Customer Experience Predictions 2012

As difficult trading conditions are expected to prevail throughout 2012 the need to understand customers’ needs and deliver value for money products and services against them will continue to grow. Customer Champions have identified what they believe will be the Top 10 issues in 2012 facing companies that want to improve their customers’ experience.

1. The use of Customer Journey Mapping as a tool to understand the total picture of customer interactions with a company will continue to grow in application (For further reading on this, try Going beyond Customer Journey Mapping, Customer Journey Mapping for London 2012 and Customer Journey Mapping (CJM).)
2. Customer complaints will increase in volume through a combination of customers looking for greater value for money, and the expansion in the number of channels being made available by companies to complain. This will be due to the fact that companies will have a greater appreciation of the value of complaints.
3. Companies will begin to realise that improving the customer experience will not only generate additional revenue and grow market share, but it will also improve the efficiency of dealing with customers and will therefore offer opportunities for costs savings.
4. There will be an explosion of customer feedback through the increasing use of technology for data collection, with many companies struggling to gain a clear picture of their customers’ issues.
5. Trust will have an impact upon customer loyalty as customers have a decreasing budget to spend. A proven track record, customer testimonials, case studies, and customer reviews will play an increasing role to identifying who customers should trust. The impact of recommendation will still be a key factor.
6. Customers will spend more time conducting background research to establish a short list of potential suppliers. Much of this research will be outside of the direct control of the supplier, therefore reputation and perception will be vital.
7. In a B2B market the supplier will need to be able to prove that not only do they understand their customers’ needs, but in addition how their offer will add value to their clients’ businesses.
8. Customer service will become a key differentiator in many markets. This was recently highlighted in the report we produced on Benchmarking Customer service within Retail.
9. Companies will continue to struggle to have a single view of their customer and provide a consistent customer experience across a multi channel offer.
10. With limited resources (people and money) companies will increasingly be looking for a direct link between improving the customers’ experience and financial return.

Take the next step

If you would like to find out more about these tools and how Customer Champions could support you in 2012, please get in touch.

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