In its 2022 State of Customer Care Survey—which queried over 160 customer experience (CX) experts and executives—global management authority McKinsey & Co. revealed that:
- More customers are calling more frequently, with 61% of respondents reporting significant growth in customer contact and 58% expecting a further increase in volume.
- Digital CX isn’t quite there yet, with only 20% of digital contacts presently considered unassisted and only 10% of digital platforms fully scaled and adopted by customers.
- CX workers are leaving faster and getting harder to replace, with 49% of respondents experiencing increased attrition and 41% saying it takes months to train new hires.
Given these realities, what’s a company to do? According to the survey, industry leaders have resolved to spend the next one to two years prioritizing three critical areas for improvement:
Attract, nurture, and keep the best talent.
With the number, frequency, and complexity of calls constantly increasing, highly-trained, skilled, and experienced agents are becoming more crucial than ever to attain CX success. More and more businesses realize that supplying an excellent customer experience can hinge on sustaining a great employee experience (EX).
Simplify CX, reducing call volume and costs.
Organizations intend to ramp digital interaction up 150% by 2024, empowering customers to turn to AI and automated facilities like chatbots for simple transactions and humans for more involved solutions. Shifting some of the burden from agents to automation is expected to improve service speed, efficiency, and customer and employee fulfillment.
Deploy not just digital platforms but full digital CX ecosystems.
The survey discovered that only 12% of digital platforms are highly-integrated, meaning a vast majority of businesses have yet to use the immense potential of analytics and other technological advantages. Harnessing customer and performance information throughout the customer journey can revolutionize a company’s personalization, EX, and CX.
These are the priorities industry experts focus on as they navigate the wake of the pandemic – and most likely the areas you should be covering with your CX team today.