• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 6, 2022

Customers trying to do business with a brand may experience certain pain points. But these can mean even greater agony for the brand, judging by Customer Experience Predictions: Report 2022, a paper from Talkdesk. 

One stress point is customer-centricity. Over half of brands report that those who are dissatisfied will jump ship, according to Talkdesk’s recent Global State of Customer Experience 2021. 

What are firms doing about this? Apparently not much: Only 18% say they always ensure that the voice of the customer data always reaches the right department.  

ROI is another pain point (for the companies at least): 40% say demonstrating ROI from CX is one of their top investment challenges. 

You can assume that these issues will trickle down to the email department one way or the other. But what does this mean going forward?

Here are some insights on 2022 from five leading brands: 

Amazon 

Companies need to hire and nurture the right talent, and this must be true as much in the email unit as in any other department. “Until you have professionals who have grown up in CX from day one, you have to ensure that you have a broad set of skills and original thinking on the team, and that can only come from diverse hiring and skills,” says Iain Langridge, product and customer experience leader at Amazon. In addition, employees must have the right technological tools.

The lesson from Amazon: “Use automation to augment employee-customer interactions, reduce customer wait times and strengthen CX teams.”

PepsiCo

Shared digital hubs will take hold in 2022, says Athina Kanioura, chief strategy and transformation officer at PepsiCo. These are shared workspaces designed to foster collaboration. It sounds good in theory, but will cubicle walls become invisible silo walls? Kanioura argues that digital hubs will help companies “give consumers better transparency on their products, including real-time sales and inventory data. 

The lesson from PepsiCo: “Introduce internal digital hubs to increase employee innovation and accuracy around the service they deliver to your customers.”

Roche

The big focus this year will be on the Voice of the Customer. “More and more companies are realizing they have key customer signals, for example behavioral (or) emotional, that they must capture, analyze, learn from and act on to enhance customer experiences,” says Andre Grandt, customer experience chapter lead and transformation officer at Roche. 

Grandt suggests that brands shift their mindset from capturing customer feedback at only a few, isolated touchpoints to capturing customers’ signals at every touchpoint consistently. 

The lesson from Roche: “Capture signals at every touchpoint to better respond to customer needs.”

Dialog

Brands should first acknowledge the implementation of digital channels. “The modern customer in this social media era is used to immediate gratification where purchasing and servicing is expected to be an ‘always on’ experience,’” says Sandra de Zoysa, group chief customer officer at Dialog Axiata. But de Zoysa cautions that companies should also be ready to service “customer segments who might not be as tech literate.” 

The lesson from Dialog: “While automation can be useful, it is important to balance it with human connection.”

Zen 

Consumer pressure will force brands into prioritizing sustainability in 2022. “Brands will become increasingly measured by their wider impact on the planet and will be held accountable by their customers and stakeholders,” says Dean Burdon, customer experience director at Zen Internet. This will pressure CX design principles that are mostly concerned with costs, profits, NPS scores and customer retention. 

The lesson from Zen: “The pressure for businesses to be sustainable is only going to increase in 2022, so do not ignore it.”