We see four critical changes coming to the world of customer experience (CX) in 2020. Your brand will want to take note of these changes because one simple fact wont change: Customer experience is the main battleground on which brands compete for customers.

Customer experience matters. Nearly three-quarters of consumers say they have no problem abandoning brands even those theyre loyal to after a bad experience. At the same time, only 10% of customers say that most brands are meeting their expectations for a good customer experience. In other words, the stakes are high, and most brands are falling short.

That being said, what are the critical ways that CX will change in 2020?

1. Brands will move away from trying to measure customer experience.

While it may sound strange to claim that CX matters but brands will stop measuring it, many are beginning to recognize the futility of traditional CX measurement. NPS scores, churn, time on site, loyalty and even customer satisfaction only tend to get at CX inferentially. Such metrics are also frequently subjective and seldom directly actionable. As a result, as Forrester points out, CX and marketing professionals often struggle to determine whether their CX initiatives add value, either for the customer or the company.

In 2020 and beyond, brands will focus on measuring behaviors, particularly those associated with customer journeys, and analyzing what customers actually did, what they did next and what most influenced these actions. Accordingly, well see greater adoption of measurement frameworks built around journey steps, allowing organizations to visualize relationships between disparate touch points and analyze the effectiveness of entire journey sequences. Who wins and who loses on the CX front will be determined by the ability of brands to measure and respond to, ideally in real time, customer journey activity.

2. New channels will provide even more opportunities for personalization.

The number of channels through which companies and customers can interact continues to proliferate without a foreseeable end. For companies unable to stitch together experiences across these channels, such proliferation will pose ever greater challenges, particularly because, like it or not, customers expect a consistent experience wherever they encounter your brand.

Companies, on the other hand, that have the ability to collect data and orchestrate experiences across channels, will reap the rewards. Whats more, companies able to harness the power of AI and machine learning to anticipate customer needs and create more personalized, valuable interactions with customers, regardless of channel, will end up setting the CX bar that every other brand will struggle to meet.

3. Well see the limits of AI and a return to the human touch where machines fail.

By 2021, 15% of all customer service interactions are going to be handled by artificial intelligence, according to Gartner, a fourfold increase over 2017. As powerful as AI will show itself to be in the CX arena, however, theres an upper limit to what AI can accomplish in customer service. Artificial intelligence is limited by the datasets it has been trained on. It can still be surprised by human behavior in a way that humans cant, and it can still make mistakes.

Take the example of regulated industries, where a black box analytics solution or AI algorithm could mismatch a product with a customer, potentially resulting in a hefty fine. Although the responsibilities of human agents will continue to evolve, the critical need for human-to-human interaction wont ever go away. While humans may always be better than machines at managing complex or nuanced interactions with customers, we will also see their abilities increasingly augmented by AI-enabled tools, providing real-time insights into customer behavior and recommending next best actions.

4. Voice technology will play a more critical role in CX strategy.

From voice-activated virtual assistants, such as Siri and Alexa, and voice-driven menus on customer support lines to sentiment analysis for call center routing, voice technology already plays multiple roles as a customer service proxy, user interface and valuable source of CX data. In 2020, well see an increasing emphasis on voice as a core part of CX strategy. Brands will begin to overcome the challenges of working with voice data, still an untapped source of customer insight, and pay greater attention to refining and improving voice-centered steps in the customer journey.

To prepare your brand for the next stage of competition around CX, as well as the next level of customer expectations regarding great experiences, consider how you stack up against these predictions. Have you begun focusing on the measurement of, and real-time responses to, customer journey steps? Can you effectively replicate your brand experience across multiple channels? Do you have a clear strategy regarding where to use automation and AI and when you need to ensure that your customers are getting the human touch they require? Finally, have you begun effectively leveraging voice technologies to meet customers where they are and expand the ways you interact with them?

If you arent sure how to answer these questions, you and your brand have a lot of work ahead of you in the coming year. If, on the other hand, you answered these questions quickly and with confidence, then the future might be quite bright for your brand.

See the original post:
CX Predictions for 2020: Is Your Brand Ready? - Forbes