What Are Customer Expectations (and How Have They Changed)

For many companies, several different departments clamour to own the customer, with marketing, sales, and service being three of the most common. Any decision on organizational structure changes must have at its core the ability for the company to deliver a seamless experience for the customer, regardless of the challenges behind the scenes. Seventy-five percent of consumers expect consistent experiences across multiple channels (web, mobile, in-person, social), with 73% likely to switch brands if they don’t get it. Customer loyalty — and attrition — is determined by every experience.

Predictive, anticipatory service is increasingly the norm.

As customers look to the future, they increasingly expect companies to leverage their data to provide anticipatory services. By 2020, 75% of business buyers expect companies that can anticipate their needs and make relevant suggestions before they initiate contact, while 73% expect that products they purchase will self-diagnose issues and automatically order replacement parts or service.

For a company to effectively predict and prescribe actions for their customers, the ability to both manage existing customer data effectively and deploy new machine learning algorithms to make predictions is increasingly important.