different forms. For the most part, a consumer must have downloaded an application that allows stores to send push notifications to the smartphone or tablet with special offers based on proximity to the store. Adobe recently added more mobile-focused features to its Marketing Cloud. These new features include the ability to create, manage, and measure personalized in-app messages triggered by location and/or behaviors. Apple’s iBeacon uses Bluetooth signals to track shoppers’ positions within a store and can pinpoint their location down to specific displays and then send information to a device based on that specific product or service.
4. Blending of Personalization and Context. Retargeting website visitors will be combined with personalization. The more data and preferences consumers are willing to share, the better and more customized offers they will receive.