2021 was another year of disruption and transformation. The pandemic continued to play an important but not exclusive role in accelerating the pace of change in business, and customer experience (CX) became a major differentiator for many brands.
To adapt to the “new normal” and meet ever-changing customer expectations, many trends in CX began to emerge. Virtual and hybrid selling became the norm, as did digital-first customer service, with virtual assistants and self-service technologies handling more and more cases. More consumers demanded access to chat, SMS, and social messaging to engage with brands, and many organizations delivered. Data privacy ruled the headlines as the talk of cookie deprecation set brands scrambling to find new ways to personalize experiences while honoring privacy preferences.
We know more changes lie ahead for the coming year, and to help our customers continue to respond and deliver great customer experiences, Oracle Advertising and Customer Experience leverages a diverse community of software and integration partners and industry leaders in the CX space.
Here’s what some of our key partners expect to see in 2022:
“Privacy is the next frontier for brand differentiation, led by a Trust-centric approach to customer experience. Marketers face a wave of challenges in 2022 as new and evolving legislations are driving the rapid deprecation of third-party cookies, requiring marketing teams to work more closely with data ops to ensure a holistic implementation of a first-party data strategy—all while consumers demand personalization and transparency from brands. We will see organizations build new business models around Trust (Trust Centers) to ensure they collect consented first-party data, honor their customers’ preferences, and empower audiences to manage their own data privacy and engagement experience.”
— Chet Devchand, Director of Business Development, Product Partnerships, OneTrust
"Everything needs a "v" version to meet customers where they are. How do you provide a better customer experience than your competitors? Meet your customers where they are and engage with them in the ways they want. Start by layering video into your engagement and outreach methods, creating a new “v” version of everything: v-commerce, v-contact center, and v-messaging."
- Harry Moseley, CIO, Zoom
"Marketers will increase their investments in collecting zero- and first-party data. As consumers continue to demand convenient and effective marketing campaigns, marketers face new regulations and expectations for transparency. To get ahead, they will have to adjust their data management strategies and key performance indicators to measure success."
—Julio Lopez, Senior Director of Strategy, Global Retail Practice Lead, Movable Ink
“CX organizations will continue to pivot toward a more holistic approach to customer data spanning both marketing and customer care. Deprecation of third-party cookies will further elevate the role of voice-of-customer insights as one of the primary drivers of personalized journeys.”
— Lee Kemp, Senior Director, Alliances and Partners, Medallia
"Brands will continue to compete on customer experience, and customer loyalty will be the reward for getting it right. Our own consumer research, along with nearly every other recent industry study, indicates that customers are willing to spend more money, more often, when a brand provides a consistently positive experience. Maximize every interaction with your customers by knowing who they are, meeting them on their channel of choice, empowering them to self-serve when they can, providing a seamless journey across channels, and, ultimately, resolving their issues quickly and accurately.”
— Genefa Murphy, CMO, Five9
“People will buy brands, not products. Although brand awareness isn’t new, in 2022 and beyond, buyers will focus less on buying a specific product and more on investing their dollars in a brand they trust, believe in, and that aligns with their core values. Given that only 5% of buyers are in-market to buy a product at any given time, organizations need to spend this year focused on how to stay top-of-mind for the 95% of buyers who aren’t looking to purchase. Elevating brand awareness, developing an active community, and building trust as opposed to approaching your marketing in a self-serving manner will be critical if you want to close the deal in 2022 and beyond!“
- Penry Price, VP, Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn
"Throughout the pandemic, brands across all verticals shifted focus to digital marketing and more specifically email—their most dependable, scalable channel—to reach their goals. After experiencing the high ROI of email, brands will continue to prioritize email in the coming year, which means more competition for attention in subscribers’ inboxes. Brands that embrace personalization and automation will win that coveted subscriber attention, drive loyalty, and hit their revenue targets.”
— Melissa Sargeant, Chief Marketing Officer, Litmus
"Go-to-market teams need to obsess over engaging those that click through with relevant content! According to Forrester, 74% of marketers can identify the accounts they want to target, 63% know how to use channels like ads to attract them accurately, but only 11% know how to engage them after that click. In 2022, the key to keeping buyers engaged is surfacing relevant content."
— Randy Frisch, Founder, President & CMO, Uberflip
"By 2023, as paid, owned, and earned marketing merges, marketers will embrace a test-and-learn approach to new ad formats to reach the next generation of buyers while playing offense against the looming cookie ban."
— Paul Herman, VP, Customer Engagement and Market Intelligence, Sprinklr
“Transparency and flexibility will remain key to closing post-pandemic business. Hybrid engagement with customers is here to stay, which means digital workflows are now an expected part of business. In 2021, DocuSign research found that 95% of organizations either currently use or plan to adopt e-signature in the future. In 2022, expect to see businesses rapidly expand their digital offerings to deliver a better, more connected customer experience.
For sales and service organizations, that means going beyond simplifying contract signing to adopt tools that accelerate negotiations, improve collaboration capabilities, automate actions at time of signature, and provide ongoing visibility to contract terms and revisions. Buying has changed dramatically over the past two years; businesses need to think bigger with their technology stack to help customers wherever they are and stay ahead of competitors.”
— Jeff Piper, Senior Director of Strategic Services, DocuSign
“Organizations will adopt data-driven and autonomous software to transform the way they interact with customers. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 75% of B2B sales organizations will replace traditional sales playbooks with AI-based guided selling solutions. Organizations harnessing the full value of their customer interactions will have a strong competitive advantage, as they will be able to unlock reality to help their teams drive improved productivity, higher win rates, and a more personalized and delightful customer experience.”
— Kelly Breslin Wright, President & COO, Gong
“Unified payments will be essential to effortless customer experiences. If there’s one thing consumers have made clear throughout the pandemic, it’s their love of convenience. Unified payments make it possible to give them what they want by powering cross-channel journeys and personalized experiences wherever they shop. Getting it right is a huge opportunity, which is why I think payments will be a must-have in 2022.”
— Kamran Zaki, COO, Adyen
