Sharing our 2022 predictions for CX professionals

Forsta hosted a webinar with guest speaker Judy Weader, Senior Analyst at Forrester, and our very own Chris Brown, VP of CX Consulting, covering top predictions for 2022.

We’ve outlined these predictions below, but the full webinar is also available on-demand including more detailed examples of how CX leaders are putting these predictions into practice.

Prediction 1

Brands will lose 50% of sales on backordered items unless they compensate with CX.

Buying online isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. First and foremost, brands need to reduce any delays to avoid losing customers. But when there’s nothing else to be done to speed things up, they need to focus on delivering better CX. Here are some tips:

• Make sure there’s some fun while the customer is waiting
• Suggest alternatives instead of waiting
• Be proactive by informing customers of upcoming shortages
• Apply any price flexibility you have as compensation
• Offer services to bridge the gap

Example
BMW’s customers are subject to long delivery timelines, like most customers in the automobile industry. One benefit they get is a personalized, detailed video of their future car even down to the same specifications, and showing the trips they’ll be able to go on when they get it.

Prediction 2

Customers will want over half of pandemic-era services to become the “new normal”.

We’re already seeing some level of reverting back, but at the same time some services are here to stay; for instance:

• Augmented Reality (AR): Bring the fitting room to the customer
• Curbside pick-up: Overwhelming support from both brands and consumers to keep this service going
• Contactless payments: increasing adoption as consumer continue to be health-conscious

So how are organizations supposed to know what to keep and what to ditch? Customer and product research can reveal preferences and habits. Findings can then be prioritized based on customer needs with a link to business needs.

Example
Specsavers uses AR for their customers to try new glasses online instead of in-store. Many restaurants continue to engage with delivery companies like Uber Eats and Deliveroo to make it easier to order food online.

Prediction 3

One-fifth of retail and consumer goods firms will put the brakes on “better CX at all costs”.

Now is the best time to prioritize employee experience. According to Forrester, nearly 40% of consumers care about labor practices and over half of them care about brand values, as they make purchasing decisions.

Staff are also ready for a change, with one fourth of employees changing their jobs in 2021.

The trend is clear – brands and organizations need to prioritize employee experience. And they need to show a real investment such as:

• Reducing sources of burnout
• Applying CX activities to EX
• Finding ways to increase engagement

Example
Forrester and Forsta, alongside numerous other companies, now have “work from anywhere” policies to accommodate their staff. The flexibility and work/life balance people enjoyed during the pandemic are fast becoming a new normal.

Prediction 4

$10bn in design spending will shift to vendors and services that commit to accessibility.

According to Mozilla, accessibility is the practice of making your websites usable by as many people as possible. We traditionally think of this as being about people with disabilities, but the practice of making sites accessible also benefits other groups such as those using mobile devices, or those with slow network connections.

Brands and organizations are increasingly interested in accessibility to support growing user communities, and to ensure compliance with regulatory guidelines.

Organizations need to start baking accessibility right into their contracts and renewals – they’ll be asked about it more often so might as well be ready. And if they don’t know how, there are experts out there who can help. It’s just too important to ignore.

Example
Forsta’s latest partnership with Phebi offers increased accessibility to customers in their ability to give feedback via the spoken word rather than having to type it.

Prediction 5

Privacy journey design will become a key CX priority in 2022.

GDPR, CCPA… Even more regulations to manage user tracking are anticipated for the coming years. Hacks, data leaks and ransomware attacks also seem to be hitting the news every other day, making customers wary of where their personal information ends up and how it’s protected.

So how do you improve their privacy journey? Here are some tips:

• Try and really help your customers understand what they’re signing up for – avoid the Accept All or Nothing choice
• Work closely with privacy and compliance experts
• Ensure consistency across all experiences

And remember that the privacy journey is important in a CX environment, but it is absolutely critical in a regulatory context. The penalties can be astronomical, in addition to the erosion of your customers’ confidence and risk to retention rates.

Example
A global PC manufacturer recently went through a massive effort to comply to China’s new privacy regulations. 2-factor authentication is also becoming more normalized, and not just in the financial sector.

Aligned with these predictions, Forsta also shared their own expectations during the webinar, including:

• The exponential increase of online/digital and SMS use

• The importance of in-depth qualitative tools to understand the color and emotion behind black and white data

• The need for more action-oriented insights, bringing different data sources together

• Better focus on employee experience, “the new CX”.

The switch to more integrity and better empathy was also mentioned in the webinar, as seen in the HX Benchmarks that Forsta launched in partnership with Watermelon.

Do the predictions we shared with you reinforce your own’s expectations? No matter what challenges and opportunities you face, we hope 2022 is seeing you and your organization survive and thrive.