Immersive customer experience is the future. For years, companies have been adapting to a shifting landscape, recognizing that excellent experiences are the only way to capture, engage, and retain customers. However, consistently delighting customers isn’t easy.
Expectations in every industry are constantly evolving, particularly as new technologies and communication platforms enter the landscape. To survive and thrive in 2024 and beyond, businesses and contact centers need more than just access to multiple channels and quick response rates.
They must offer customers a completely aligned, personalized, convenient, and data-driven experience across all platforms. In other words, they need immersion.
Creating an immersive customer experience means ensuring customers can have natural, fluid interactions with companies that strengthen their relationships with those brands.
Every business should consider investing in immersive customer experience for 2024.
1. Improved Efficiency and Productivity
Immersive customer experiences span a range of different types of interactions between consumers and companies. To give buyers fluid, natural, and convenient interactions, businesses need to be able to serve them in a true omnichannel environment. This means leveraging a contact center system that supports and connects everything from phone calls to video chat and AI self-service.
Building a true omnichannel ecosystem for immersive CX doesn’t just mean customers can get fantastic, consistent support on the channels of their choice. It also has a direct impact on employee performance. When agents can navigate conversations across different platforms, access customer data, and monitor metrics in the same place, they become more efficient.
This means your team members spend less time jumping between tools and apps and more time growing the business. Additionally, a modern omnichannel experience, infused with technologies that boost immersion, such as video, AI, and extended reality, takes productivity to the next level.
With advanced generative AI tools, companies can help customers serve themselves, reducing call volumes and pressure on teams. These bots can even pass data to employees instantly when necessary. With video and XR, employees can access a clear view of an issue, leading to faster resolution.
2. Improved Customer Loyalty and Retention
According to Zendesk’s CX Report for 2023, 61% of customers are excited about experiences that feel natural, fluid, and convenient. Increasingly, buyers demand an immersive customer experience that aligns with their understanding of the evolving digital landscape.
They know companies have access to more tools and technology than ever before that can help them to personalize their experiences. They also understand today’s businesses can interact with them on various channels to deliver better interactions. That’s led to an increase in customers using video and even extended reality apps. For instance, 61% of consumers prefer to shop at stores with an AR experience.
In today’s competitive landscape, investing in immersive experiences for your customers can help not only increase conversions but also improve loyalty and retention. Businesses can map their customers’ journeys and find unique ways to address friction and pain points.
They can also offer more powerful onboarding and sales experiences. For instance, showing customers how to set up a new product with an AR, MR, or virtual reality app can lead to better results than just sharing essential documentation. When customers see the benefits of your solutions quickly and get consistent support, they’re more likely to stick with your brand.
3. Immersive Customer Experience is a Differentiator
In a world where every business knows that customer experience is crucial to success, virtually every business invests heavily in improving its CX strategy. Zendesk’s report, mentioned above, found that 81% of leaders see customer experience as a priority for their strategic growth.
However, it can be challenging to stand out when everyone invests in tools like chatbots for self-service and multi-channel support. Committing to creating a truly immersive customer experience gives your business an edge.
Leveraging the latest artificial intelligence tools to create more “conversational” self-service solutions for your customers or offering remote support through extended reality separates you from other brands. It allows you to capture more customers looking for more convenient, empathetic interactions with their favorite brands.
The result is an opportunity to increase profits significantly. Zendesk found that 77% of business leaders have seen a positive ROI from leveraging immersive experiences. Plus, 70% of customers say they purchase more from companies that offer seamless customer service.
4. Improved Alignment and Collaboration
Creating immersive customer experiences doesn’t just mean entering the metaverse or creating an AR service app for your customers. Immersive experiences can happen on any channel when companies commit to aligning their processes, teams, and tools effectively.
Designing a proper omnichannel solution that allows customers to seamlessly move between channels and receive the same level of personalized, convenient support helps to align and enhance your teams. Plus, leveraging UCaaS and CCaaS tools together can further boost the results for your employees and your target audience.
Contact center agents that can easily collaborate with subject matter experts, access data, and transfer calls and conversations with context create a more seamless experience for your customers. A commitment to immersive customer experiences can help to break down the gaps between your employees in marketing, sales, and customer success, leading to opportunities for growth.
You might even end up with more engaged, loyal, and productive team members.
5. Powerful Insights and Opportunities
Finally, as mentioned above, creating an immersive customer experience means aligning your teams, tools, and processes. This also means bridging the gaps between different sources of customer data. In a world where only 22% of business leaders say their teams are sharing data effectively, eliminating data silos could be the key to getting an edge in the CX market.
Immersive technologies like artificial intelligence, generative AI, and analytical tools can give your companies powerful insights. You can map the customer journey more effectively and discover new opportunities to increase sales or retention. You can also gain insights into your customers using bots and analytics in XR tools to monitor their performance.
The insights you gain from your immersive strategy can even help you create more comprehensive training campaigns for staff members. The correct data can also help fuel and personalize the generative AI bots and self-service tools you build.
Invest in Immersive Customer Experience
Creating an immersive customer experience doesn’t just mean investing in “immersive technology” like metaverse apps and extended reality. It also means leveraging innovative tools throughout the CX stack to streamline, simplify, and personalize the customer journey.
The right approach to immersive customer experience will give you an edge over your competition, help you convert and retain more customers, and improve contact center performance.