Customer Experience Trends - 2015 and Beyond

Several weeks into 2015 it is already clear that customer experience is high on the agenda for many executives. The business press is full of tips and trends for how to improve the customer experience. That customer experience has become so important is a trend in itself – this subject is now at the top of the CEO agenda.

But what do I think will be some of the key trends worth watching for this year? Here are my personal top five trends for customer service in 2015. I’d love to hear your thoughts on any others.

1. Channel proliferation will continue; with the Whatsapp messenger now about to replace Facebook messenger this is bound to be a popular tool for customers in 2015. Others will join the established networks such as Twitter and Facebook, but some existing channels will grow subtly – we all know about chat, but I believe that proactive chat will become far more important this year.
2. As I mentioned at the start, customer experience will become a more important topic in the boardroom. The Forrester Customer Index suggests that customer-centric companies improve their performance by 43% compared to a decrease of 33.9% in companies that neglect the customer experience. Stats like this will ensure that customer experience is as important as generating revenue this year.
3. Customer experience jobs will proliferate; take a look at the jobs on LinkedIn. I bet that two years ago hardly any had ‘customer experience’ in the job title, now more of these jobs are being created every day.
4. Departments will blend; tools used in areas such as marketing – Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for example – will become a key part of the customer experience. Departments such as Public Relations, Advertising, marketing, and customer service will start blending together or at the very least becoming much more coordinated in how they all interact with customers and how the brand needs to present one face.
5. Mobile will be king; in 2014 we passed an important Internet milestone where more websites are now viewed on mobile devices than on regular PCs and laptops. The world is using mobiles more than ever before and this affects how brands need to relate to their customer.

We are already well into January, but I’d appreciate your ideas. What do you think will be the trends in 2015. Leave a comment here or tweet me on @pohara_tp.