Key Insights
Customer support and expectations in 2022 will leave little room for error.
Enterprises that have focused on customer experience and well-documented customer success strategies will thrive, and those who haven’t will need to act quickly in order to remain relevant in a competitive landscape.
A primary barometer of customer experience, especially in times of crisis, is the various ways in which a customer interacts with a company.
For businesses, it is the ability to deliver such experiences that meet the new customer needs with care.
66% of consumers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. Any friction in the customer journey will quickly result in not just revenue loss but also the loss of the customer.
The way we deliver customer experiences and enhance customer success management is rapidly moving to a new operating model.
But with restrictions on our daily life easing up each day, how well positioned are you to deal with the impacts of pent-up demands? How effective will the changes you have made today be in the long term?
Each of the trends mentioned below represents an opportunity to learn about what customers need, both in times of crisis and beyond.
Let’s dive deep into a few customer success trends that are here to dominate the customer space.
The 7 Key Customer Success Trends to Watch Out
1. Make Way for Omnichannel Communication
Now is the time for your customer success strategy to adapt to omnichannel communication to deliver a seamless and consistent customer experience no matter what the customer touchpoint is.
While a truly omnichannel approach ensures better customer support, it also factors in the different devices, behaviors, and preferences of the customer.
But this new kind of conversational commerce is so much more than just offering the option of live chats to customers.
Unlike years prior, an omnichannel communication strategy offers the right tools that allow you to treat all channels as equal- whether it be Facebook, WhatsApp, your website, or email.
2. The Massive Role of Customer Review
Psychologist and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman put forward the theory of the Peak-End rule.
It described how we evaluate events based on just two parts of our experience- the peak and the end.
Consumer-oriented companies utilize this to figure out various customer success management strategies to create and improve memorable peak experiences along the customer journey.
At a time when customer experience is no longer limited to interactions between the customer and the company, enterprises can make use of online reviews to better understand the touchpoints where their customers formed the most positive memories with their product or service.
These experiences have the potential to be put on display for the world to see. And it can be highly beneficial since customers are willing to spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews.
3. Connecting with Care and Empathy
Now more than ever, customers need extra information and guidance to navigate an unprecedented set of challenges. They want resources they can trust, and which offer them the support they are looking for.
A McKinsey research highlights that 64% of customers will opt to buy from socially responsible brands.
In the face of changing customer perception, the way organizations step up to play the role will define the kind of lasting impression they create in customers’ minds.
One way to start is to reach out to your customers, not with the objective of gaining a competitive edge, but to offer genuine support. This should be the crux of your customer success management.
4. The Rise of Customer Support in C-level Strategy
Customer support and customer success strategies are playing an increasingly vital role for the C-suite due to the influence it has on growth strategies. But for it to be successful, the CXO, CMO, and CCO of a business will need to work even more collaboratively.
One recent study showed that 70% of consumers feel more connected to a brand when the CEO takes a more active role on social media. This demonstrates that customers are looking for a personal connection when they want to engage and support a brand.
5. Anticipating Beforehand
Agile companies are staying ahead and anticipating their customers’ pain points and rising service needs. This is where advanced data and analytics come into play.
Complementing a company’s capabilities to utilize data analytics are Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) which have seen a huge uptake during this tumultuous period.
Such technologies have been the key to getting anticipatory information about customers and what their expectations are of a brand.
6. Turning Our Lens on Personalization
It is no surprise that the year has brought hyper-personalization into sharp focus, helping us to reimagine customer success management.
While data analytics has helped us to anticipate customer needs, its advancement is also allowing marketers to create much more personal and “human” experiences across the buying stage.
Customer expectations are projected to increase as more software and tools begin to allow businesses to achieve personalization.
Companies can ease this process by unifying their data and making it easily accessible to the customer success team. Consequently, information can be tailored to each customer persona.
7. The Steady Momentum of Self-service
Self-service hit an all-time high during the pandemic when companies’ customer service capacities were lowered.
An effective form of self-service is a knowledge base. This includes a centralized repository of information about the business and its various products and services.
For customers, it represents a one-stop destination to get started with your offerings and solve common issues.
With the push to make experiences more “human”, your self-service strategy, as well as your customer success tactics, must build trust with consumers and deliver value.
Many companies have started investing in creating online communities to nurture stronger relationships as well as pave the way for continuous communication.
Such channels should be utilized for encouraging customers to ask questions, share experiences, and provide feedback.
Agile Innovation for a Fast-Changing World
Companies need to act fast and stay ahead of the curve while fulfilling customer needs.
This often means accelerating time-to-market for new products, rapid prototyping, and introducing new innovations regularly. It requires doubling down on customer success management by raising internal capabilities that support the new scale.
