2024 Predictions: 5 CX Trends to Watch

Holly Jackson at Talkdesk gives some predictions for 2024 and explains five CX trends to watch.

CX trends and technologies that will influence the contact centre market in 2024.

It was a dynamic and challenging year for customer experience (CX). Generative AI took the industry by storm.

Massive brands got ensnared in the culture wars. And historic fines were levied for customer service debacles.

It’s clear that 2024 is poised to be a transformative time for CX. Below are 5 predictions—and 5 recommendations—to help contact centre leaders prepare for 2024’s key CX trends.

CX Trend #1. Economic Conditions Will Improve, but Uncertainty Will Linger

The economic uncertainties of 2023 tightened budgets and forced many contact centre leaders to adjust their staffing levels, manage lower service levels, and even delay purchasing new technology.

Moving into 2024 we have seen some positive economic headwinds as interest rates stablize, but balance sheets are still being closely watched.

Contact centre leaders that are eager to implement new solutions to elevate CX will continue to face increased scrutiny to justify new technology investments.

Recommendation

Partner with a vendor who can evaluate and quantify the potential value of a new application or platform—and the specific features and functionality that will accelerate value.

Vendors that provide dedicated account managers can significantly impact the return on investment.

CX Trend #2. Businesses Will Explore Using Generative AI (GenAI) to Enhance Customer Experiences, but Leaders Will Require Those Applications to Be Safe and Responsible

A recent report from McKinsey found that applying GenAI to customer care functions could increase productivity by 30-45%.

Those numbers, along with the impact it could have on customer satisfaction and retention, have garnered a lot of attention.

However, GenAI is not without its challenges. According to a KPMG report, 92% of those surveyed said GenAI implementation introduces moderate to high-risk concerns, with liability (46%) and bias and accuracy (42%) within the top five threats.

Recommendation

Select a vendor that has developed practical applications for adopting GenAI capabilities that allow you to benefit from the new technology in every stage of the customer journey, while simultaneously ensuring accuracy and responsibility.

CX Trend #3. Industry-Specific CX Applications Will Minimize the Risk of GenAI, While Also Accelerating Time to Value

Verticalized solutions and AI models that are specifically trained for industry-specific cases—such as those found in Healthcare & Life Sciences, Financial Services & Insurance, Retail, and Education—can help provide higher quality interactions and ensure responsible AI in the contact centre.

These specialized solutions are pre-built to solve the unique needs of vertical customer experience teams, which also helps contact centre leaders realize operational and financial improvements faster.

Recommendation

Choose a contact centre platform that provides AI models pre-trained for industry-specific needs, complies with safe AI, and doesn’t require expensive or lengthy implementations.

Verticalized CX applications allow you to focus on improving CX and driving competitive differentiation, rather than on connectivity or basic compliance.

CX Trend #4. The Market Consolidation of CX Software Vendors Will Continue, Which Can Be Disruptive for Current and Potential Customers

2021-2022 was a highly active period for consolidation in the CX technology space with several notable megadeals (think Salesforce acquiring Slack for $27.7B in 2021).

Merger and acquisition activity slowed in 2023, but as the macroeconomic environment improves and liquidity increases in 2024, anticipate more mergers.

The acquisition of a software vendor can be disruptive to customers for several reasons: uncertainty about future support and development, integration and compatibility challenges, shifts in customer support and service quality, and even a loss of focus on customer needs.

Recommendation

Select a reliable CX partner that has demonstrated a commitment to customer success and innovation.

CX Trend #5. Customer Expectations for Service Will Continue to Move Toward ‘Always On.’

Customer expectations for immediate, accurate, and personalized service will continue to increase, forcing contact centre leaders to have to innovate at the speed of their customers.

Recommendation

Partner with a cloud-native vendor that provides tools and feature updates to help you stay up-to-date on the latest trends in customer service.

Incorporating virtual agents to provide self-service and leveraging interaction analytics to identify intents helps you address customer issues quickly, while also improving your key metrics such as CSAT, average handle time, containment, etc.

Avoid contact centre solutions built on legacy or monolithic architecture, as well as platforms that have been stitched together through a history of acquisitions.

That technical debt will slow down innovation, affect platform stability and interoperability, and create headaches for your systems administrator.

Let’s Talk About How to Stay Ahead of Customer Experience Trends

A modern, AI-powered contact centre platform helps you stay on the leading edge of evolving customer experience trends.

This blog post has been re-published by kind permission of Talkdesk – View the Original Article

For more information about Talkdesk - visit the Talkdesk Website

Call Centre Helper is not responsible for the content of these guest blog posts. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Call Centre Helper.