2022 Forecasts from CX Network's Advisory Board

In its final meeting of 2021, the CX Network Advisory Board discussed their predictions for the customer experience trends that will become most prevalent in 2022.

Upskilling Through Automation

Claire Hill, Customer Experience Director at Studio Retail

Hill anticipates that the CX industry will move away from lower paid contact
center staff, as a result, employees will be upskilled away from transactional,
high volume-low complexity interactions. These interactions will instead be
handled by self-service solutions or AI.

This move to automation will signal a shift to a more complex world of working, with an increased capacity for meaningful, value-adding conversations between customers and advisors. These meaningful interactions will lead to higher-skilled workers being more valued, and will be more likely to have higher job satisfaction, she predicts.

She explains: “This is a trend we have seen [building] over time, but it feels as though it is really accelerating now…We are investing [in our employees] to make sure they are ready for this shift to a more complex world of working.”

Augmented Support to Become more Prevalent

Thomas Reby, Strategy Manager at Google

With many customers migrating to adopt remote, digital channels to engage with companies, a data-driven push around companies delivering signal based interactions and personalization has been prompted, says Reby.

He believes that while AI is already becoming increasingly prevalent in the CX industry, the rising generation and use of customer signals is creating a tipping point where organizations will be able to make large strides forward in providing sophisticated, augmented, semi-human interactions, via AI and machine learning.

“I expect some strides to be made in augmented support next year…this could be bi-directional; customer assistants/bots interacting with Digital Customer Service capabilities of companies,” Reby predicts.

Get the latest CX resources straight to your inbox

Sign-up to the CX Network newsletter today to stay informed about new CX resources and industry updates. 

Learn More

Data Privacy and Customer Trust Continue to be Top of Mind

Kitty Xu, Senior Quantitative User Experience Research Lead at Pinterest

Xu states that respecting privacy and trust from customers is going to intensify in importance following the data breaches seen within large organizations. She also believes that Google’s depreciation of cookie technology will force companies to reassess marketing strategies and how they engage with customers.

Gen Z Consumers to Shape the Future of Retail

Xu went on to note that the power of Gen Z cannot be overlooked. For those born in the younger generation, their online behavior is very different from millennials and even Generation Alpha. This difference in online behavior means that each customer base has very different mindsets, and organizations must consider this in their strategies.

She explains: “Privacy is always going to be top of mind for consumers. Brands need to consider how they are going to advertise without using consumers’ personal data.”

EX will Outrank CX

Ingrid Lindberg, Founder and CXO of Chief Customer

Companies have figured out that EX drives CX and that they must rotate to an employee focus rapidly, says Lindberg.

Lindberg supplied five key areas that companies must focus on in order to make the pivot to an EX-focused culture:

• Voice of Employee – Focus on meeting the unmet needs of your employees. Find the questions you are not asking.

• Connectivity – Brands must ensure there are ways that employees can connect to each another and leadership, even when working remotely.

• Work/life balance – Companies must help their employees figure out how to turn off work when they are home and working longer hours than ever before.

• The workspace – Brands must rethink the physical spaces their employees occupy, whether it at home or in physical offices.

• Performance – Organizations have spent years figuring out how to measure soft skills, but they must reconsider what performance management looks like in a virtual world.