Customer Experience

Top 10 trends in 2011

@erikposthuma Experience Engineer

@erikposthuma Experience Engineer

2010 was a great year for customer experience. Companies reclassified

CE initiatives as investments as they saw improvements on key value

driving KPI’s and clearer ROI. The growth of social media increased

the need for focused brand values and clear communication. 2011 will

have companies build on many of these elements while exploring

some newer channels more in depth.

The following trends will discuss 2011, and how brands and customers

will interact with each other through static, interactive, and human

touch points. It looks particularly at the crossing of online - offline,

focusing on what makes a customer experience shareable &

remarkable.

Digital goes physical 1/10

Digital goes physical 1/10

More than half the people in the world use a mobile phone. And with

mobile web users to surpass desktop users by 2014 brands will quickly

adopt mobile as a preferred channel to engage consumers. Long

popular in Japan QR codes are seeing an emergence in the rest of the

world. Google Goggles and Microsoft’s tag effectively signal the mass

adaptation of 2D barcodes, and “on the go” image recognition, linking

the digital world to physical cues. This combined with the rise of

location and mobile payment services set the frame for a growth in

digital+physical experiences.

Integrate social media 2/10

Integrate social media 2/10

2010, brands looked at social media and explored with pilot programs.

For most companies ROI was minimal despite of positive engagement

KPI’s. In 2011 brands will take a step back to evaluate and realize that

their social media channels need closer integration with their marketing

and customer experience strategy. Instead of seeing social media as a

separate channel it will be distributed and assimilated into all of the

companies departments, linking its power to engage customers to clear

call to action and sales.

Love all data 3/10

Love all data 3/10

Numbers are universal, in 2010 companies loved data, but mostly

structured data. Customers comment on blogs, customers interact with

brands by sending pictures and videos. Customers call companies and

have 20 minute conversations, in many different languages. Customers

talk to staff in stores. Many different channels, many different formats.

In 2011 companies will invest in understanding this data.

Dashboard data 4/10

Dashboard data 4/10

The last few years have seen a meteoric rise in real time data. Humanity

has produced more data in the last 10 years than in all the years before

that. Data is moving so fast there is no time to analyse it. In 2011

companies will invest heavily in centralizing data through dashboards.

Dashboards will collect data from all channels and translate

information into understandable, visual formats. Brands will use this

data, not (only) for yearly campaigns, but continuously.

Trust and co-create with employees 5/10

Trust and co-create with employees 5/10

In 2011, successful companies will continue to transfer decision

making power down the line. All the way to customer touch points.

Companies will focus on hiring great people that have the same ideals.

Rules will be removed and companies will trust their employees to do

the right thing. Front line employees will become a key information

channel, and will help in co-creating services, products, and solutions

for their customers.

6/10

Trust and co-create with customers

Trust and co-create with customers 6/10

2010 saw companies “firing” customers, customers who created a loss

and who saw the company as a service provider instead of a partner.

This will continue into 2011 and companies will focus on their core

group of customers. The rise of co-creation platforms, mass

customization, and idea gathering initiatives will bring customers closer

to brands. Both parties will develop a mutual trust as they both look to

build a better future.

Focus on KPI’s 7/10

Focus on KPI’s 7/10

The financial crisis resulted in the death of short term KPI’s. Not

really. It did place more emphasis on the right balance between short

term, mid term, and long term goals. KPI’s will support this. KPI’s

such as customer satisfaction/loyalty, employee satisfaction/loyalty and

net promoter score will be linked to sales and financial KPI’s.

Companies will bring these elements closer together through

evaluation and developing their service profit chain strategy.

Focus on ROI 8/10

Focus on ROI 8/10

Marketing, PR, Sales, Customer Service all receive separate budgets for

their departmental initiatives. These are looked at as expenditures to

support department and company strategy. In 2011 executives higher

up the line will reduce departments expenditure budgets. They will

create universal customer experience and engagement programs which

will be seen as long term investments. The investment perspective

changes the structure of the programs and will require a strong focus

on short term as well as long term ROI.

Integrate channels 9/10

Integrated channels 9/10

The rise of social media adaptation in the corporate environment

showed how marketing, sales, pr, and customer service continue to

operate in siloes. The struggle for ownership of the fastest growing

engagement channel will continue into 2011. Companies will create

new structures and incentives for the different departments to work

together in an integrated and holistic fashion. In some cases

departments will be combined and responsibilities divided to optimize

the customer experience.

Design services 10/10

Design services 10/10

Already on the rise in Western Europe and the United States the

practise of service design will expand in the other areas of the world

well into 2011. Services will be designed with customer experience as

the focal point.

Trust fewer brands, more often Encore

Trust fewer brands, more often Encore

Customers will continue to suffer from data overload. As more brands

overload the airwaves with communication the amount of noise will

become close to unbearable. As a remedy the customer in 2011 will

choose to partner with brands close to their own ideals. More and

more brands will become filters to qualitatively high goods and

services. Customers will grow to trust the set of brands which

complements their life and purchase from them more often.

Customer Experience

Top 10 trends in 2011

@erikposthuma Experience Engineer

Customer Experience Trends 2011 Recap

1. Digital goes physical

2. Integrate social media

3. Love all data

4. Dashboard data

5. Trust and co-create with employees

6. Truest and co-create with customers

7. Focus on KPI’s

8. Focus on ROI

9. Integrate channels

10. Design services

11. Trust fewer brands, more often

@erikposthuma Experience Engineer

Lets get in touch @erikposthuma

ExperienceEngineer.com

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Thanks for the sources

http://mashable.com/2010/06/15/gatorade-social-media-mission-control/

http://gigaom.com/2010/04/12/mary-meeker-mobile-internet-will-soon-overtake-fixed-internet/

http://www.mpdailyfix.com/predictions-from-customer-experience-experts-for-2011/

http://www.customerthink.com/blog/12_customer_experience_trends_for_2011

http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/customer-experience-megatrends/

Thanks for the pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeyc/121594837/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/l-ines/172884558/sizes/z/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boskizzi/524894135/sizes/o/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebjoguet/161549987/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fallen/1368907423/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/antigone/193012132/sizes/o/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gamerscore/249434729/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jam343/2196648/sizes/o/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjaneil902/259422218/sizes/z/in/photostream/