In the year 2023, the following themes will remain the norm: agility, artificial intelligence, data-driven working and new leadership & empowerment of – hybrid working – teams. Themes that are driven by current geopolitical, economic and digital developments. With the use of these themes, respond to the rapidly changing customer journeys with new touchpoints. No matter B2C, B2B, B2G, NGO companies. This response requires the ability to successfully adapt to the rapid developments. In this post the most important developments for 2023 in customer-centric business with the related Customer Experience and CRM & CX tools topics. Read on!

Content

• Customer centric business 2023
• Trends and developments Customer Experience supported by CRM and CX tools
• Conclusion
• More information

Customer centric business 2023?

In the paragraphs below I will discuss the 4 most important trends and developments with the translation in Customer Experience supported by CRM and CX tools.

1. Breaking down silo thinking

One of the major issues is, still, silo thinking. Silo thinking that leads to inefficient and ineffective business operations:

• complaints due to incorrect deliveries: cause, sales and production do not work well together
• the necessary digitization is not getting off the ground: cause, business and IT live in different worlds
• churn: cause, customers are sent from pillar to post
• dissatisfied employees: cause, it takes a lot of hassle to serve customers
  etc.

1.1. Translation in Customer Experience

The silo topic is, according to various studies, on a prominent top 3 issue in CX strategies, in the CXPA framework “Culture & Accountability”: a change in culture requires new leadership & empowerment of – hybrid working – teams. After all, with only “managing” the silo thinking can’t be broken. Managing is acting to be in “control”. With leadership, on the other hand, silo thinking can be broken!

1.2. Supported with tech (CRM & CX tools)

With CRM, connecting the silos with Organization processes and data. This makes it possible to work with a 360-degree customer view and silos are broken through organization-wide processes.

With CX tools, such as Lumoa and Cemantica, the awareness for the “horizontal” customer journeys that are at odds with a vertical organizational design and KPIs. Measuring and optimizing the experience per touchpoint from an organization-wide collaboration!

With the current economic downturn, silo thinking is becoming a manifest problem. It requires leadership to successfully break down silo thinking. Supported by CRM and CX tools for enabling an organization wide collaboration.

2. Providing convenience

Providing convenience is and will remain key for customer engagement in 2023!

• Providing convenience with digitization. To digitize more and more processes and to be able to respond more quickly to customer questions. Not only the traditional sales, marketing and service processes, but also processes such as delivery, returns and complaint handling.
• Providing convenience with augmented and virtual reality: AR and VR technologies are becoming increasingly important tools for providing convenience and improving the Customer Experience. Convenience by, for example, virtually designing a kitchen, or virtually choosing your new floor. At the same time, AR improves the brand experience with the purchase decision by increasing the bond with the brand through the virtual interaction.
• Providing convenience with chatbots and voice to text  technology. With voice, employees don’t have to process and store appointments with customers and the content of conversations. Customers can help themselves with chatbots: AI-powered virtual assistants to handle all standard queries. Those questions that matter, to be dealt with by “the human being”.

2.1. Translation in Customer Experience

What customer wants is “get their jobs done”, without any hassle. Providing convenience with a CX strategy with the important topics of strategy, insights & understanding (what are the needs for convenience), Design (how to shape “convenience”) and Metrics (measuring convenience).

2.2. Supported with tech (CRM & CX tools)

Offering convenience is pre-eminently the domain of CRM. Digitizing customer processes with the use of CRM, automating customer journeys with the various digital and physical customer interactions. This also includes having the same set of customer data available within all departments of an organization. In this way, each department can best respond to the needs of the customer.

Determine the customer journey with CX tools in which convenience is central and measure the experience per touchpoint.

3. Personalisation

Customers expect personalized – branded – experiences that match their unique needs and preferences. This with the right mix of digitization and personal interactions.

3.1. Translation in Customer Experience

Translation into a CX strategy based on brand values: determining which parts of the customer journey are digital and which parts are “human” again: the human dimension is what is distinctive in these times of digitalisation!

3.2. Supported with tech (CRM & CX tools).

With the help of AI: data analytics and AI-driven technologies. All major CRM players are fully committed to AI and integrate various AI models into their CRM processes. For example for sales opportunities and target group analyses. This allows better use of personal marketing campaigns. A 360-degree customer view with CRM is and will remain key for personalization in 2023: serving customers with the right information at the right time with the right experience.

Players with CX tools such as Lumoa and Cemantica also apply AI in their CX processes. For example, for the various customer journeys and VoC (Voice of the Customer).

Brands that offer personalized experiences will be more likely to engage customers.

4. Omnichannel

Regardless of the channel chosen, customers expect a brand, hassle-free experience. Channels such as chat, online, mobile, social media and physical locations and being able to switch seamlessly between these channels: a question asked via Whatsapp must also be returned to the customer contact center and the back office for settlement.

4.1. Translation in Customer Experience.

Omnichannel from a CX strategy with important topics such as strategy, insights & understanding, Design and Metrics.

4.2. Supported with tech (CRM & CX tools)

All major CRM players offer Omnichannel CRM: functionalities to register sound interactions via the various channels from a single platform and to centralize all information.

Measure the experiences across all touchpoints with CX tools and improve the experiences per touchpoint based on these insights. Parallel to this, bring about the organizational development to start collaborating organization-wide.

Omnichannel requires organization-wide collaboration! Many – silo driven – organizations – organize their channels per silo. This is often the biggest challenge in making the transition: from single channel via multi channel to omnichannel.

Conclusion

Technology – digitization with CRM and optimizing customer journeys and touchpoints with CX platforms – is a means to a challenge; Response to the high expectations of customers (CX) and employees (EX). Technology is, admittedly a crucial, but a means to the end: successful distinctive business.

A silo-driven organization remains a silo-driven organization if you start using technology without investigation in what are the actual – underlying – problems. In many cases, new leadership is a key strategy for solving underlying problems.

New leadership? Responding to the rapidly changing world requires a different way of leading and managing. Leaders must adopt a culture of listening, understanding and inspiring employees. Embrace strengthening personal relationships inside and outside the company based on empathy. A culture of learning and (continuous) improvement.

Successfully working with new leadership in today’s world of remote working teams, “letting go” by placing responsibilities on employees. Successfully start working agile driven with new leadership, a culture of collaboration at all levels. Successful data-driven working, exemplary behavior and coaching with new leadership.

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