Banks that consistently optimise the customer experience grow 3.2x faster than competitors that don’t. And with over 50% of consumers reporting that they’d switch to a competitor after a single unsatisfactory interaction, customer experience has never been more important for any industry. Here are some trends and best practices to help guide your CX strategy – and drive customer relationships that last.

Companies are increasingly prioritizing customer experience (CX). It makes sense, as customer experience directly impacts a company’s bottom line. What is it and how can you improve yours? Let’s find out.

In today’s challenging economic climate, business leaders face a complex challenge: cut costs wherever possible, yet continue to invest in areas that drive long-term sustainable growth and profitability. One easy target for the chopping block is the complex, unwieldy tech stacks full of legacy software, some of which have never been fully implemented. Leaders are scrutinizing those budget items like never before.

As shoppers trend towards becoming true omnichannel consumers, they’re opening both their real and virtual wallets. Consumers who blur the line between IRL and online shopping spend 70% more often – and about 34% more than people who shop exclusively in-store, according to McKinsey.

If the recent hype around ChatGPT is anything to go by, the world seems to be reaching an inflection point in artificial intelligence (AI) and associated tools. (GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, a large language model for generating text using deep learning.)

A seamless customer experience is one where the customer interacts with a company in a smooth, effortless manner. The customer feels that their needs are understood, meaning the company is able to anticipate the customer's needs and proactively offer solutions. For example, a company that offers personalized product recommendations based on the customer's purchase history is demonstrating an understanding of the customer's needs.

Customer service business process outsourcers (BPOs or “outsourcers”) have similar goals and challenges to in-house operations—and some additional ones of their own. They’ve got to keep several plates spinning at all times such as: Do they have a secret sauce that helps them to achieve that?

Integrations are critical to a strong customer experience because they help your software connect and become a unified service platform that shows a full customer journey. This can provide insight that helps you continuously improve.

Brands face unique challenges heading into 2023 as they balance the variety of changes the last few years have brought on—a looming recession, staffing shortages across all industries, and significant shifts in consumer behavior and expectations brought on by the pandemic. The only certainty is that the quality of customer experience (CX) is more important than ever. There’s a good reason why you should be ranking CX high in your priorities for the coming year.

First Call Resolution is a vital contact center metric that monitors accurate and prompt support, tracking the number of customer issues resolved within the first support call. Fast-paced consumers want brands to value their time and expect their needs to be met on time—no matter how they get in touch with the brand— which makes FCR a leading indicator of customer happiness and a direct measure of a call center’s operational efficiency.