Reimagining the Customer Experience in 2020: Why the Winners Will Take All

If there’s one lesson that successful businesses are taking into the new decade, it’s this: customer experience must remain a top priority to stay ahead. 

Today, consumers demand a perfect mix of efficiency, convenience, and personalization in every interaction with your product or service. This means your customers are no longer basing their loyalty on price or product. Instead, it’s the quality of experience that will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator in 2020 and beyond. 

As global competition promises to grow, winning the battle for superior customer experience will determine which brands will flourish, and those that are left behind. What’s at stake for the losers? Poor customer experience is costing businesses more than $75 billion a year. Those that get it right enjoy unfair revenue growth that far outstrips the rest, according to Gartner Analysts. 

So, what’s the difference between those that are owning customer experience, and those that are falling short? Here are 4 essential factors any business striving for customer experience success should consider: 

Consistency Is Key

Customers expect to use services and engage with businesses on-demand, in mobile apps, wearable devices, or through online platforms across an array of communication channels—whether that’s voice, video or messaging. Maintaining consistency as they switch between devices and channels throughout their day, is essential to achieving a frictionless experience. In fact, companies that consistently meet customers on multiple channels retain 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for those that fall short, according to research by Aberdeen Group.

Don’t Make Them Come to You, Go to Them!

If you aren’t meeting consumers on the channels they love and use every day, chances are you’re alienating a large segment of your customers. Consumers want to interact with brands on channels and platforms they intuitively turn to such as popular social chat apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger or video chat.

Intelligently Automate with the Human Touch

Chatbots and AI-powered voice virtual agents are automating and personalizing the customer experience. However, nothing can replace the human touch. In certain scenarios, businesses are bringing face-to-face engagement to customers at scale through live video chat.

Prioritize Security and Privacy

Engagements with brands should be easy, but they must also be secure. With rising rates of fraudulent account creation and takeovers, customers expect businesses to take steps to protect their privacy and secure their accounts. But how can you achieve this without sacrificing a smooth experience? One of the most frictionless ways to prevent fraud and build trust is verifying new and existing users with SMS and voice two-factor authentication (2FA). Verification can be added at any step of the customer journey or only at risky touchpoints such as account registration or resetting a password.

So how can you get your customer experience up to speed with the above? Innovative companies of all sizes—from startups to established organizations—are moving towards an API-based cloud communications strategy. It’s what thousands of our customers use every day to automate, customize, and personalize their customer experiences at scale. 

Instead of relying on cumbersome outdated infrastructure, communications APIs are flexible building blocks that let you add contextual communications to any step of your customer journey. Importantly, what that means for customers is a seamless and consistent experience at every touchpoint, however and wherever they choose to engage with your business.

Is 2020 the year that you leap ahead with a winning customer experience edge? To help you understand how to get there, we’ve put together a guide to the new world of customer experience reimagined with digital communications—no matter your industry. You’ll learn what it takes to deliver personalized, efficient experiences, and see how global brands like Aramex, Grab, TalkPush, and Vinted have already reinvented their customer experiences with the help of Vonage APIs.

Ready to discover the new world of customer experience? Download your guide here