I’m lucky to have some conversations with smart people all across my industry. Thanks to a gathering of some Chicago Customer Experience Professional Association members and guests recently, my brain swirled with what could be next for customer experience.
I may actually have walked away from our discussions with more questions than answers, but that’s ok with me. Questions lead to insights!
Here are some questions for customer experience leaders to consider.
1. Who will lead customer experience next?
The Amazon and Zappos comparisons get old. Who will be the next great leader in delivering exceptional experiences? (If you have any ideas, let us know in the comments!)
2. What customer experience metrics will survive?
Dashboards showing just customer satisfaction rate as the only customer metric are short-sighted, to say the least. But those dashboards loaded down with chart after chart? Those don’t do much to actually improve the experience, either.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) was the “only” metric that mattered for a while. But now there is a backlash in some organizations and data like Customer Effort Scores (CES) are on the rise. What metric will matter tomorrow?
3. Who will your customers be?
Many an organization missed the memo that mobile is critical now. Customers flock to where they are heard. Are you really listening to your customers? What tools and processes of tomorrow will have an impact on what you offer customers today?
4. What executive is really in charge?
The C-Suites are getting crowded and confused! Should the CMO, the CTO and the CXO all participate in leading the customer experience at an organization? It’s a challenge to understand the C-suite of the future.
5. What skills will customer CX pros really need?
As the industry and discipline around the idea of customer experience shake out, more specialties arise. Will everyone need to be a specialist, or will generalists rule the day? There are pros and cons to both approaches.
My crystal ball doesn’t have all the answers, but it turns out it does have one. The future of customer experience will be exciting to be a part of!
Happy to have #CX pros in the house to hear @jeanniecw speak during @CXPA_Assoc‘s Chicago meetup event! pic.twitter.com/q0W0mvrx8R
— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) July 22, 2015
Huge thanks to Sprout Social for hosting our CXPA Chicago event, and to the smart people who attended!
What challenges do you think CX pros will be discussing in the future? Let us know in the comments!
Jeannie