Though humanity’s collective consciousness would maybe like to forget much of 2020, the events of the year have ushered in many new realities. The probable permanent change in customer tastes in the retail ecosystem is one such fact. The mass digital transformation of retailers and the subsequent digitization of their customer experiences have recently been observed and we will continue to see the industry trend towards this direction.
As distributors continue to find their way through the pandemic economy, the consumer experience and how it can carry over to a COVID-free world must be considered. Hopefully, the following projections will act as a tentative guide to what is to come for marketers in 2021.
1. Online Retail Will Continue To Dominate In-person Shopping
Online retail CRM revenues increased by an estimated 49 percent compared with the previous year, as we saw over the holidays (according to Mastercard SpendingPulse). The staggering rise in e-commerce sales by multi-billion dollars is both a positive sign and an alert for retailers.
To maintain good relationships with more and more online customers, the customer service activities will need to step up in a large way. This means quick reaction times, good communication, and awareness of the context of particular client circumstances.
Ill-equipped contact centers with legacy technologies all too frequently provide consumers with disappointing interactions that can potentially destroy brand loyalty. Equipping the right tools and backend information for support agents will make a drastic difference in their ability to quickly solve customer problems.
2. Customers Will Expect To Be Spoken To Directly
Gone are the days of generic email blasts and advertising messages from the boilerplate. While targeted advertisements were initially greeted with a wary eye, consumers are now more accustomed to having their personal interests discussed when brands engage with them.
Collecting customer data and feedback and harnessing it for targeted ads is your best shot at seeing some substantial level of interaction with your outreach campaigns, whether by email, SMS, WhatsApp, or another channel.
3. Brands Must Meet Customers Where They Are
This calls for a versatile omnichannel presence. Not all customers are religiously monitoring their emails or loving getting brand messaging over text. Brands would have to reach their audience halfway by broadening their infrastructure to an omnichannel communication approach in order to get the most out of customer interaction.
This year and in the near future, the opportunity to communicate with individual customers on Facebook Messenger, SMS, and Viber with their own customized deals would pay dividends. Managing customer data will be crucial to achieving this. Brands will need to focus on utilizing the strengths of the CRM software to the fullest.
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4. Chatbots Will Begin To See The Mass Appeal For Customer Service
Approximately 69 percent of users who interacted with chatbots registered a positive experience, according to a recent customer survey carried out by Infobip.
In overall market sentiment, the technology is already trending upward, and with the normalization of chatbots, the hope will come that the brand will use them to speed up customer service queues. Sooner rather than later, introducing them would save the rush from brands and relieve an already increasing load of online support queries.
In the e-commerce space, last year saw unprecedented development. The consequences of such dramatic digital growth may soon bring additional surprises, but retailers will prosper in the new year with the introduction of new customer service practices and innovations through learning from the growing pains of 2020.
5. Leverage Analytics For Customer Experience
Online and app analytics tools are widely available today, and they are used in some way by almost all digital businesses. In several situations, various teams use various analytics tools like CRM software to quantify different customer habits, often creating data silos and making it difficult to grasp the entire digital customer experience.
Organizations that have a full image of the digital experience of their customers typically have a higher maturity level of digital experience, which is directly related to higher sales and overall organizational performance.
6. Mobile Experience Will Grow
Each year, more actions are taken on mobile devices—whether shopping, working, or researching—is trending upward. On a mobile computer, the average adult spends almost four hours a day. And 40 percent of Black Friday revenues were made from mobile devices for $3.6 billion in revenue in 2020.
Firms can no longer afford to have a mobile experience that is less than optimal.
7. Loyalty And Retention Marketing
Increased competition. Decreased consumer confidence. These are just some of the reasons why it is more difficult for businesses than ever to find new markets and first-time buyers. Plus, it costs five times more to find a new customer than to maintain a current customer.
Going into 2021, rather than finding new markets, the most popular businesses would highly prioritize customer engagement and retention.
8. Storytelling And Content Marketing
Standing out from the crowd and winning the attention of customers has been a rising challenge for brands over the past decade when it comes to the competitive digital advertising space. Brands are seeking new ways to appeal to their audience and develop loyalty through storytelling and content marketing as the battle for customer attention grows fiercer.
Many digital marketers are concentrating their efforts on creating emotional bonds and interactions with their audience, rather than conventional product ads. This marketing trend through storytelling is not a new one, but it is just becoming more popular.
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Conclusion
Almost all of these developments can be related to one central concept: customer experience is king, and in 2021, effective companies will concentrate on constantly optimizing the digital customer experience.
AuroCRM, a CRM software helps to equip organizations with important customer data. It helps to cut through the clutter and provides analytics and reports about only those aspects of the customer journey that really matter.