I speak with clients, executives, and technologists from many different industries all the time, with the goal of distilling and interpreting what the future of customer experience will mean for enterprises. It is clear that customers are increasingly in charge of the conversation and that those conversations are moving to a digital world...and that's good. In a digital world, enterprises have access to a wealth of data and the ability to predict the customer's needs and intent as they travel along their digital highway. Over the next year, I fully expect that the term digital will have more meaning with enterprises as they begin connecting and blending customer experiences across channels and devices successfully.
Customer Engagement Goes All-in on Digital
According to Ovum, there will be 45 billion calls made for customer service in 2015. Yes, people still call 800 numbers, but as the world moves toward digitizing everything, enterprises know that those calls must be woven into a digital infrastructure. Customer experience is the new battleground, and the battle will be for technologies that make all interactions digital. Customer channels have proliferated out of the control of the enterprise. Those consumers that demanded those channels now expect enterprises to maintain context across the channels, anticipate their needs, and service them the way they want to be serviced, when they want to be serviced. In 2015, we will see vast strides made in the unification of channels focused on the digital experience. Those efforts will make complicated customer journeys easier.
Data and Design Go Past the Dating Phase
Never before has human interaction with technology been so important. Today, people have high expectations for the experiences that they have with their smartphones, mobile apps, and even their service provider's IVR. The increasing use of data has the potential to change the game in delivering customer experience, but only when coupled with design. Customer experiences must be designed with the user in mind from the ground up. The customer's experience