The landscape of customer experience will undergo several technological transformations in 2024. This would extend from generative AI to hyper-personalization to offering immersive experiences to customers. By improving customer experience, organizations can improve retention rates, customer satisfaction, loyalty, revenue and more. This blog will walk you through the top nine customer experience trends that you need to know as you venture into 2024. It will also highlight the key customer experience trends you have to consider in the Southeast Asian market. So, let’s get right into it.
Generative AI in Customer Experience
2024 will be a year with several intriguing AI trends focused on improving customer experience. As per a recent Gartner study conducted among 2500 executives, the majority, 38% of the participants, suggested customer experience and retention are their primary focus while using generative AI.
Organizations across different regions will put efforts on improving customer experience. For instance, in Southeast Asia, with an increase in Gen-Z and millennial population holding purchasing power, it will become integral for companies to invest in customer experience solutions that address and satisfy their needs. There are many ways to enhance customer experience, and customer service stands out as one of the best ways to achieve it.
Chatbots, virtual assistants, and voicebots like WIZ.AI’s Talkbot continue to support businesses in strengthening their customer service and support. However, in 2024, there will be performance improvement with sentiment classification, bias mitigation via synthetic data, and other technological innovations. Interested in learning more about the various trends generative AI will bring into customer service. Read our blog on Generative AI trends in customer service and support to watch out for 2024.
Apart from this, generative AI could perform predictive analysis by utilizing customer data. This would aid in understanding customers better and providing them with the best experience. On a similar line, generative AI could facilitate targeted customer experience by understanding customer behaviors. Applications of generative AI to level up customer experience will go beyond D2C and assist B2B sellers through guided selling. Generative AI still possesses some limitations and risks.AI. But, undoubtedly, there will be drastic improvements brought in by generative AI to overcome these concerns, which will further boost customer experience.
Self-service Options
75% of respondents in a recent survey by Nuance Enterprises said they considered self-service a convenient method to address their concerns. We have had used self-service for quite some time in one way or the other via self-checkouts at supermarkets, ATMs, and so on. However, since the pandemic, there has been an increase in the adoption of self-service portals/ kiosks by businesses. Integrating self-service will not just enhance customer experience. It will also provide an added advantage in streamlining your company’s customer service activities.
Although many organizations currently rely on self-service portals to some extent, it can be said that in 2024 and beyond, there will be an increase in self-service adoption. This would be integral with an increase in the Gen-Z population entering as an important customer segment for many businesses. It is because Gen-Zs consider self-service as their most preferred option. Organizations in Southeast Asia would have to prioritize self-service, especially due to the increase in Gen-Z population in these regions. Some of the self-service measures that will be adopted in the coming year by more organisations are as follows:
- FAQs and other knowledge bases such as helpful articles and guides, offering online support to customers
- Chatbots, facilitating answers to customers’ questions
- Community discussion forums where customers can interact with each other
- Automated ticketing systems where customers can report issues and get prioritized based on the severity of the issue
- Voice bots offer immediate assistance with an option for customers to schedule their calls
- Automated text messaging systems to provide followups and reminders
These self-service systems can help resolve customers’ issues quickly, add scalability, reduce costs, and collect and analyze data to better understand user issues and behaviors to further improve customer experience throughout their journey.
In 2024, the focus of self-service will be more on enabling mobile-first designs that offer real-time data syncing. They would also facilitate immediate feedback to customers and become capable of initiating autonomous resolutions.
Automation in Customer Experience
Automation involves delegating repetitive tasks via specific software. It has become integral to every organization, especially for streamlining workflows and enhancing their customer and employee experience. With automation, organizations in Southeast Asia and other regions can reduce their employees’ workload while aiding them in handling more valuable tasks. As part of improving customer experience, organizations can rely on automation for:
- Obtaining customer feedback via surveys, pop-ups, and emails, as these can be automated with pre-built templates and automation flows
- Sending out customer emails and newsletters to the subscription list
- Performing real-time customer segmentation
- Resolving issues based on prioritization
- Creating automatic translations
- Providing automated notifications to customers
Additionally, relying on automation can be particularly beneficial for companies in improving their customer service and support activities. Organizations can automate customer service-related activities via AI chatbots, voice assistants, voicebots, and automated ticketing systems. In short, automation can help handle more customer requests, enhance customer experience and satisfaction, smoothen customer onboarding, and improve response rates.
Hyper-personalization
Organizations would shift from a ‘personalized’ to a ‘hyper-personalized’ approach in 2024. Hyper-personalization is a data-centric approach, where companies analyze data to facilitate tailored customer experience. Today, organizations can rely on artificial intelligence to perform these analyses. This can be substantiated by a recent report from Deloitte. As per the report, organizations will have to harness the power of artificial intelligence to facilitate hyper-personalized experiences for customers. This would help with meeting and even exceeding customer expectations.
By offering tailored customer experience with this data-driven approach, organizations can furnish customers with personalized purchase recommendations based on each customer’s unique preferences. Dynamic landing pages can also be created as part of this process. In a nutshell, integrating hyper-personalization as a business strategy would benefit companies in elevating customer experience, creating a loyal customer base, building long-lasting customer relationships, forming in-moment customer journeys, and performing real-time customer segmentation in Southeast Asia and other regions.
Immersive Experience via VR and AR
Offering immersive experiences to customers will continue to be a priority in 2024. Customer experience leaders can do so by integrating virtual and augmented reality technologies. These immersive technologies can help organizations to focus on providing memorable experiences to their customers rather than conventional experiences.
In today’s world, organizations must focus on improving customer experience as 49% of customers leave a brand they have been loyal to in the past year because of poor customer experience, as per a research study by Emplifi. Businesses can implement virtual and augmented reality regardless of their industry. For instance, in fashion, the Nike Fit App is one example as it provides AR shoe fitting for its customers/prospects. Facilitating immersive experience in e-Commerce would be beneficial for markets like Southeast Asia with an e-Commerce market size of USD 139 billion. Immersive experience can be highly beneficial in customer service for boosting customer experience. The different ways through which immersive technology can be leveraged in customer service are:
- Virtual product demos where technicians can guide customers in real-time remotely via augmented reality
- Augmented reality-based applications to resolve customer issues
- Personal customer support facilitated through simulated 3D spaces
Through these strategies, organizations can reduce on-site visits, enhance customer experience by collecting data and identifying patterns, and also break down the silos present in customer service and support offered by your firm.
Omnichannel Experience
90% of customer service leaders in a HubSpot study stated that customer expectations have reached an all-time high since the pandemic. Customer support and service are key players in this puzzle as they can boost the customer experience.
A recent ZenDesk study stated that 93% of customers are ready to spend more money on brands that provide support on the preferred channel. This shows that facilitating omnichannel experience over multi-channel experience to customers will be critical in 2024 and beyond. The key difference between these two communication systems is that multi-channel has different communication channels that are not interconnected. On the other hand, omnichannel systems have interconnected channels that can connect customers via different channels.
According to a recent McKinsey study, it can be understood that customers require an “always-on, personalized, omnichannel experience.” In 2024, more organizations will implement omnichannel customer experience through CRM platforms that offer fluid transitions across different channels such as live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, email, and phone calls. With an increase in the reliance on technology, offering omnichannel experience to customers will be key in areas thriving digitally, like Southeast Asia with 71.6% internet penetration rate and 400 million users as per Statista. Improving the customer experience via omnichannel support can facilitate different benefits such as:
- Increase scalability
- Reduce churn rate
- Facilitate faster issue resolution
- Help identify opportunities
- Offer customer insights
Additionally, when organizations opt for omnichannel experience via AI-powered solutions, they can gain insights into customer journeys and perform customer experience mapping. This will further foster customer experience.
Proactive Customer Support
For a very long time, organizations relied on reactive customer support strategies. However, as we step into 2024, there will be a shift as companies opt for a more proactive customer support model. In reactive model, service is only provided when customers reach out for assistance. But, proactive customer support focuses on understanding the probable problems that customers would have and equipping them with solutions beforehand.
One of the key components in facilitating proactive support is leveraging data. Customer data can be collected and analyzed to furnish them with proactive support. Some ways to facilitate proactive support are obtaining customer feedback, curating resources based on their feedback, following up with customers, facilitating self-service, and having real-time channels like live chat. With proactive customer support, organizations can improve customer loyalty, retention rates, engagement, and satisfaction.
Voice of Customer Insights
Voice of Customer (VoC) focuses on utilizing data for improving customer experiences. This can be beneficial in understanding customer needs, motivations, and challenges. The information garnered will help companies understand what to prioritize. This would enable them to improve their products, services, and processes.
Organizations can attain VoC insights through different channels, such as social media analytics, surveys, direct feedback, text analytics, and sentiment analysis. Relying on generative AI-powered solutions will also be beneficial in garnering these insights. In short, investing in understanding customers and leveraging the data obtained will be priorities for customer service and support in 2024 as part of meeting customer expectations.
Sustainable Customer Experience
Fostering sustainability will become critical for customer experience in 2024. As customers show an increased preference toward sustainable organizations, organizations will have to ensure they add value to it. It will. Be particularly necessary in regions with green economies like Southeast Asia. As per Forbes’ Customer Experience Trends for 2024, sustainability can be attained by promoting transparency, reducing environmental footprints, and helping customers to make ethical consumer choices.
Chatbots and voicebots can also play a crucial role in promoting sustainability. They can reduce energy and resource conception that would otherwise be spent on things such as transporting staff. Incorporating cloud-based solutions can help lower emissions and e-waste as well. Other ways of enabling sustainability in customer service include gamifications and rewards based on sustainability and monitoring social responsibility.
Conclusion
Bolstering customer experience will continue to be a significant priority for businesses, not just in 2024 but also in the years to follow. Organizations in Southeast Asia and other regions will have to adopt different strategies with the aid of technology to ensure they enhance their customers’ experience. Generative AI-powered solutions, automation, sustainability, and omnichannel support are some pivotal trends that would boost customer experience. Interested in revolutionizing customer experience in 2024? Talk to our experts and find the best way.
