5 Customer Experience Predictions for 2023

Many CX teams will disappear while others thrive, according to a new white paper.

Business leaders can expect 2023 to be “a year of reckoning” for customer experience (CX) programs as companies face the challenge of focusing on customers while navigating a turbulent economy, according to a white paper from research and advisory firm Forrester.

Forrester gathers annual insights in multiple industries from more than 700,000 consumers, business leaders and technology leaders globally.

“The character of CX teams will transform, with 20 percent of them disappearing, 80 percent lacking essential skills and their work shifting from strategy to proactive service recovery, predicts Forrester.

“Amid these changes, CX differentiation will erode in three-fourths of industries, and the CX tech market will shift as one-third of point solution providers get acquired by platform players.”

In 2022, many companies strayed from customer focus due to a worsening economy, creating a turning point for customer experience programs in 2023, says Forrester:

“CX programs that help their organizations achieve their brand aspirations — and have the data to prove it — will thrive despite corporate belt-tightening,” says Forrester. “Other programs will wither since they’ll no longer have a strong economy to buoy them.”

Read on for five predictions for CX in 2023 from Forrester.

1. One in five CX programs will disappear

“The estimated 80% of companies for which great CX is not part of their brand identity will finally demand proof that spending on CX improvement is necessary, and some of these companies will dissolve CX teams that can’t show numbers,” says Forrester.

Meanwhile, around 20 percent of companies that “embrace great CX as part of their brand identity” will reward their customer service teams that show a positive return on investment (ROI).

2. Four in five CX teams will lack critical skills

“Already, a majority of CX teams lack crucial skills in inclusive experience design, design thinking, survey design, data literacy and storytelling, journey mapping, analytics and management,” says Forrester.

Those skills are “accelerants” that enable customer experience teams to understand, improve and manage the customer experience while boosting the CX team’s impact, says Forrester:

“CX teams without these skills will remain stuck on basic find-and-fix work, unable to help their organizations innovate to thrive in a challenging business environment.”

3. CX differentiation will erode in a majority of industries

The range of difference between the best and worst customer experience in many industries will shrink as 25 percent of below-average brands improve while 50 percent of above average brands “decline or stagnate,” says Forrester.

“To stand out from this tightening pack, companies must embrace customer obsession and pursue CX innovations that differentiate their brand, rather than relying on CX strategies that consumers perceive as similar,” advises Forrester.

4. Platform players will acquire many point solution CX tech providers

“One-third of point solution CX tech providers will get acquired by platform players,” predicts Forrester. “Point solution providers are companies that offer a single specialty product or service, like a journey mapping application, design tool or chatbot.”

The acquisitions will be driven by two factors:

• Companies that desire a single platform that offers “best-in-class solutions”
• Low selling prices for struggling point solution providers affected by a troubled economy

5. Proactive service recovery will override strategy

Proactive service recovery (PSR) is when companies take actions to “turn around” individual bad customer experiences — even for customers who haven’t complained — in as close to real time as possible, says Forrester.

An example of PSR in action is when an airline sends alternate flights and a meal voucher via its app to a passenger whose connecting flight is delayed.

“Companies with strong CX strategies will use on-brand PSR to help fulfill their strategies efficiently,” says Forrester. “These companies should keep PSR efforts aligned to strategy or risk diluting the brand.

“Companies without strong CX strategies will use PSR to fix basic CX problems quickly. These companies should avoid mistaking PSR for a real CX strategy or risk missing out on big-picture CX differentiation.”