March 31, 2021
Companies looking to improve customer satisfaction in today’s pandemic-impacted environment should pay close attention to key CX trends learned from 2020.
As businesses continue to grapple with the many challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic — and ruminate on just what a post-pandemic “new normal” might look like — customer satisfaction has remained a huge priority.
In the annual Customer Experience Management Benchmark Series (CXMB) 2020 Corporate Edition report, produced by COPC Inc. in conjunction with Executives in the Know, we learned key trends that businesses need to know for 2021, including:
Companies were forced to fast-track strategic initiatives. With next to no warning, 50% of the organizations surveyed had to implement initiatives that hadn’t been in their business plans. Some of these changes included increasing the use of technologies, such as self-service technology (SST), artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, and robotic process automation (RPA). There was an unprecedented move toward adopting work-from-home (WFH) staffing models, as well as ramping up business continuity planning (BCP) and employee-engagement efforts.
Improving CX remained a priority. Even with the unanticipated challenges, more respondents (38%) said improving CX remained their top priority. It even came out ahead of reducing costs which took second place. Many respondents stated that they planned to further improve CX by maintaining greater consistency and improving ease of navigation across channels in the service journey and implementing a more holistic approach by measuring CX across all channels.
There was a seismic shift toward a WFH staffing model. The impact that the pandemic had on staffing can’t be overstated, as it required businesses to switch thousands of employees to WFH in a matter of weeks. In addition, the shift to WFH significantly impacted the way organizations recruited, hired, trained, and coached employees. Yet, even though the pandemic took organizations by surprise, many accomplished the WFH change remarkably quickly and effectively. By the time they were surveyed toward the end of 2020, 92% of respondents said they had some WFH employees.
SST growth took off. Both surveyed groups saw significant growth with SSTs, which far outpaced human-assisted channels. More specifically:
- Among the strategic group, 62% of respondents said SSTs grew more than human-assisted channels, while only 29% said that human-assisted channels grew at a faster rate.
- Among the operational group, 71% of respondents said their organizations experienced a greater volume increase of SSTs, while only 44% said the volume of human-assisted channels increased.
These are just a few highlights from the CXMB Series 2020 Corporate Edition. Are you ready to learn more impactful insights? Download the report now!