Nine Customer Experience Trends 2022

The pivot of Customer Experience. Customer Experience becomes an executive topic and changes companies from the root. We look ahead.

Rising sales and excellent customer ratings are no coincidence, you'll agree. But what exactly are the drivers in the new year 2022 that matter to you as an entrepreneur? I'll tell you in today's post.

1. Cultural change in the company

The Corona pandemic has changed our society. And it's just the beginning. Companies that address this challenge from the roots up are the winners. Why? For one simple reason. It's not Respond, Recover, but Renew that counts. These companies accept the situation. They respond to it, recover. They change internal structures at the root. That means new agile working methods and revised value models, effective leadership strategies, sustainable talent search, and development. Everything. In dealing with their customers, they know: If we don't holistically adapt to the new needs and stresses that the crisis has brought, we won't survive. Many companies such as airlines, hotels, or car manufacturers have got hit ice-cold by the crisis. Is change what we need? Stephanie Selmer, change expert coming from IT, says:

"Change management is dead. A permanent change is becoming permanent disruption."

2. New Work - New Employee Experience

New Work - A Detroit professor, Frithjof Bergmann, who taught in the 1970s, asks for the first time questions like How do I manage my lifetime? How can we combine life and work in the best possible way? We find out, the whole concept is not new.

What is different? Today, we are breaking down structures. Rigid working hours are becoming flexible. We are more mobile, no longer tied to an office, communication takes place on all channels. Digitally. Only one thing, and here I am addressing you, is ultra important. Your employees need to be fine with the situation. Feel good about themselves, be able to be productive, and connect to everyone "out there." Do they have the right tools for success? McKinsey notes in a study that employees spend an average of 1.8 hours per day, 9.3 h per week searching for relevant information. Do the math for your company - fatal. Is your employee digitally connected with CRM, cloud systems, and smart communication so that he or she can power through? One thing is certain: New Work is here to stay. Prepare your employees. Because that's the only way to achieve effective customer enthusiasm in 2022.

FOR YOU: Is this an option for you, to send your sales staff to the home office? Or an employee in another city, even in another country? Even as a hotel, for example. I also know the complete opposite. Those who say: "No way, I need the whiteboard with the sales figures, these ups, and downs like on the stock exchange. And the vibrant atmosphere as motivation - otherwise nothing works." Think about that for a moment- what is the best solution and balance for your situation?

3. Customer Experience is Brand - New Business Models / Services / Experiences around the Customer Emerge

If the company changes at its core, the way we work together, the way we communicate, the way we ultimately live, then business models and services must also change. Customers are part of the value chain. The Customer Experience is one of the most influential parts of branding.

FOR YOU: GOODYEAR: From tire, provider to a service company. Through sensors in the tires, they are able to give their customers real-time information on when it's time to change tires, for example. Or Zara Home, which has developed a cooking and recipe platform to package its Kitchen Collection in a customer experience and sell it emotionally. Almost everyone falls in love with colorful, well-styled home design if it tastes good.

4. Optimization AI, Automation & Co.

Digitalization is integrated holistically and connects Human Touch - the highest expectations of the customers after the pandemic experience. Further prognosis: Ongoing! The fear of digitalization is fading. The fear that all jobs could be lost, that we would only be ruled by machines, is fading. AI and then what? We know AI can't understand humans better than humans understand themselves. Bots need to get better at supporting us humans better. Bots need arms and legs. And save the customer endless questions and time-wasting. Not the other way around. Smart connections of professional humans and technology have the ability to reall