Predictions from Chief Customer Officers: 10 Graphs You Need To See 📈📊

Another week. Another CEXy newsletter in your inbox. This one is absolute 🔥🔥!

A wise man once told me that content should either be entertaining or informative. I say - why can't we have both (insert Old El Paso Spanish Girl 🤷🏽‍♀️)??

JOKE OF THE WEEK

• Q: What did the grape do when he got stepped on?

• A: He let out a little wine 🍇 😂

And now onto the informative content.

This week, I stumbled upon a PHENOMENAL REPORT written by MIT Technology Review & sponsored by Genesys: Customer Experience and The Future Of Work.

Below, we have translated the 30-page report into TEN KEY PREDICTIONS that will make you look great in front of your boss!

Predicting The Future Of Work For CX Professionals 🔮

In the report's own words, "in June and July 2022, MIT Technology Review Insights surveyed 800 senior business leaders, of whom 27% are chief customer experience officers or other C-level executives. Of the total respondents, 50% are from companies with over $1 billion revenue. The aim of the report was to understand how CX organizations can grow in the experience economy by putting people first".

Prediction 1: Nearly 40% of organisations will allow a fully remote CX workforce by 2024 ...

Prediction 2: 84% of respondents predict that the greatest benefit of hybrid / remote workforces is that they will be able to retain more staff ...

Interestingly, only 19% of respondents feel that a more flexible workforce will lead them being able to access a wider pool of CX talent.

Prediction 3: Over 50% of respondents believe that the biggest risk associated with remote working is associated with lower productivity, or a poorer customer experience ...

Our take? CX staff (especially frontline) are in high demand right now. The organisations who win will be the one's who invest in the right technology which ensures employee flexibility without having to compromise on the customer experience.

Prediction 4: Nearly 50% of contact centre employees will be full-time by 2024 ...

This reinforces the strong focus that businesses will have on providing a great customer experience in the next 3-5 years. Gone are the days where the contact centre is treated as a cost centre.

Prediction 5: More than 50% of respondents believe "Voice of Customer Specialist" roles will increase in popularity over the next 2 years ...

On the flip side, respondents expect business process specialist & CX operations roles to be taken over by technology, with these employees reskilled into other areas.

69% of respondents also expect CX work to become more specialised, which will likely translate into higher-paying wages.

Prediction 6: 98% of respondents state that Data & Analytics is going to become an increasingly valuable skillset for CX employees

Contact centre employees interact with customers on a daily basis. It subsequently makes sense that they're empowered with the right skills (data & analytics + journey optimisation) to drive business improvements.

Individuals who work directly with customers are uniquely positioned to collaborate with multiple teams across the organisation. Their skillset is usually "department agnostic" and subsequently can be leveraged by different areas of the business to provide insights and a customer lens on decision making.

Prediction 7: 8 in 10 respondents predict that CX employees largest frustration relates to their inability to assist customers in the moment due to lack of sufficient information

Whilst Real-Time-Interaction-Management (RTIM) / Next Best Action (NBA) technology (e.g. Thunderhead) is becoming increasingly prevalent, there still appears to be a large gap in the market.

This inability to surface cross-channel contextual insights to the CSR dealing with the customer is a million dollar problem which continually drives customer dissatisfaction.

Prediction 8: Single Screen & Single Platform will be the new CX buzzword by 2024 ...

73% of respondents plan to use Single Screen & Single Platform by 2024 (vs 10% today).

70% of respondents plan to use AI-based coaching & training recommendations by 2024 (vs 23% today).

63% of respondents plan to use real-time sentiment analysis by 2024 (vs 23% today).

Prediction 9: The greatest area of opportunity to improve CX employee performance in the next 2 years is Learning & Development programs

Over the next 2 years, Contact Centre agents should be cross-skilled, multi disciplined and subsequently leant on as an invaluable source of insight for decision-making.

Prediction 10: Demonstrating the ROI on CX by linking it to business outcomes will continue to remain the biggest hurdle to prioritising investment in CX employees ...

Receiving appropriate budget for major CX & EX initiatives will be a by-product of demonstrating ROI. If you need a hand in quantifying the value that CX brings to your organisation, feel free to get in touch!