The end of the year is a time of reflection and renewed commitment to important issues that may have gotten sidetracked over the last year. Looking beyond New Year’s resolutions to join a gym or organize your closet, now is also a perfect time to resolve to improve customer experiences in 2022.
We asked CEOs, business leaders, and CX experts to share their CX New Year’s resolutions. A few trends emerged, related to digital transformation, speed of innovation, increased efficiencies, and deeper customer understanding. Here are a few excerpts from around the industry, edited for space and clarity.
Execute digital transformation
My customer New Year’s resolution is to support clients and get real with why money spent on transformation has not delivered expected outcomes, then help them build a plan to overcome those challenges. – Judi Hand, Chief Revenue Officer, TTEC
Judi Hand, Chief Revenue Officer, TTEC
My CX New Year’s resolution is to be more accessible to our clients. Specifically, I want our clients to be able to get help around the clock, 24/7, even when it isn’t work hours. Our customer service team only operates during work hours, which means that whenever any of our clients need help before or after those times, they can’t reach anyone. I am planning on implementing an AI chatbot on our company website that has an extensive amount of capabilities. Though the really complicated questions may have to be answered by one of our reps during the day, our chatbot should be able to help with basically everything else. – Daivat Dholakia, Vice President of Operations, Essenvia
My CX New Year’s resolution will be to bolster my website with more AI technologies. I will integrate data-gathering systems to streamline payment processing and provide relevant offers. Google Analytics is not enough to create a user-friendly interface. AI chat support improves site navigability, frictionless payment processing, eliminates lengthy checkout procedures, and lightweight web analytics systems provide accurate data without compromising site speed.
– Nick Drewe, Founder & CEO, Wethrift
Nick Drewe, Founder and CEO, Wethrift
My CX New Year’s Resolution will be to revisit our CX strategy every 3 months. Though we adapt our CX strategy outline annually to meet changing consumer needs, we feel that in the digital era, CX is changing too rapidly to maintain our pace. Instead, we’re going to review CX strategies quarterly and, like zero-based budgeting, start our strategies from scratch rather than tweaking the status quo – we want innovation, not stagnation in our CX. – David Aylor, Founder & CEO, David Aylor Law Offices
David Aylor, Founder & CEO, David Aylor Law Offices
Reduce customer friction
For 2022, I want to make sure our office is running really efficiently, collecting the right type of information and inputting it in a uniform manner across all clients and prospective clients’ account details…While our clients may not see a tangible difference with that type of focus, I do think with things running even more smoothly ‘behind the curtain’ that the level of service we'll be able to provide will be even better. – Brian Moles, CFP, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones
Brian Moles, CFP, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones
My CX New Year’s resolution will be to improve our website accessibility and further diversify our language base. With so much of society’s focus based on adjusting for better inclusion of all people, we want our CX to reflect our business’s cultural values so that anyone can access our services regardless of different abilities and languages spoken.” – James Diel, CEO, Textel
James Diel, CEO, Textel
Gain customer understanding
Our CX resolution for 2022 will be to increase ways that customers can communicate their thoughts to us. It seems that sometimes I forget that the customer experience does not end when the transaction is complete. I want to prioritize reaching out to previous customers for feedback and implement ways for them to communicate their thoughts throughout the process. I know that allowing customer opinions and feelings to inform my business will have a greatly positive effect. – Ravi Parikh, CEO, RoverPass
My CX New Year’s resolution will be to work to better understand my customers. I already make practicing empathy and understanding a part of my life, but I would love to apply this more towards understanding what our new customers need, and WHY they need it. I believe that by learning more about them, I can greatly improve our CX. – Bryan Philips, Head of Marketing, In Motion Marketing
My resolution is to make 2022 the year of the customer. Every business decision that we make in 2022 should make sure that it takes the customer into consideration. Of course we have to make decisions for financial reasons, but if we don't consider the customer's point of view, we risk sacrificing their loyalty and their retention in order to make an extra dollar somewhere else. By wearing the customer hat in every single company meeting and making sure that the customer is represented at the table, we can make decisions that are win-win for both of us that make the company money, but also keep the customer coming back for more. – Dan Gingiss, Author, The Experience Maker: How to Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can't Wait to Share
Dan Gingiss, Author, The Experience Maker: How to Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can't Wait to Share
We plan to connect again in a few months to see how many of these resolutions actually stick. So, make sure you’re subscribed to the Customer Strategist Journal to stay on top of their progress.
In the meantime, check out the CX New Year's resolution episode on The CX Pod, to hear more insight from customer experience leaders.
