Dynamic customer experience trends to look out for in 2021

Trends are a tough subject to pin down, especially when it comes to customer experience (CX) trends. A lot of what goes into finding the latest trend involves research, though a lot is simply instinct.

For this reason, it makes sense to keep an eye on emerging trends, just in case something changes or grows and you need to swing into action.

Here are some dynamic CX trends that are looking particularly probable to develop into something bigger.

AI is just not going away. Period.

For every person who claims they’re frustrated with AI and chatbots or that you just can’t replace human interaction, there are plenty more who say the opposite. Customer satisfaction statistics prove so as well. Most users are happy with the way AI is serving them and bettering their customer experience, and it shows with their continued loyalty to tech-driven brands.

Artificial intelligence is not only sticking around, it’s going to get better and better. This is good news for anyone wishing for human interaction in online experiences. The AI will likely interact just as well as any human customer service agent could, and similarly be more efficient in handling problems and answering questions. Prepare for this eventuality by focusing at least some of your CX efforts towards improving the overall AI elements.

Lastly, don’t discount customers who might feel slighted by the over-introduction of AI despite the fact they spoke out against it in surveys. Let them know their voices were heard in other unique ways that usher them into this new technological error.

Smartphones are no longer a transaction catalyst – They’re now the main attraction in most sales

When it comes to digital technology, smartphones have once again represented a new shift in the industry. It used to be that customers would begin a transaction with a smartphone but ultimately finish it elsewhere, such as in person or on a computer. This allowed teams to avoid catering to mobile devices. However, since this is no longer the case (transactions often end on the smartphone now), companies are changing their entire process.

Nowadays, a smartphone transaction is completed from beginning to end, at least a lot of the time. This means that a customer experience will be affected by the ways in which a company handles transactions for mobile devices, and more importantly, smartphones. Smartphones are well-known as a very personalized device, which brings us to the next 2021 trend: personalization.

Personalization is a requirement

A lot of different issues fall under the broad category of personalization when it comes to customer experience. Today, customers have extremely high expectations concerning how personalized their interactions are with companies. In fact, most assume that a business does (or at least, will) understand their specific needs.

Luckily, the growing amounts of data available allows companies to meet these expectations and deliver a personalized customer experience. This should continue to improve as well considering the expected digital data storage growth in the near future. Especially when you consider how many transactions and sales are digitally tracked and logged, customers just assume you know what they want. Use whatever technological tools available to ensure you meet these expectations.

The chances of you accurately predicting whether a trend is going to diminish or further itself in the coming year is slim. However, if you do enough research and prepare, you can be ready for the customer experience trends that do stick.

As we continue to experience new and exciting trends of 2021, don’t forget the ways in which things have changed in the past and will change again. The most important thing for you to do is remain focused on building good customer experiences.