Danielle Arad, Marketing Director at WalkMe wrote this post for my blog.

Regular readers may be aware of that disruptive innovation and customer experience are two of the major themes in my social media activitities. Danielle’s post is a fine wrap-up of how customer experience is affected.

With the rapid development of new trends in the technology industry, we are seeing a rapid shift in business strategies of companies. While it’s important for a business to adapt to changes in the industry to keep up with the competition, these trends should be implemented in such manner that they will not affect the performance of that business. Next, we’ll have a look at the top 3 disruptive trends in the digital media industry and how they are able to affect one’s company:

1. Multi-screen Proliferation

Mobile engagement is, by far, the hottest trend this year. The new generation of customers is making great use of the mobile technologies available nowadays, which has led to this segment facing an immense growth. For this reason, a business which doesn’t have a website adapted to the mobile users need is considered to be pretty much obsolete these days. It’s not only the young generation which is taking advantage of this front, but the more experienced one as well. For instance, when people come back from work, many of them choose to open a shopping session right on their smartphone/tablet, and therefore a business that’s not adapted to this trend risks to be thrown off the market.

However, it’s not only about the mobile world quickly developing, but rather about a multi-screen experience. Consumers are starting to get accustomed with using more than one device at a time, and they are donig it quite well. They have understood that different devices work better in certain situations, at certain speeds, and that they can help boost productivity and social engagement. In this regard, businesses must adapt themselves and build customer experience strategies accordingly. The user experience they develop must be constant and smooth across all platforms.

2. Social Engagement and Gamification

The customers’ new demands for engagement are able to largely affect the implied customer experience. When talking about the new engagement preferences, we should take into account the following context: social media channels are quickly rising in popularity, leading to the customers becoming more aware. Only by now, Facebook and YouTube number more than 1 billion unique visitors per month, and many businesses choose to approach customers through these channels in order to increase their services success. In addition, all other social media networks are facing a large visitor growth, which lead to them becoming great assets’ in a business’s promotional and customer support needs.

According to Gartner, by 2016 the customer experience model will become far more streamlined, allowing users to yield more social files at once and on multiple devices. This will not only boost the social aspect, but it will also lead to becoming more context-aware and more attentive to the changes that take place around them. 

Another important aspect, which needs to be taken into consideration, refers to the gamification concept. Gamification has begun to be adapted by companies and web-based businesses in an effort to boost customer interaction and to make the browsing experience a more fulfilling one. In the near future, gamification is expected to become the industry standard in multiple domains, with companies being required to adapt to it if they wish to succeed.

3. More Precise Analytics 

More and more analytic systems are being implemented by web-based businesses and individuals in an effort to boost customer experience. Analytic systems have, indeed, a strong effect on monitoring the user’s desires and preferences. They allow for a more personalized experience to be built, to address the customers’ issues as they arise, and to gain access to the customer’s social context. In addition, they allow businesses to be more empowered when it comes to setting up their NPSs and enable to be more objective-driven.

We are currently witnessing a forceful development in the area of analytics. These systems are becoming more complex, allowing website owners to find out precisely the user’s areas of interest and how certain points can be adjusted in order to suit their interests. In the near future, we are to witness analytic systems which will do their job almost automatically, requiring minimal interaction on the admin’s side. Such means will allow website owners to discover certain ‘red’ areas of a website, and do the necessary changes to them as to enhance business’s profitability.

Photocredit: hildagrahnat

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