Jeff Bezos calls it “customer obsession.” The late Zappos founder Tony Hsieh said customer service shouldn’t be a department, but “the entire company.” Steve Jobs’ philosophy was to start with the customer experience (CX) and work backwards.
The underlying principles of customer experience have been a part of modern business for decades. And yet, according to new data from Broadridge’s 2024 CX & Communications Consumer Insights report, it is overwhelmingly clear that a surprising number of businesses are not only falling behind industry leaders but are also failing to meet their customer’s expectations.
A record 70% of customers think companies with which they do business need to improve their CX. In an emerging era defined by AI and an increasing number of digital natives with purchasing power, the CX expectations gap will only widen if not addressed immediately.
The CX divide widens in 2024
“The doubling in negative sentiment during the last six years speaks to the role that companies that are hyper-focused on customer experience are playing,” says Matt Swain, Head of Communications Insights and Experience at Broadridge. “Catching up with these leaders will take some transformative thinking by companies about how they communicate, because communications play such a central role in defining great customer experience.”
Companies that want to play catch up need to balance the need to invest time and resources into their CX transformation, while also looking for “low hanging fruit” to act on immediately that will begin to build the required momentum.
“Delivering great customer experiences is not about taking any single action or making any single investment,” says Swain. “You first need to set clear, measurable goals for success, then build a data-driven feedback loop of continuous improvement.”
Collecting data isn’t the end, however. “Ideally you’d have a dedicated team using data and insights to fine tune communications, optimizing for metrics like increased engagement, click-through rate, and reduced call center volume,” Swain says.
Three insights to act on today
For those looking to better understand today’s consumer to help drive your own business transformation, here are three key takeaways to prioritize today.
1. Ditch the digital divide and build an omni-channel ecosystem
Although mobile is now a mature technology and generally integrated into firms’ CX practices, there can often still be differing applications between web and mobile, resulting in a disjointed experience. Additionally, many companies have been slow to integrate technology that’s widely used and accepted by consumers, such as QR codes, text messaging, and pushing notifications through apps.
The QR code, a 30-year-old technology that has only reached near-ubiquity in the past decade, has seen sizable growth in consumer usage in recent years. In fact, 60 percent of consumers in Broadridge’s survey said they would scan a QR code if it was linked to additional information, up from 40 percent in 2022. This shift represents a valuable opportunity for companies looking to trim excess from their communications and create a digital bridge from print.
Beyond QR codes, consumers are asking for more focused investments and innovation in mobile. Because consumers’ inboxes are filled with email from a variety of services, other forms of notifications, like push alerts and even text messages, have become the preferred option for many consumers. Companies should increase their focus on building a single, connected experience across channels.
2. Balance AI with a heaping dose of empathy
Consumers desire empathy from companies. Many CEOs today famously will take turns answering customer queries or going through their company’s customer service process themselves to not lose sight of what it actually feels like to be a customer.
Although there’s much promise in AI’s capabilities to support CX efforts and customer service queries, more than half of consumers say they don’t trust AI — and only a third say it has improved their experience. For example, chatbots are already an established tool in customer service operations, but consumers are still wary of using them for more complicated issues. According to the survey results, more than three quarters of consumers want companies to self-identify chatbots and 82% want to connect with a human when issues arise.
Sixty-five percent of consumers said AI lacks a sense of empathy, or as one consumer put it, “AI is a blessing and a curse. It helps with non-human functions, but it lacks empathy or genuineness.”
In parallel with baking empathy into AI systems, companies that lead in great CX will use AIs as a co-pilot for human customer service agents, empowering them to find information faster and to access existing solutions without having to escalate issues as often.
3. Focus on your customers (not your competitors)
It can be tempting for companies to look at competitors or companies like Apple and Amazon to set their CX benchmark, since many consumers use these brands to set their CX expectations. Although companies can learn from their peers’ strategies and ideas, the more immediate opportunity is to focus on what your own customers and users want.
The first step is to double-down on what consumers are asking for. For instance, something as simple as allowing customers to set their communications preferences can make a big difference, yet only 31% of consumers say companies are doing this successfully. Considering the number of companies that are trying to increase paperless adoption, it may come as a surprise that roughly a third (34%) of consumers have agreed to go paperless, but companies still send them paper bills and statements.
Consumers also want standardization, where possible. Some firms may want to stand out, but 60% of consumers actually prefer standardization across bills and statements, making it easier to find information across experiences.
Balancing competing opportunities with discipline
When beginning to translate these consumer insights into a roadmap, a unifying principle becomes clear: most businesses today have an enormous opportunity to improve their CX by simply delivering on their customers’ preferences and expectations. This, coupled with continuous improvement, is critical, but what will separate the true CX leaders is identifying a clear vision of a future state and investing in the right technology infrastructure to support it.
As companies continue their focus on investing in digital transformation and riding the enormous wave of opportunities from AI, they must continue to center their customer’s experience in every aspect of their operations. With this shift comes the understanding of a universal truth: when it comes to improving the customer experience, you’re always improving but never done.
1 Murphy, B. Jeff Bezos: “The most important single thing is to focus obsessively on the customer”. | Inc.
2 Rachel, K. (2011, September 28). Zappos CEO: Company culture is Higher Priority Than Customer Service. | ZDNET.
3 Bailey, D. (2017, July 13). Why you need to follow the Steve Jobs Method and “work backwards”. | Inc.
4 Chambers, B. (2021, May 18). How 30-year old technology became an overnight success story. | Fast Company.