by Matt Sims | February 11, 2021
Our Sales Consultant Matt Sims was invited to speak this week at the Nordic launch of Zendesk’s 2021 CX trends report, part of its global survey based on data from 90,000 businesses across 175 countries. Here Matt shares his take on the five CX trends that everyone needs to know about in 2021.
Here’s the good news – there’s never been a better time to invest in your CX. Zendesk’s survey reports that 75% of customers will spend more if they can buy from a company with good CX. There’s also a demographic shift happening in customer behaviour, with the 65+ market of older shoppers starting to order groceries online.
The flipside of that good news is that customers are not becoming more forgiving, and nowadays all it takes to lose them is one bad experience. Channel availability is becoming much more important to consumers too.
What we’re seeing from a CX perspective is not just that customers want availability on the channels of their choice – increasingly digital channels like messaging and chat – but that they also want much more agile and fluid customer experiences in established, traditional channels. Organizations will need to come up with new ways to service customers in more effective ways.
While email and phone remain the top two preferred channels for customers, we’re starting to see a 2-channel average quickly become 3-4 channels, with 61% of customers trying new ways to get in touch with customer service.
Nearly three-quarters of consumers still prefer telephone as their channel of choice, alongside a preference for human-to-human social interaction in their channel choice. The report shows an increase in growth in the popularity of digital channels, with messaging (whether live chat, social platform or SMS) just 5% behind the phone in popularity now and gaining ground.
Perhaps understandably given the global events of the last year, Zendesk’s survey shows that being able to adapt quickly and easily is now more important than any other CX priority for CX leaders and agents. The need to have blended agents who are able to work across multiple channels is up a third YoY too, with 75% of companies using two or more channels daily for their CX.
The global pandemic has forced many companies to undergo seismic changes to how they work, practically overnight. For many employees this has seen them adopting new tools and processes. Half of the companies Zendesk surveyed have switched to remote work (without necessarily having the right tools in place to succeed at WFH in a way that’s sustainable.)
In our experience at 5CA, there’s no single set of tools and capabilities that companies can equip themselves with in order to create best-in-class remote working. It’s not a single solution answer, it’s a strategy. For us it’s a way to change the game when it comes to industry challenges like the war for talent. Not being bound by geographical proximity to bricks-and-mortar offices when hiring CX agents, means we can hire from an infinitely larger global talent pool.
We’re able to hire agents who are already fans of our clients’ brands, so they already know and love their products and services. All of this enables us to get agents onboarded and operational within weeks, not months.
Half of all decision-makers say that COVID-19 has quickened the pace at which new tech adoption is occurring, with companies prioritizing a number of big digital bets in 2021.
Leading the field for many companies is the ability to execute omnichannel CX, with better infosec, more agile tech, better internal collaboration tools and digital employee workspaces all next on the list for 2021. More than half of the leaders Zendesk spoke to reported that they were expecting bigger budgets in 2021 to invest in a ramp-up of digital tech.
If you’d like to talk more about any of the trends here and how your business can handle them, or you’d simply like to talk about future-proofing your organization’s CX for whatever this new decade is going to throw at us, get in touch and let’s have a conversation.
It’s never been more important to update your CX strategy for e-stores. Read our blog to learn the seven CX trends we predict will take off in 2021.
After the events of 2020, it’s no surprise that the whole world is gaming longer and harder than it ever has before. Mobile gaming in particular has had a stellar year, as millions of us have turned to our phones to stave off lockdown boredom.
Gaming is the world’s #1 lifestyle choice, played by more people than any other form of entertainment. We’ve had a ringside seat for its evolution, working hand-in-hand with our clients to support their customers as they enter huge, new immersive worlds.
The times, they are a-most-definitely-changing. As seasoned CX veterans know, plenty of the received wisdoms of third-party contact center management have received something of a battering over the last few years.
If you were not able to attend “CX Strategy: What now?”, our panel debate from last week, then here it is. An insightful, thought-provoking hour with industry gurus Mark Hillary, Stephen Loynd, Peter Ryan and our own Robert Van Diem. Here are some of the themes that really stood out for us.
I’m pleased to announce that I will be participating in a debate hosted by 5CA on October 27th. The title is CX Strategy: What Now? It’s going to be particularly topical, as one of the key things we will discuss, in the midst of this pandemic, is working from home (WFH) in the CX arena.
I’m pleased to announce that I will be participating in a debate hosted by 5CA on October 27th. The title is CX Strategy: What Now? I know that there are a lot of webinars and online debates these days, but I really think you should make time for this one:
Following on from National Customer Service Week, our Chief Customer Officer Rob van Herpen reflects on the journey that customer service has undergone in the last decade, and the role it plays within the wider scope of the whole customer experience.
I’m pleased to announce that I will be moderating a webinar hosted by 5CA on October 27th. The title is CX Strategy: What Now? I know you might be thinking “another day, another webinar invitation,” but as I’m chairing the debate I want to try making this one a little different. We can’t meet at conferences right now so the very least anyone planning a new webinar can do is to ensure it’s interesting and this one should hit the ball out of the park.
Gaming has been one of the few beneficiaries of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Global quarantine and stay-at-home orders preventing people from traveling, commuting, and socializing has resulted in a boom for the gaming industry. Maximize the value of your VIP players and discover how work from home (WFH) support helps you add more value to your gaming whales.
Game launched? Check. Player hype? Check. Champagne? Crack that bottle, you deserve it! But while it bubbles on your tongue, let me ask you this: Have you considered how to respond to players who need assistance or want to provide feedback? And when your player base grows (and let's be honest it will - your game is awesome), what will you do when those interactions start exploding in languages you do not speak? How will you manage the volume of requests coming in, but still provide the best possible user experience to your fans?
Yes…. Another thought piece on how COVID-19 is re-shaping life as we know it and what can we learn from it going forward. With people stuck at home and shops closed, several industries, such as e-commerce, streaming entertainment, and gaming, are experiencing hyperactivity. The influx is driving revenues but also customer support needs.
Did anyone see that Assassins’ Creed Valhalla announcement trailer? Of course you did. Chances are you did not discover it on your own, but instead it appeared on your social media channels, most likely shared by a fan of the franchise or an influencer. At least that is how it happened to me. Game marketing truly has changed in the era of digital, community, and influencers.
In BPO, we often talk about how we deliver the best possible customer experience. We focus on training knowledgeable and empathetic agents, we run and rerun staffing simulations to ensure minimal wait times. These things are important, but, for the most part, once a customer is reaching out to us, it’s already a ding to the overall customer experience. Customers want an easy experience that works as it should and is intuitive.
Last month, Vice ran an interesting article by Jess Morrissette on how games marketing invented toxic gaming culture by promoting toxicity and harassment as value propositions for gaming. While considered perfectly reasonable at the time, games marketing has luckily taken a turn for the better.
One of the most interesting things about the gaming industry is that gamers don’t behave like customers. Sure, they have no problem spending like customers, but their devotion and passion makes them more like super-fans.
With more and more companies providing work-from-home possibilities, and children spending more time at home during school breaks, many tend to fill the time previously spent commuting or at after-school activities on picking up new or old hobbies. It comes as no surprise that playing video games is one of those favored hobbies.
The World Health Organization and almost every national government has encouraged everyone in non-essential roles to stay at home. With millions of people in self-isolation, there is a real need to ensure these people have something to do.
In this new day and age where no one spends more than 67 seconds away from a screen without at least a hint of anxiety, recruiting and engaging this new wave of job seekers is no less complicated than swiping right, get a match and then not really knowing how to open a conversation anymore (sound familiar?).
In today's business world, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who does not agree that Customer Experience is an essential aspect when building and maintaining a profitable business.
We’ve probably all heard of quality assessment (QA) before, where a quality specialist goes over agent interactions and checks to see if there are any possible areas of improvement or development...
The most successful companies make listening and understanding their customers a vital part of their business strategy. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?
In this article, I’ll provide you with five tips to shape your customer service organization in such a way that you can prevent your customers from experiencing exactly this.
When you think about Customer Experience I’m willing to bet you’ll typically think about the experiences customers have when evaluating a product or service, choosing and buying it, and then actually using it.
