The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a lack of resiliency in many systems, processes, and business models, that influence how companies and brands engage with customers and deliver experiences that keep customers coming back. It became painfully apparent that most companies had done little to build out good customer engagement models – and it cost them.
Without customers, there is no business. And, without providing contextually relevant and differentiated customer experiences, businesses are unable to forge and maintain the strong bonds with customers that can help avoid chaotic disruptions. IDC’s predictions for the Future of Customer and Consumers explore the most urgent technology issues and concerns that companies must address to differentiate themselves and maintain engaging relationships with customers. As organizations adopt and employ customer engagement and experience technologies, services, and strategies, they should base their evaluations on whether they improve customer experience or make customer engagement more resilient.
IDC’s Top 10 Future of Customer and Consumers Predictions
Prediction 1: By 2024, 35% of brands will openly incentivize consumers to share personal data in exchange for cash rewards, services, and exclusive experiences.
Prediction 2: By 2024, 25% of brands will partner to build shared customer data hubs to deliver innovative connected experiences and reduce data acquisition costs.
Prediction 3: By 2023, 25% of global banks will use AI-based sentiment analysis to improve customer experience on current and future products and services.
Prediction 4: By 2025, 50% of the Global 2000 will increase data scientist diversity by 50% to improve trust in customer engagements, driven by data privacy and trustworthy AI regulations across the globe.
Prediction 5: By 2026, B2B companies will use AI interactions and analytics technology to deliver deeply personalized journey engagement, eliminating 40% of marketing and sales human touch points.
Prediction 6: By 2023, 25% of companies will offer tracking transparency for customer complaints, and this will become a best practice and a driver of brand choice, causing broader adoption by 75% of companies by 2025.
Prediction 7: By 2024, 30% of Fortune 2000 companies will deploy next-best action across their omni-channel environment, driving demand for CDPs, omni-channel management, and customer service solutions.
Prediction 8: By 2024, organizations will be forced to revamp their customer authentication process to reduce friction and recognize and authenticate customers securely within five seconds of connection.
Prediction 9: By 2023, to counter digital fatigue, 60% of leading organizations will look to differentiate by delivering trusted and memorable engagements that recreate physical experiences.
Prediction 10: By 2025, more than 65% of luxury hotels worldwide will have deployed a customer-facing smart assistant that leverages AI to drive a better customer experience.
Interested in learning more? Watch our on-demand webinar, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Customers and Consumers 2022 Predictions.
