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January 2023 ISSUE 02 #CEX trend radar

CEX trend radar

Annual Report 2023

PRO C ESS

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from

Nils Hafner & Harald Henn

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Contents

3 foreword
4 Management summary
11 How to read the CEX trend radar
12 What 20 trends will we see in 2023
15 Our levels of maturity
16 THE CEX TRENDS IN DETAIL
16 PEOPLE
33 PROCESS
55 TECHNOLOGY
77 lighthouse projects
78 DPD (with BSI)
81BLKB (with BSI)
84 Helvetia Germany (with FOUR)
87 Läderach (with
SAP) 89DEEP DIVE
95 Partner presentation
99 Author introduction
100 bibliography

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foreword
CEX trend radar 2023
Just in time, as always, at the beginning of the year,
we publish our CEX Trend Radar 2023. With the fourth
edition after the premiere in 2020, it is particularly
exciting to register how trends are developing, how
priorities are shifting and how the speed at which
topics are changing prevail in companies. Our results
are still based on many conversations, discussions,
projects and of course our own studies.
The Customer Experience Trends 2023 are strongly
influenced and superimposed by inflation, global
crises and the resulting changes in consumer behavior.
As a result, some of our assumptions for 2022 did not
materialize as expected and developed more slowly
than expected; for some topics, the momentum was
greater than forecast. The latter applies above all to
developments in the field of conversational automation.
We will continue the business partnership with leading
providers that we started last year in 2023. The
trusting and cooperative partnership with our partners
SAP, BSI and VIER gives us valuable insights into
technology development and customer projects. A
description of new lighthouse projects can be found in
a separate chapter.
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by Prof. Dr. Nils Hafner
and Harald Henn
Customer Experience is currently in economically
turbulent waters. In the past year, we've seen setbacks
in CX initiatives. This applies above all where the
benefits of projects and initiatives have not been seen
or communicated poorly. In doing so, one often finds
that the strategic view and the business management
assessment were lacking in advance. This is especially
true for solutions that have focused almost exclusively
on the introduction of technology.
For this year, however, we are more optimistic than
so many expert forecasts who predict the great doom
of the topic of customer experience or want to reduce
the topic to the use of MarTech.
This year we would particularly like to point out the
deep dive on the subject of customer centricity
measurement. We think this topic requires special
management attention to steer the CX culture.
We would like to thank Sophie Hundertmark and Inka
Grabowsky for their support in creating this trend radar
and Jannik Wüster for the design.
We wish you a successful year 2023 and lots of
inspiration while reading.
Nils Hafner and Harald Henn
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Management summary
Customer Experience: The big opportunity in
Times of crisis - CX as a strategic tool
A turbulent 2022 is behind us - and a dynamic 2023 is ahead of us
Customer Experience is in turbulent macroeconomic waters.
In the past year, we've seen setbacks in CX initiatives. This
applies above all where the benefits of projects and initiatives
have not been seen or communicated poorly. In doing so, one
often finds that the strategic view and the business management
assessment were lacking in advance. This is especially true for
solutions that have focused almost exclusively on the
introduction of technology.
The moment CX has arrived in management (this was our
forecast for 2022), the questions about the value proposition
of CX will also be asked. Missing strategy or concrete
statements on
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If they are useful, the CX projects quickly run the risk of being
discontinued - even more radically and quickly than usual in
times of crisis. Those companies with a clear CX roadmap
focus on measurable results of personalized customer
experiences based on well-founded analyzes and a uniform
customer data platform. Customer data platforms, customer
analytics and customer journey management are becoming the
technological infrastructure in CX management, without which
further development of the processes no longer seems
conceivable. For this, however, the strategic question must be
answered. Because if you don't want to or can't position yourself
based on price, CX 2023 offers you the opportunity to do so
through excellent customer experiences.
What do we expect for 2023?
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1. People: CX strategy becomes a game changer.
Employee Experience grows and is the
winner in 2022
At the end of 2021, we realized that CX had arrived in
management - and that the questions of profitability in CX
projects were becoming more pressing. The economic
crises and turbulence have once again accelerated this
development. Customer experience has to prove itself in
the tough day-to-day business. Isolated tactical measures
have been integrated and must fit into strategy. The CX
strategy thus becomes a game changer. Strategy beats
tactics. Accelerated by the general economic conditions,
good CX strategies will open up new opportunities for
companies in the crisis in 2023.
CX innovation management
Companies are making progress here very slowly, and
much more slowly than expected. The small steps can be
counted on one hand; the economic pressure obviously
slows down the courage of the companies to really dare
something new. On top of that, Innova
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Even if they are technologically mature, functions are not
necessarily accepted and used by customers very quickly.
The customer adaptation curve is difficult to predict. The
introduction of a self-service at the Globus retail group with
the "Scan&Go" procedure, in which the customer scans the
purchased goods himself and saves himself having to put
things in and out or wait at the checkout, is accepted only
hesitantly. The hype topic "Me taverse" shows a few
attempts by companies from the areas of fashion or banking.
However, Metaverse applications have been generating
real returns in gaming for years.
CX governance is certainly the trend topic that is developing
the slowest, although from our point of view the potential
benefit for companies is greatest. It's not exactly the topic
that CX executives are clamoring for, because there is an
enormous need for change here. At the same time, it is
about consistently aligning corporate decisions with the
customer. The mere question: “Are the customer
perspectives taken into account in every investment and
savings decision?” can do a lot
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move. On the other hand, CX governance clarifies the
responsibilities for CX in the company. And here, as with
the investment decision, experience has shown that (too)
many departments want to have a say. Good CX
governance therefore requires clear rules of the game,
and introducing them often means creating winners and
losers around the decision-making authority on this topic.
Decision-makers still shy away from this in large numbers.
Employee Experience is one of the 2023 winners
Our lighthouse projects show a very clearly recognizable
contribution to the success of good employee orientation.
A more than clear indication of how employee experience
works, and at the same time a multifaceted topic with a
multitude of different approaches and design options for
companies! It's nice for us to see how much attention
and commitment is being devoted to the topic.
In 2023, too, Employee Experience will continue to gain
momentum as a "long runner" among the trends.
2. Process: Customer Journey Management:
The workhorse in CX management. The
strong focus on the economic contribution of
CX puts even more focus on value management
and the CX management cockpit. Newly added:
CX ecosystems/platforms
In many companies, a systematic and interdisciplinary
working method has developed from the pure visualization
of customer journeys. Customer journeys are the
crystallization point at which the results from customer
analytics and the content of the marketing or sales
concepts come together via the IT systems for digital
implementation with the customer data from the customer
data platform.
As a result, a customer journey is the operational
implementation of many ideas that customers can
experience - the litmus test, so to speak. Whether
customers are satisfied, enthusiastic, frustrated or angry forecast for the end of 2021, also includes the networking
can be seen at the touchpoints along the customer journey. of the data. Customer analytics and outside insights are
It also shows whether customers order or cancel the
shopping process. Customer journey management has
become an integral part of everyday CX life; it has a
direct impact on sales, repeat purchases, willingness to
recommend and satisfaction. the me
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According to our forecast, methods and processes –
especially software-based – are therefore constantly
being developed.
OutsideInsight
In addition to a better understanding of the customer
journey through the use of attitude-related KPIs such as
the NPS, CSAT or the Customer Effort Score, which
unfortunately is still underused, there is still a major lack
in this category. In part, that's because the market
research department at the company still does market
research, not customer research. Above all, customer
satisfaction is queried anonymously in large, representative
samples based on attributes. The insight value for the
individual journey is often not given. This is because you
neither know which customer said what, nor which are
the critical attributes to be inquired about. When it comes
to the question of what should be measured and how,
every practitioner currently feels compelled to give an
opinion.
In our opinion, it is more important that companies learn,
on the one hand, to use event-oriented surveys and to
ask an associated open question after an NPS, CSAT or
CES question: “Why did you give us this rating?” It is
important to ask such open questions but also to be able
to evaluate and process. This trend will stagnate until
this capability is built up across the board by a majority
of companies.
CX cockpit
“The hunger for data is growing,” was our thesis at the
end of 2021. As the hunger for data grows, so does the
appetite for insights from that data. That is our thesis for
2023. Customer analytics provides the basis for
optimization in customer journeys, for targeted addressing.
We see an increase in the measurement methods, the
measurement points and the standardization of the
analyses. The networking of the topics, which is already
the main data suppliers; the CX cockpit will increasingly
assume the role of the CX control center. More networked
and accessible data sources also open up access to
previously uncollected indicators and the possibility of
relating indicators
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to set each other - customer journey behavior
depending on the customer value, for example.
This trend is currently booming. Hardly a congress,
hardly a meeting with practitioners where we
weren't asked: "What would you measure, how
exactly and how often?" (NPS, CSAT, CES) as
well as at the level of business indicators. We did
intensive research on this at the Lucerne University
of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2022 and will now
test various key figures and their effects in a long-
term study in 2023. For 2023, we therefore forecast
growth in linked indicators in particular.
Value Irritant Matrix
We've been talking about using the Value Irritant
Matrix for a number of years. Especially in times of
tight budgets, this strategic tool is more important
than ever. And above all through the growing
capabilities of chat and voice bots as well as increasingconversations. It seems important to us that
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Experience in the field of designing self-service tools
means that more and more business transactions can
be automated. Bots are now already taking over parts
of the sale, and customer analytics qualify customer
dialogues for buying affinity. The “value-adding”
dialogues in the sense of the authors of the Value-
Irritant-Matrix Bill Price and David Jaffe are therefore
being prepared more and more specifically and more
and more successfully. It is therefore more worthwhile
to classify customer dialogues according to the degree
of added value for customers and companies. More is
also known about the design of automated dialogues
and the possibilities for simplification, e.g. through
simple authentication. In 2023, this instrument will
reach the "standard" level of maturity in the first sectors.
CX ecosystems/platforms
This trend is new this year.
We talked for a long time about what this is about
and sharpened this trend in countless one-on-one
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It is precisely the providers of large CX systems that are
able to develop communities that exchange and network
with each other on the basis of concrete work results. This
networking takes place in an ecosystem. For example, our
partner BSI collects the AI applications (called brains) and
the marketing automation steps in its customer suite that
were developed together with customers or technology
partners, and thus makes them available again to the user
community . The ecosystem is therefore developing
successively via the expansions within the BSI Customer
Suite, but also based on the exchange in industry
communities. Thanks to no- or low-code applications, users
can develop process steps and automations in a configurable
manner, which can then flow back into the standard. This
topic is interesting when the ecosystems are opened up to
third parties using APIs. The lighthouse project from last
year at smart Europe clearly shows that technology is often
only able to support multi-experience setups in real time if
(even large) providers are able to network their solutions
with each other and to To get it running so that integrated
processes from the company's point of view and reduced-
effort journeys from the customer's point of view become
possible.
Also on the macro level determine the content of the brand
Cross-cutting ecosystems are increasingly changing the
customer experience. In healthcare, the benefits of an
ecosystem for customers are particularly evident.
Health insurance companies, clinics, doctors, pharmacies
and many other stakeholders play an important role for the
customer. Fragmented individual solutions or incompatible
systems ensure that the effort involved in obtaining data is
passed on to the customer, which involves a great deal of
time and trouble. Networking these participants in an
ecosystem brings many advantages for customers. This
development will also pick up speed after 2023. In individual
cases
In the case of macro-ecosystems (such as our example
from the healthcare sector), developments will only progress
very slowly due to the political, legal and, above all, data
protection framework conditions.
8th
3. Technology: CDP, customer analytics and
conversational automation continue to grow.
CIAM – Customer Identity and Access Management
– is newly included as an important trend.
Qualitative growth in customer data platforms (CDP) and
customer analytics, exponential growth in conversational
automation: This is how the development for 2023 can be
summarized. At first glance, this cannot be deduced from
the trend radar.
Many companies are already using a customer data
platform - often under a different name - and therefore the
classification of CDP in the standard sector is correct, but
does not adequately reflect the dynamics in the companies.
Existing CDP platforms will be expanded in 2023 or replaced
by new systems. Historically, CDPs are located in marketing
and are intended to support those responsible in carrying
out operative marketing measures (e.g. marketing
automation systems) without the IT department. However,
customer experience is not limited to marketing, and
customer journeys do not stop at departmental boundaries.
The new orientation is called the end-to-end approach and
includes marketing, sales and customer service. We already
outlined this development in our lighthouse projects last
year. In the coming year, this trend will become even more
dynamic.
We see a comparable development in the customer
analytics trend . Many companies already use standalone
or isolated systems to measure customer behavior. The
next phase - starting next year - will be the expansion of
the measurement methods, networking and the systematic
and generally understandable processing of the data.
The situation is different with conversational automation.
The turbulent development that we see for 2023 is played
into the cards by several things. Technology is improving in
leaps and bounds.
Thanks to OpenAI - a non-profit organization that researches
artificial intelligence - many components such as speech
recognition, language models or intent recognition are
freely accessible and who
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driven by software developers worldwide. The
level of performance is thus raised across the
board by tools such as ChatGPT-3. A lot of
research is also being done at various universities
on the possibilities of conversational automation,
be it in the form of chat or voice bots. Topics such
as emotional enrichment of the bot to make it
appear more human-like or a stronger focus on
sales play a major role.
The second driver for the dynamic is the shortage
of skilled workers. Finding employees for customer
service departments is difficult. Simple,
homogeneous inquiries can be handled very well
by digital chat or voice bot colleagues, and
customers from municipal utilities, online retailers
or insurance companies have very quickly got used
to this technology. This acceptance will inspire
other industries to use conversational automation
to counter the shortage of skilled workers.
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In contrast, augmented reality/virtual reality/
metaverse are currently stuck in further penetrating
the market. Less in the B2B sector; there it is used
efficiently, especially in customer service for capital
goods or real estate, for customers it saves time
and is established. Many experiments with gaming
approaches have been tried out in the B2C market.
Many of them do not generate a directly verifiable
return on investment and were discontinued in the
crisis year 2022. The "metaverse" can be found as
a classic B2C approach in almost all CX-relevant
"Hype Cycle" representations of the year 2022.
However, basic definitions are still missing.
In any case, the central idea is to move an avatar
through virtual worlds. It's been in gaming for 20
years. However, all of these systems will only gain
new impetus when the applications also
demonstrably lead to more sales outside of gaming
or are a “must have” for a specific target group. For
2023 we see a stagnant development here.
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Last but not least, we welcome CIAM - Customer

Identity and Access Management - to the
technology trends. After CRM has developed into
a hygiene factor and we have therefore retired it in
terms of trend technology, CIAM is now a new
addition. Digital customer journeys across multiple
touchpoints require customers to authenticate and/
or identify themselves. Trust in the provider,
compliance with data protection guidelines on the
one hand and the simplest possible steps for the
customer on the other represent a tension between
a safe and simple customer experience. Classically,
therefore, a case for “simplification” in the value
Irritant Matrix. This is where CIAM solutions come
in. CIAM solutions are indispensable for complex
customer journeys with a strong focus on digital
touchpoints. A trend that doesn't exactly come
across as sexy; However, the appeal lies in
designing legal regulations, data protection and
the necessary queries in such a way that customers
experience security, trust and simplicity at the
same time. Overall, we believe that 2023 will be a
year of fundamental work. Just like when building
a house, the architect first has to draw up a plan
(CX strategy), then the foundation is poured
(customer data platform) and then you start building
the first floor (customer analytics, customer journey
management, CX cockpit, …) starts, it is the same
with CX. The economic crises will make CX
builders act more cautiously. Ideas have an
accelerating effect that also lead to more successful
automation (conversational automation) in customer
contact and to simple self-service tools (Value-
Irritant-Matrix, CIAM) in the short term. Otherwise,
solid concepts and implementations will dominate.

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How to read the CEX trend radar

Description of methodology and usage

The CEX trend radar is a joint development by Prof. prioritized for customer experience management.
Dr. Nils Hafner, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences We have divided the CX trends into the following three
and Harald Henn, Marketing Resultant. The CEX trend dimensions, which have been known from customer
radar is based on interviews with international relationship management for years:
technology, CX and finance experts, researchers at
• People
universities and future institutes, public studies,
exchanges with our business partners and, above all,
• Process
our own project experiences. From the large number
of trends, we have the most important technologies,
methods and instruments according to their current relevance • Technologies

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What 20 trends will we see in 2023:

1 CX culture: Does the company have a defined CX culture

that also includes, for example, the recruitment policy and is
systematically geared towards the customer with pleasure?

2 CX innovation management: Is there an innovation

management system that is systematically concerned with
designing improvements for customers at the customer
interface?

3 CX strategy: Does the company have a defined CX strategy

and thus a multi-year plan for how it should develop in the
relevant dimensions? Are budgets provided for this? Are the
CX goals based on the SMART principle?

4 Feedback Loop: Is the company able to systematically learn

from customer interactions? Is this learning process
systemically supported?

5 Employee Experience Management (EXM): Is the company

systematically geared towards sustainably positive employee
experiences? Are the principles of the service profit chain
reflected in the company's HR policy?

5a CX governance: Is there a set of rules that allows the

customer's perspective and needs to be incorporated into all
of the company's project and investment decisions? Is the
CX department positioned as an enabler for all parts of the
company? Is it clear how departmental conflicts around CX
issues will be resolved?

6 Customer Journey Management: Are the basic customer

journeys documented in the company? Is the flow of
information relating to the customer rating of the most
important journeys automated? Can you tell at a glance
which journeys are working and which aren't?

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7 Outside Insight: Is the customer experience measured from the

customer's point of view (outside in)? Are methods such as NPS,
CSAT or Customer Effort Score carried out correctly (including
the close-the-loop questions)? Are qualitative research methods
such as sequential event methodology or laddering used?

8th Value Management: Can the company measure the value of the
customer relationship? Does it understand what value proposition
it has for the customer?

9 CX management cockpit: Does the company know the most

important KPIs at the level of CX processes, behavioral KPIs
(NPS, CSAT; CES) and business indicators? Are the relationships
between these KPIs clear and explored?

10 Value-Irritant-Matrix: Has the company evaluated all dialogues

from its own perspective AND from the perspective of the
customer as to whether they bring added value? Is it clear where
to simplify or automate?

11 Multiexperience: Is the company able to break down silos and

resolve the conflicts at the interface between marketing and sales
and between sales and service in the interests of its customers?
Is the organizational structure also consistently based on the
customer journeys?

11a CX ecosystems and platforms: Is the company able to benefit

from the formation of a community, be it as a customer of large
CX software companies or as a provider and orchestrator of its
own topic-specific ecosystems or platforms? By what technical
means can ecosystems be made possible? Which ecosystems
and partnerships really serve the customer/create added value
for customers and companies?

12 Customer Data Platforms: Is the company able to make all

customer data available to employees and customers in real time
as they are needed? Is a CDP available and integrated?

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13 Customer Analytics: Is the company able to evaluate customer

data not just descriptively, but predictively?
Is there information about the "next best product" or even the "next
best action"?

14 Augmented/Virtual Reality: Is the company using AR/VR for a

better customer experience? Is it active in the metaverse?
Can it enrich purchasing decisions through AR/VR? Will AR/VR
increase service potential? How does online consultation work in the
Metaverse?

15 Conversational Automation/Business: Does the company have a

functioning chat or voice bot that can automatically process simple
customer requests 24/7?
Is this bot based on AI and does it solve real customer concerns?

16 Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM): Is the

company able to meaningfully identify the customer at all touchpoints
and enable him with a "single sign-on" to access all information,
products and services that are required for are relevant to get him?
Are legally secure case closures possible?

17 Marketing Automation: Can the marketing-related processing of

customer life events be automated? Are the life events and other
campaign triggers recorded? Is a touchpoint-optimized campaign
predefined for each trigger?

18 Service Cloud: Is the company able to competently provide inbound

customer service at all touchpoints of a multi-channel system (shop,
e-commerce, central call center, field service) without having to
request service, product or customer information twice?

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Our maturity levels
In doing so, we assess and estimate the degree of
maturity for each of the above areas for each trend. We
differentiate between five levels of maturity and thus
phases in the market penetration of this trend:
Vision: This trend has made it onto our radar. You
should keep an eye on it and follow it up. However, the
effects on customer experience management are not
yet sufficiently recognizable. In the "Vision" stage, we as
a company answer the question: Could this trend help us
to achieve our customer orientation goals?
Prototype: The first implementations of this trend can
be seen and are being implemented by companies. In
the “prototype” stage, we as a company answer the
question: do we want to test whether this trend can help
us to achieve our customer orientation goals?
Acceptance: This trend has caught on in the market
among leading CX management companies. However,
there are still widespread introduction hurdles in the form
of a lack of knowledge or skills as well as a lack of
resources. In the “acceptance” stage, we as a company
answer the question: do we want to implement the
findings from the prototypes on this trend in our CX
practice in order to achieve our customer orientation
goals?
Standard: This trend has caught on internationally.
There is mature technology and extensive knowledge
about the implementation and use of this trend. Our
advice: make the best use of the advantages of this
technology. In the "Standard" stage, we as a company
answer the question: Can we as a company "keep up"
with other companies in this trend in order to achieve our
customer orientation goals?
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Commodity: This trend is no longer actively talked
about, the respective technology, process management
technique or employee control is used by most of the
companies that have dealt with this trend and the
procedures described are now part of the basics of CX
-Management. The company that does not have these
basics or does not live them competently suffers
increasing disadvantages in competition. We will keep
this trend on the radar for another three years before it is
replaced by more relevant topics. In the “Commodity”
stage, we as a company answer the question: Haven't
we missed something crucial in order to achieve our
customer orientation goals?
How to use/read the CEX trend radar:
Each trend is numbered and assigned to one of the
three areas People, Process or Technology. The
positioning of the bar indicates which maturity the trend
currently extends over. For our example, customer
journey mapping/ CJ management via the maturity levels/
phases prototype, acceptance and standard.
The circle with the number is a kind of "slider". It is
positioned where the majority of the industries related to
this trend are currently located. Since the trend report is
prepared by us for different industries, this "slider" can
be in different places for different industries.
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THE CEX TRENDS IN DETAIL

PEOPLE

Photo by Oleg Laptev on Unsplash

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PEOPLE
CX culture
Short definition:
The widely recognized Oxford Dictionary defines culture
as: “The entirety of the intellectual, artistic, creative
achievements of a community as an expression of
human advancement”. Nice. So it's about advancement.
And so it fits perfectly into our trend radar. But what are
the elements of such a higher development? Well, first
of all you have to know WHERE you want to develop.
That should (because it is higher) then be an attractive
target, which is also a desirable state for the employees.
A vision, so to speak. A vision should be tangible and
create expectations and experiences. It is important to
understand that the customer is NOT king and should
not be king. After all, a relationship with the customer is
created through an exchange of values. Therefore, on
the one hand, you have to understand what values the
customer has and, on the other hand, you have to
specifically select the employees which values they
share and can convey in a credible way.
This is closely linked to expectations of the behavior of
employees, but also of the behavior of customers. It is
important to supplement the vision with the rules of the
game (CX governance) of the desired customer
relationship, but also with very specifically designed
customer experiences (CX design and customer
journey).
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX strategy, 5 employee experience management,
5a CX governance, 6 customer journey management,
8 value management, 9 CX management cockpit, 15
conversational automation and 17 marketing automation.
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
Overall, it is culturally important that all employees
perceive the customer as the one who ultimately pays
the wages. Without customers
17
#1 CX CULTURE
no money, and since it has been shown to be much
easier to sell to existing customers than to new
customers, the focus here should be on a customer
experience that makes the customer come back, buy
again and recommend. Actually a no-brainer. But in
day-to-day business, it is amazing how often managers
have to repeat this fact mantra-like and get it into the
minds and hearts of employees. And that is exactly
what we believe is still not being done enough.
Another prerequisite for cultural change is the question
of whether you actually have the right employees “on
board” who have the right attitude set. This in turn
raises the question of which employees you actually
hire. We remember: Employees are involved in 60% of
all exciting, but also in 70% of all frustrating customer
experiences (cf. Esch Brand Consultants, 2016). Let's
start with the selection of the team members. What
mechanisms do I have as a company to identify those
who can identify particularly well with my customer-
centric vision? How do I recognize who is willing to
work for this vision and who draws strength from it to
get closer to this vision?
How often is the vision actually part of recruitment,
counseling or career interviews? How can the
contribution of the individual be measured? Based on
these four questions alone, companies are in and of
themselves in a good position to initiate and control
systematic forward development.
In addition to the attitude and the set of values, there
is also the question of what employees actually know
and are able to do in relation to customer experience
management. In the field of CX design, i.e. in relation
to customer journey mapping and the design of
individual customer experiences at individual
touchpoints, companies have learned a lot in recent
years. But these are tactical skills that
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PEOPLE
run by CX professionals as a department. In relation to all
employees in the company, the number of employees in these
departments is, firstly, negligibly small and, secondly, often not
really well anchored in the hierarchy to enforce real customer
orientation.
What's new this year?
In the past year, individual companies have recognized potential
in this trend for profiling and are now trying to differentiate
themselves with regard to the customer- and employee-oriented
culture under the impression of a much shorter supply of skilled
workers. Participation in the design of the workplace and thus
the decision as to what needs to be done in order to be able to
serve customers better, more empathetically and faster is
paramount. These companies are now trying to build competencies
by using the CX team as an “enabler” of such a culture and the
corresponding skills. What is important in this context, however,
is the change management skills of this team and the will of the
management or the board of directors to change something.
Ours shows a very good example
Trend: CX culture
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#1 CX CULTURE
this year's flagship project at DPD (Switzerland)
AG, in which a real culture change has been achieved through a
consistent orientation towards the NPS as a master key figure
(see also CX Management Cockpit).
How is the trend developing?
Competencies, strategy and culture are closely related in the
area of customer experience management. Because without
skills there is no CX strategy, and without CX strategy there is
no CX culture. And that is exactly why we have also classified
the CX culture trend in the CEX trend monitor in the acceptance
level, but we do not assume that anything will change significantly
here in the next few years. There is a lack of strategically
developed skills, starting with pure methodological knowledge
on the one hand, but also lacking in operational employee skills
for real culture change on the other. And that is the main reason
why we in the CEX trend radar assume that CX culture will be
“accepted” for a long time to come, but only implemented well by
a few companies. And that specific differentiation potential lies
fallow here, but is also the most complex to implement.
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CX innovation management
Short definition:
The term "innovation" is derived from the Latin word
"innovare" and means: renew or make new. For
companies, innovation usually means launching a new
product or service that has never existed before. The
crux of the word innovation is that it is a relative way of
looking at it and classifying it. What is an innovation for
one company is old hat for another company.
Innovations can therefore involve products or services
that are new on the market or just for one company.
When Amazon introduced 1-Click shopping in 1997,
this was an innovation for the customer experience of
shopping in online retail in general and of course also
for the company Amazon itself. After registering for the
first time, the customer saves valuable time with every
subsequent purchase. We also want to understand
innovations in this sense: as innovations that improve
the shopping or service experience for the customer.
Innovation management in customer experience
management means that there is a systematic process
that takes customer wishes and expectations into
account in the company in order to develop this new
thing in a targeted manner. As mentioned, this is less
about products or services, but primarily about the
design of the customer experience at the different
touchpoints. In summary, innovation management for
customer experience is the systematic development
and promotion of innovations that are planned,
organized and controlled with the aim of setting the
customer experience apart from the competition and
gaining a head start. Traditionally, innovation
management in manufacturing companies is located in
the R&D department – research and development –
and is geared towards product development there. An
innovation management department for customer
experience management or at least a systematically
controlled process would be
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#2 CX innovation management
the counterpart; to the best of our knowledge, this has
so far only been the case in very few exceptional cases.
Until then, CX innovations are and will remain random
or arise from individual initiatives.
Interfaces to other trends
1 CX culture, 3 CX strategy, 4 feedback loop, 5a CX
Governance, 7 Outside Insight, 13 Customer Analytics
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
“Innovations instead of innovations” is how you can
generally assess this trend. In our opinion, systematic
innovation management for customer experience can
only thrive in companies in which there is already a
very high degree of CX maturity and in which the CX
strategy is firmly anchored and lived. Admittedly, there
are not many companies where systematic innovation
management is recognizable. Disney, Lego and Bosch
with their power tool division are three prime examples
of a high degree of maturity. These companies have a
systematic process of involving customers in
development and optimization. Lego gets product ideas
and feedback through Lego Ideas, a platform that
invites customers to come up with their own suggestions
for new kits. Submitted proposals are evaluated by
other customers, and it is customers who vote on
whether a proposal is officially accepted by Lego.
A transparent process that motivates customers. Bosch
has created a community for its DIY products -
Bosch-1-2-do.com - in which customers can exchange
information about products, their application and use in
DIY projects. You can test products, give direct
feedback on how they are used and submit suggestions
for new products or services. This results in unfiltered
feedback and suggestions directly from the customers
of a manufacturer who sells his products through
retailers
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PEOPLE #2 CX innovation management

sells and is normally decoupled from direct contact

with its customers - market research free of charge
and directly on the customer's pulse. Communities
are labor intensive for the companies. Caregiving
takes some resources, and feedback and reviews
are not always positive; perhaps some of the
reasons why this instrument is so little used for
systematic innovation management.

What already works is the Disney MagicBand.

Disney is known for being customer-centric and
creating customer experiences. The MagicBand is
an innovation designed to make life easier for
theme park visitors. It bundles various activities in
one device and also ensures a lasting memory.

What's new this year?

The focus of companies is currently on creating

Fig.: Disney MagicBand; Image source: https://tripswithtykes.
com/disney-magicbands
the basis and optimizing customer experience
measures, but not on systematic innovation
management.
As long as some basic prerequisites are not in
place, data for an analysis of customer behavior is
missing, systems are not sufficiently networked,
the indicators for the assessment and control of
CX measures are not (yet) implemented, in our
opinion this will change move nothing or very little.
And if they do, then innovations tend to be random
rather than systematically developed and
implemented. That sounds sobering, but it shouldn't
discourage you. Innovations can only emerge
when there are measurable results from the CX
initiatives over a longer period of time. Optimization
measures in a customer journey that aim, for
example, at saving time and which also produce
the desired results, serve as an appetizer for
innovations, so to speak.
Voice-of-the-customer programs and evaluations
of the customer journey provide the necessary
input for innovations in the medium term. The
appetite comes while eating. We do not expect any
serious movements for CX innovation management
in the coming year.

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How is the trend developing?
CX innovation management requires the right conditions and
the right breeding ground for successful implementation. In our
opinion, both are only given when the basic work is done.
It will take companies another one to two years before the CX
innovation train moves at a faster pace. In addition, we do not
necessarily find a culture in companies in the DACH region that
promotes and values innovations in the area of customer
experiences. This also slows down development. Innovations
always require a certain amount of willingness to experiment and
risk on the part of the company. It's a question of company culture
and the CX-Stra
Trend: CX innovation management
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#2 CX innovation management
tegy whether the innovative ideas also get a chance to prove
themselves in the market. There are no guarantees for customer
acceptance, because tests, customer laboratories and other
methods cannot provide absolute certainty. A further complication
is that innovations sometimes only become established with
customers after a long delay. Getting through thirst and sticking
to the concept is particularly difficult in times of crisis. It is not
easy for systematic CX innovation management to assert itself in
the framework conditions described. For this reason, we have
continued to classify the Trend CX innovation management in
the CEX trend radar for 2023 in the prototype stage and do not
assume that anything will change significantly in the next few
years.
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PEOPLE #3 CX STRATEGY

CX strategy
Short definition:

The CX strategy is primarily about the well thought-out a location determination. However, the subject of customer
and quantified link between corporate strategy and experience management is more dimensional than
customer experience management. Maybe that will determining the route in a navigation system.
become clearer when we look at the task of a CX strategy.

Basically, it's about noting that if we're more expensive

• Everyone in the company knows
than the competition, the customer should pay that price
because of an excellent relationship.
• what exactly the customer should experience with us,

So it's about people. That is why the “People” category is

• what exactly this price (and much more)
on the far left in our CEX Radar. We read from left to right.
justifies and
knowledge and skills.
And the strategy develops the long-term plan for it. In
• that he doesn't experience that with the competition
lectures and specialist articles, we always like to compare
can
such a map with a navigation system.
It's about finding the ideal path. To do that, you need the
• and how he can implement this successfully.
destination, the starting point and knowledge of your own
resources (car, train, bike, on foot). This means that
components of a CX strategy are, on the one hand, the
definition of goals, and on the other hand

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It is based on the six dimensions of strategy, customer
understanding, design, measurement, governance
and culture originally defined by the US company
Forrester. Since "strategy" is explained by "strategy"
in this definition, we use the following dimensions in
the CEX trend radar:
• Vision and leadership: What are really
differentiating experiences and how are they
communicated and adhered to through the
brand? What is the company's "CX story"? And
can every board member and every employee
tell it?
• Customer Understanding: How well does the
company understand methodically what
customers experience, what that means for
them and what values are associated with it? In
this context, we present a simple method as
part of our “Outside Insight” trend and outline its
degree of penetration in management.
• Design means design and has many facets. In
its extreme form (as Jan-Erik Baars explains in
his book “Leading Design”) it is an all-
encompassing design process for sustainable
competitive advantages. In the context of a CX
strategy, design means the knowledge and
ability to develop products and to design services
and the associated customer journeys into
differentiating customer experiences. In our
comments on the “Customer Journey Mapping
and Management” trend, we describe how this
works operationally today and how it can work
in the future.
• Measurement answers the question of how a
company can measure and control its
performance in customer experience
management and, above all, recognize the
effect. This is probably the most exciting question
for board members: "What's the point?" Under
the term "CX Management Cockpit" we are
going into the ideal composition of such a
management information system. And because
that's so important for management, it's also on
the radar at 12 o'clock.
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#3 CX STRATEGY
• Governance means "leadership" and "regulation"
and is certainly the least well-developed part of
a CX strategy in practice. This is about who is
actually responsible for the tasks associated
with customer experience management.
Because when it comes to truly differentiating
experiences, the entire organization needs to
be customer-centric.
• Finally, CX culture is self-explanatory.
How does an organization become customer-focused,
which employees does it have, who knows what and
who can do what.
Interfaces to other trends
The CX strategy has interfaces to all other trends.
Without strategy, these are just isolated building blocks
of a customer experience. They should be integrated
into an overall experience.
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
At a high level of maturity, a company has defined the
starting point and goals of CX management and
allocated the necessary resources. In our opinion, this
can only be achieved through the design and consistent
use of maturity models. This means that a company
must define at least four, if not five, company-specific
development stages for each of these dimensions.
The lowest level of maturity in each dimension is
based on a state of completely random (i.e. not
controlled) customer experiences. And the highest
level of maturity is based on world-class CX
management in the respective industry. That's where
it gets challenging. You have to develop something
like this for a specific industry. You can't do that in five
minutes. In the meantime, we have examined almost
ten industries in this way and the corresponding
maturity models are available, which are supplemented
with the new “world class” every year. For this we use,
for example, the dimensions of the CEX trend radar.
And once you've done that, it's a matter of carefully
analyzing where the company stands in terms of those
maturity levels. The most important stakeholders in
the company should then be determined
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decide which level of maturity they want to reach next, the year
after that, and the year after that. Such a strategy should be
defined analogous to the development cycles of the corporate
strategy. And then the real Sisyphus work begins: estimating and
budgeting for resources.
What's new this year?
Basically, we are surprised that the need for a multidimensionally
planned undertaking in 2022 has crystallized in several companies
(e.g. due to overworked service departments). Customer
experience does not only take place in marketing and sales.
Critical events often only arise when something does not work.
This makes it increasingly clear to competent management and
board members that the required “holism” must also be
operationally rationalised. However, since CX not only depends
on the development of key figures, but also causally on the
development of skills - both of individuals and of the organization
- there is a need for maturity models, such as those developed
by the consulting firm Gartner more than twenty years ago
Customer Relationship Management developed and has been
using ever since. In this context, we have developed a short
assessment of the CEX trend radar, which we are now testing in
various industries to check its everyday suitability for the further
development of the CX strategy.
Trend: CX strategy
24
#3 CX STRATEGY
How is the trend developing?
This is the hardest to predict for CX strategy (as it was in 2022)
of all the trends we have considered. We assume that it will take
a while before there is a cross-industry acceptance in the
management of large companies in the German-speaking
countries that every company that is not exactly the price leader
should have such a strategy.
However, that also depends a little on the status of the
implementation of the infrastructure. In 2023 we banned the
"CRM system" trend from the CEX trend radar, since such a
system must be viewed as a commodity and a prerequisite for
designed customer experiences. Because without customer
identification, it is just difficult to offer value-adding, differentiating
experiences for the right customers. And without this, you don't
earn any money with customer relationship management,
customer experience, customer success management or any
professional customer management whatsoever will be mentioned
with the next buzzword.
And that brings us to the answer to the question of why we
continue to classify the CX strategy at the “prototype” level with
individual “acceptance” characteristics in different sectors:
because such a link is only necessary recognized by a few large
companies in the DACH market. With the CX-Dialog event in
February, however, we try to give these companies a stage.
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feedback loop
Short definition:
Feedback means feedback and can be found in all
areas of our lives. Feedback controls our body as well
as technical and social systems. A loop, the term
comes from English, is a loop. According to this,
feedback loops are the continuous feedback from
customers and the subsequent reaction of the company
to the feedback, which is then hopefully followed by
further feedback from the customer. Ideally, an endless
loop of feedback, reaction, feedback, etc. Feedback
loops are vital for the customer experience; and we
mean that in the truest sense of the word. Without
feedback from customers, companies are lost in the
fog. Investments in products, customer journeys, in the
automation of dialogs - actually everything can fail if
customer feedback is not available or not taken into
account. Without a feedback loop – i.e. feedback from
the company back to the customer – customers perceive
the customer satisfaction survey (CSAT) and the
completion of questionnaires to determine the
willingness to recommend (NPS - Net Promoter Score)
as a lack of appreciation. Why should they give
feedback if they don't get any feedback on what the
companies make of it, how valuable the suggestions
were and perhaps also why some suggestions are not
implemented. Feedback loops are ongoing processes
that have to be supplied with enough "energy" from the
company so that they don't go to sleep and the findings
can flow into the development of new concepts, the
elimination of errors and optimization.
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#4 FEEDBACK LOOP
The collection of structured feedback has a long
tradition in most companies. Long before there was
customer experience, market researchers or the
companies themselves conducted surveys to determine
customer satisfaction. This toolbox is systematically
expanded by determining the NPS score or the
customer effort score. Unstructured information – eg
from conversation analyzes – has so far only been part
of feedback management in a few cases.
Interfaces to other trends
1 CX culture 2 CX innovation management 3 CX
strategy 6 Customer journey mapping/CJ management
9 CX Management Cockpit, 13 Customer Analytics
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
The first stage of collecting feedback based on
structured information is present in most companies.
However, this represents a low level of maturity in
terms of our definition. There is no systematic approach
to collecting unstructured feedback. Here, the majority
of companies are only at the beginning and - what is
even more important - the linking and analysis of the
data is missing. This is the only way that the knowledge
gained can then be used to implement measures for
employee coaching, training, the adaptation of the
websites, the dialogue with a chatbot, etc. To do this,
the data must be brought together on a customer data
platform, a data mart, and then uploaded to a CX
management cockpit and used.
At the moment, however, companies are more in
“hunter-gatherer” mode. The hunger for data, one of
the trends from the past year in our trend radar, is far
from being satisfied in 2023. Rather the opposite is the
case. Each further implemented system supplies new
and additional data, which is evaluated and viewed in
isolation.
See also the article on Outside Insight. The
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Fig.: Voice of the Customer evaluation; Image source: https://monkeylearn.com/blog/voice-of-customer-examples/
Gaining knowledge is fragmented, and the risk of not
seeing the CX forest for the trees is correspondingly
high. Another feature that we use to determine a high
level of maturity is feedback from customers - the icing
on the cake for achieving a high level of maturity. And
here, unfortunately, we see few initiatives to close the
loop for customers.
However, we find some companies here that already
have a high degree of maturity. An example of this is
the Signal Iduna insurance company, which very
systematically queries the TNPS and also feeds back
the improvements to the customers.
What's new this year?
"Same procedure as last year", to quote a saying from
a classic New Year's Eve sketch. More data is collected
from other touchpoints. Artificial Intelligence – such as
through Conversational Analytics – will actively help
companies to find further Er from unstructured data
26
#4 FEEDBACK LOOP
generate knowledge. Systems make it easier to
generate further feedback from customers. The QR
code made an incredible comeback in the Corona
Pandemic. It is also increasingly being used as a
feedback tool.
Train passengers can quickly and easily get rid of their
dissatisfaction with delays, closed on-board bistros or
the "entertaining" train attendants during the journey.
This is certainly one way of countering the growing
tiredness and listlessness of customers, filling out
questionnaires or answering questions on the phone
about their satisfaction with the ordering process. We
view this development with great skepticism. On the
one hand, because it is a flash in the pan, because
companies are already suffocating in the flood of data
and because there are still no closed loops with
feedback back to the customer. We do not expect any
significant change for the coming year.
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Trend: feedback loop
How is the trend developing?
More feedback towards the company yes; Feedback back to
the customer no. Development is stagnating and, in our opinion,
will not change significantly in the coming years. We have a
similar development in Trend 2 innovation management. In both
cases, there is still a lack of awareness of the concrete benefits
a feedback loop or systematic innovation management has for
the company. On average, we will not achieve more than the
stage of acceptance.
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#4 FEEDBACK LOOP
Until then, classic market research, sophisticated voice-of-the-
customer (VoC) and AI-supported customer analytics methods
will dominate. There is so much data that needs to be evaluated
- or has to - that there is no time to deal with the feedback to the
customers, to deal with the feedback of the feedback. This
qualitatively next step will only take place when companies
realize that even more data does not necessarily result in an
improvement in CX concepts.
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PEOPLE #5 EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT

Employee Experience Management

Short definition:

Customers expect a fast, competent and friendly Basically, employee experience is what the employee
solution to their request. The employees of a company experiences in the company. It is interesting to see
are usually responsible for this. which levers are used to really ensure a better
It is therefore important for a superior customer experience for employees.
experience that customer service employees are In this context, we would like to focus on the design of
productive and efficient. But they are only that if they the job itself, the design of the workplace and the tools
can develop experience and routine in their tasks. And used by the employees, as well as appreciation (e.g.
the prerequisite for this is that employees are satisfied, through awards and recognition).
remain in the company for a long time and build up a
high level of knowledge and competence. "Employee
Experience" is the basis for this positive phenomenon.
This fact was extensively investigated by a research
team from Harvard University in the late 1990s under
the term “service profit chain”.

Fig.: The service profit chain from Heskett et al.

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Interfaces to other trends
1 CX culture, 3 CX strategy, 5a CX governance, 8
value management, 9 CX management cockpit, 10
value irritant matrix, 11 multiexperience, 17 marketing
automation, 18 service cloud.
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
Let's start with the design of the job itself. Customers
expect competent contacts when they have an issue.
However, part of the competence is also the decision-
making scope that employees have in dealing with
the customer.
Long-term employees in particular are often good at
assessing whether the customer should receive a
replacement product or financial compensation in
order to solve the problem. A practical project at a
large telecommunications company showed that team
members in the contact center were even better able
to assess customer requirements than team leaders.
As a consequence, the front-line employees' financial
leeway was increased twenty-fold. The result was
clear. The total amount paid out did not change, but
more than 30 team leaders, who were previously only
busy with so-called “Give me your boss” calls, could
be deployed overnight for coaching and quality
assurance. The impact on customer satisfaction and
NPS was enormous.
A second area of action is the design of the workplace
and tools. This raises the question of what tools look
like that enable employees to fully exploit their attitude
and skills with customers. This applies to the
workplace as well as to IT systems. And this is where
the CRM system and the application in marketing,
sales and service come into play. Ideally, employees
enjoy using their applications. It is important that
employees find everything they need in customer
contact and that the applications are designed as
clearly and uniformly as possible. If employees in a
contact center have to use more than five systems
with different functionality, different UX and different
software environments to solve a customer problem,
Feh
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#5 EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT
ler in customer contact as well as long processing
times.
The topic of “appreciation” as part of a customer-
centric organization is theoretically the easiest to deal
with, but is not lived enough.
First, you need to establish which customer-centric
behaviors should be valued. Because the manifestation
in most companies is often very simple: “Think for the
customer and think ahead.” This is how a very
successful contact center manager of a large Swiss
financial service provider describes it. "We don't just
solve the customer's problem, we also explain why it
occurred and show how the customer can even fix it
themselves." This is reported within the company as
"Best Practice", there is the award of "Customer
Champions". Of course, that's nothing new: McDonald's
has been doing this with Employee of the Month for
decades. The question that arises here is whether the
recognition of individual achievements is culturally
anchored. In any case, there is a strong connection
to the CX culture here, since extrinsic incentives for
customer-centric behavior often have a
counterproductive effect. Or, as Forrester expert Dr.
Maxie Schmidt Sub ramanian recently expressed in
the podcast with Peter Pirner: "You don't reward a
pilot extra for having made a safe landing. That is
quite simply the job!”
What's new this year?
It is interesting that this trend is continuing the
movement that emerged last year, despite the difficult
times for management.
This is shown by our lighthouse projects at the
Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank and, above all, at
Helvetia Germany. You have made this question one
of the decisive selection criteria for the evaluation of
consulting and customer contact solutions. Without
the voice of the relevant employees, a system
evaluation is completely useless. Data is not entered,
the system is underused, there is no routine and no
experience that the organization can learn from
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rain. Decision-makers in mature organizations have now
internalized this fact. The importance of the user experience of a
system must therefore be conveyed and quantified. Agile
approaches in the project help enormously here. Through the
consistent use of agile methods and new communication tools
such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Slack, large companies in
particular are able to share and discuss prototypes of customer-
oriented systems with the employees concerned. This creates
acceptance and maybe even enthusiasm. Implementation
examples from the last CEX trend report also show very practically
that leeway is necessary for implementation so that the affected
tribes and squads are also adequately involved. In terms of
employee coaching, what tricontes360 does with digital auditing
is interesting. This is part of the AI-based solution «VIER
Interaction Analytics». Targeted conversation analyzes allow
GDPR-compliant recording and analysis of customer
conversations. The insights gained flow directly into digital
coaching of the employees, which ensures optimal customer
contact and service quality.
Trend: Employee Experience Management
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#5 EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT
How is the trend developing?
We expect this trend to catch on fairly quickly because the results
are measurable.
Especially when designing workplaces and tools, training time,
productivity and employee satisfaction can be measured and
controlled on the one hand, but also the throughput times of
customer-oriented processes on the other (see also CX
Management Cockpit). Therefore, a careful design based on
employee needs has become more and more standard over the
years. The current discussions, for example about working from
home or office obligations, will increasingly become superfluous
thanks to work equipment that can transparently show
performance and, in customer management, is certainly also
closely related to the availability of employee expertise. Here,
however, the development will depend heavily on the degree of
maturity of the management tools and a modern HR policy. This
means that large companies that see themselves as pioneers
when it comes to customer orientation will lead the way.
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CX governance
Short definition:
Governance generally refers to the control and
regulation system in the sense of structures (structural
and process organization) of the company. The term is
often used vaguely. CX governance is about regulating
the process of customer experience management in
the company. It therefore describes the ability of the
company to position itself organizationally in such a
way that continuous, differentiating customer
experiences are made possible.
The key question is: who actually does customer
experience management? It is true that most companies
have a department that is so named. However, their
impact depends heavily on how this department sees
itself and what hierarchical authority it is equipped with
on a day-to-day basis. The main focus here is whether
the customer experience plays a significant role in
investment or project decisions.
Interfaces to other trends
1 CX culture, 3 CX strategy, 5 employee experience
management, 6 customer journey management, 8
Value Management, 9 CX Management Cockpit, 11
Multixperience
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
Maybe we can start with understanding. A department
that is located on the third or even lower hierarchical
level in the “Marketing” area shows a typically low level
of maturity, which primarily deals with the recording
and design of customer journeys. A high degree of
maturity, on the other hand, would be a departmental
function that deals with the rules of customer orientation
on behalf of the CEO and enables other organizational
units to think and act systematically in the interests of
the customer.
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#5a CX GOVERNANCE
The founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, implemented
this in his company both systematically and
pragmatically. At each meeting, the now legendary
empty chair is placed at the table for the customer.
Each decision is also considered in terms of its impact
on the customer, and these considerations feed into
the final decision-making process. Now the question
arises as to how companies, most of which are still
managed inside-out today, set up powerful decision-
making bodies in which the customer is represented.
In this context, the role of an organizational "CX unit"
must change from "designer" to "enabler". But that also
means that CX managers have to see themselves as
change agents to a large extent. In this context, all
customer-oriented functions in marketing, sales and
service that work on optimizing the structure and
process organization (i.e. process design) should have
basic skills, for example in designing a customer
journey.
In this context, the problem of organizational silos must
be addressed again.
From the customer's point of view, a customer journey
is always continuous. Customers are interested in
solving their own problems, their jobs-to-be-done. They
are not interested in who has what task and responsibility
in the company. CX governance is therefore also about
organizational consistency and enabling this orientation
towards the customer's "jobs". Basic rules for employee
behavior such as “customer help before departmental
boundaries” are necessary in this context to make
something like this possible. At the same time, it is
important to define and, if necessary, expand the
(financial) scope of individual employees in order not
only to develop the organization in an agile manner, but
also to be able to act in an agile manner in individual
business transactions.
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What's new this year?
Lighthouse projects, such as the DPD project (Switzerland)
AG or smart Europe GmbH (from the CEX Trend Radar
2022), give us reason to hope that newly founded or re-
established companies on the "green field" in particular will
consider such CX governance considerations as part of
their business model from the outset establish. For
established companies, this is associated with an enormous
change. Here it is important that board members and
managing directors gain the insight that the strategy, which
is geared towards sustainably positive customer
experiences, will only succeed if it affects and encompasses
the entire company. Individual departments such as
marketing or customer service will do little here in isolation.
The customer must also be seen as a stakeholder in
EVERY investment and project decision, and the decisions
must also be based on the needs and demands of the
customer. This field of work is currently the subject of
heated debate at multinational insurance companies. The
discussion
Trend: CX governance
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#5a CX GOVERNANCE
However, in many CX work areas (see interfaces to other
trends) requires a fairly high degree of maturity as a
prerequisite in order to even be able to grasp the impact
that CX governance has on the overall project "customer
proximity" and "long-term profitable customer relationships".
How is the trend developing?
From the above it has become clear that the work area "CX-
Governance" defines the basic "rules of the game" of what
customer experience management means for an
organization. And that (still today) represents a departure
from the previous management for most companies. We
therefore assume that this trend (along with the CX culture,
trend #1) will evolve the slowest of all CX trends will
develop, since the need for such a radical rethinking is
often not yet seen.
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PROCESS #6 Customer Journey Mapping/CJ Management

Customer Journey Mapping/

CJ Management

Short definition:

As we understand it, customer journey management is: customer journey. The user experience is the experience
of operating a system or product.
In our opinion, the following three points are important
Understanding, analyzing, designing, managing for definition and understanding.
and optimizing person-specific, end-to-end
1. Customer journeys are not linear. In other words,
customer journeys across all touchpoints and
many representations of customer journeys
departmental boundaries.
suggest a linear, simple course that does not
correspond to reality.
With this definition, we go beyond many of the usual
descriptions and definitions in the market, which very
often only extend to the conclusion of the purchase. 2. Measuring points are absolutely necessary (e.g.
for determining cancellations, throughput times,
Customer journey mapping is the visualization of
deviating routes from planned customer trips or
customer journeys (both actual and target customer
volumes). Without the early integration of
journeys) from the point of view and the assessment of
measurements along the customer journey, it
the customer (persona-specific). All steps at all relevant
remains a theoretical exercise.
touchpoints are described in detail. The aim of the
customer journey map is to

3. The customer journey and not the individual

• Identify moments of pleasure and frustration in customers touchpoint is relevant for successful differentiation
no, in the market.

• identify the IT systems involved and necessary to Interfaces to other trends

support customers,
3 CX Strategy, 7 Outside Insight, 8 Value Management,
9 CX Management Cockpit, 10 Value Irritant
• to recognize existing transfer points/interfaces
Matrix, 11 Multiexperience, 12 Customer Data
between the departments,
Platforms, 13 Customer Analytics, 15 Conversational
• the employees the steps from customers
Automation, 16 CIAM, 17 Marketing Automation

to show transparently and
• to define measuring points for performance
measurement and customer analytics.
Unfortunately, “user experience” and “customer
experience” are often still used synonymously in this
context. As we understand it, customer experience is
the overall experience of the
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
The early bird catches the worm. This is how you can
currently describe the distinction between companies
with a high and low level of maturity quite well. EnBW
or HUK24, to name two German examples, started
years ago to systematically focus on customer journeys
and their mapping in

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to take care of their systems. Both companies rely
heavily on the digitization of processes and both
pursue a holistic CX concept.
Customer journeys in these companies have
existed for several years; the internal know-how,
the systematics and the systems used are at an
advanced level.
Low, you can also say very low, is the degree of
maturity in the healthcare system. If at all,
fragments of customer journeys are recognizable,
an end-to-end customer journey is hardly
recognizable anywhere. It is not necessarily the
sole fault of those involved. The legal framework
and the special protection of patient data make
customer journey management even more difficult.
A continuous customer journey from the doctor to
Fig.: Customer Journey Management framework, image source: cxomni https://cxomni.net/
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#6 Customer Journey Mapping/CJ Management
the health insurance company, the pharmacy, the
hospital or the rehabilitation clinic will therefore still
be a few years away. If customer journeys exist at
all, they are visualized and maintained in Microsoft
Office programs. However, the first signs of
consistent management in Switzerland can be
seen at the SWICA health insurance company.
What's new this year?
More integration and depth are the two priorities
we see when using customer journey management.
What does that mean specifically? Customer
journey management has outgrown its infancy in
visualization and is now viewed and used as an
indispensable working tool. As a consequence,
this means more software
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(in particular customer analytics and performance tools, cf. trend
no. 13 customer analytics) exists, to which the customer journey
management systems are docked. More depth means that more
variants, more details will find their way into the customer
journeys and that the customer journeys are intended to depict a
real end-to-end journey. In concrete terms, this can also mean
the inclusion of touchpoints outside of one's own company (such
as discussions between customers or the experience at a
retailer). Many customer journeys also start with an online search
on a search engine, in forums or blogs.
How is the trend developing?
Customer journey management is one of the few trends this
year that is developing very dynamically despite the adverse
framework conditions.
This is also because customer journey mapping is an ideal entry
point for understanding customers
Trend: Customer Journey Mapping/CJ Management
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#6 Customer Journey Mapping/CJ Management
concerns and thus represents the entire CX topic. Customer
journeys create commitment for everyone involved in CX in the
company, and they deliver concrete results against which the
design of solutions can be measured. All departments involved
can derive and implement their tasks from the customer journey.
The visualization tools become very powerful all-round systems
that develop into an operational CX management framework in
which many operational threads come together.
The dynamic growth is limited by the ability of the companies to
connect the relevant data sources to the systems and to
standardize the data on a customer data platform. If these
prerequisites are not met, it will be challenging to carry out
analyzes and implement operationally feasible customer journeys
with the existing systems. In the case of personalized customer
journeys across many touchpoints, a level of complexity is quickly
reached that is then very difficult to master.
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OutsideInsight
Short definition:
The definition of this trend is still unclear. It's not just
about the "Voice of the Customer" or customer
feedback. It is also about the systematic evaluation of
perspectives and an understanding of the long-term
values of the customer. It is important not only to ask
about the positive and negative experiences of
customers, but also to examine what consequences an
experience has for the perceived or real everyday life
of a customer, and to what extent the company sees
long-term values as a result understands and serves
the customer's goals or needs. We have therefore
decided to give this category a broader content and to
call it "Outside Insight".
By this we mean any form of measuring customer
perception of the company. Of course, this starts with
the standardized key figures of the Net Promotor Score
(NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Customer
Effort Score (CES). Their definition is well known, and
the corresponding metrics and their underlying customer
survey methodology are widely used. The NPS is now
part of the corporate management of almost 60% of the
world's listed companies.
Accordingly, most companies have already geared
their systems to the structured collection and processing
of customer feedback collected in key figures.
In addition, however, there is the question of including
unstructured feedback in the form of complaints and in
the form of ratings and reviews on Google, Facebook,
Amazon and other common online platforms. Social
listening is the key word here. The challenge here is
how these statements, mostly from disappointed, but
rarely enthusiastic customers, can be brought together
with the structured surveys carried out by the company
and integrated into the management of customer
experiences.
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#7 Outside Insight
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX strategy, 6 customer journey management, 8
Value Management, 9 CX Management Cockpit, 11
Multixperience, 12 Customer Data Platform, 13
Customer Analytics
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
Companies examine their customer journeys episodically
using metrics and unstructured feedback. At a low level
of maturity, neither the one nor the other is designed to
make sense. At a medium level of maturity, both
feedback methods are collected and evaluated, but not
combined for organizational or technical reasons (see
also Customer Data Platform). However, companies
usually manage to uncover grievances and poor
customer experiences and to optimize the overall
experience. You do the things that you do anyway as
part of customer journey management correctly. But
are you doing the right things? For example, the
question arises as to how knowledge about the episodes
of the customer journey came about and whether the
company is aware of the goals and values that a
customer is pursuing.
A high degree of maturity in this trend is characterized
by the fact that the individual episodes of the customer
journey were not researched using internal company
knowledge, but externally using suitable methods
directly on the customer. Methods such as the
“Sequential Incident Technique” (SIT) have been
available for decades. Especially when they are used
freely, for example for a telecommunications company
(“In what context did you first think of a new mobile
phone provider? What did you do then?”), the episodes
of the journey are based on the customers’ natural
episodic narrative styles .
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PROCESS #7 Outside Insight

At a very high level of maturity of this trend, a company can
not only determine the customer journey from the customer’s
point of view and determine where which customers
experience what, but also understand what a positive or
negative experience means for the customer’s everyday
life. If you now combine the SIT with the findings and
methods of the applied means-end analysis (i.e. that
products and services are always a means to a deeper goal
of the customer, cf. also Jüttner et al., 2013), customers
can be identified relatively easily ask about every experience
a) Whether this experience was perceived as positive or
negative
b) what this experience means for the everyday life of
the customer and
c) why exactly that is important to the customer.
The latter response represents the customer's needs,
goals, and values. You can get the knowledge about it
Use the positioning of your own brand and align the design
of products and services as well as the associated
experiences and communication accordingly.
What's new this year?
So it's about doing the right things from the customer's
perspective and doing those things right.
And it is precisely this fact that has so far been scarce.
Although financial and logistics service providers are in the
process of creating the necessary infrastructure, for example
by setting up customer advisory boards and panels, there
is a systematic feedback of the results of such “outside
insight” for customer-oriented decision-making (see also
CX governance). still too little considered. Above all,
individual aspects of the above-mentioned topics are still
not bundled enough in one place in the company under the
heading “Customer Insight Management”. We were
surprised that even in large companies there are mainly
technical difficulties, especially unstructured customer feeds

Laddering for private customers of a (cantonal) bank

Fig.: Jüttner, Schaffner, Windler, Hafner and Zimmermann 2012

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evaluate back. However, the ability to evaluate text is
essential for effective outside insight.
If you look at the implementation of the methods in
practice, you will find that customer research is often
still carried out according to the models of market
research. By this we mean anonymous surveys, no
individual filing of the results at customer level and,
above all, working with average values that does not
lead to the desired result. However, this depends very
much on the available methodological knowledge of
the individual organization. We were also surprised at
how much this methodological knowledge depends on
individuals and the status or initial acquisition of this very valid.
knowledge and is not managed in an organizational manner.
How is the trend developing?
Therefore, we find that this trend is moving from vision concrete experiences of the customer.
to acceptance today.
Many companies are aware that they need to "research"
their customers better, but still don't understand how.
With the broad discussion about methods and
procedures and the simpler implementation through
support with specific tools, we still assumed in 2022
that the
Trend: outside insight
#7 Outside Insight
trend is implemented relatively quickly compared to
other process issues. We were wrong in this forecast
for three reasons. First, the ability to systematically
and purposefully evaluate unstructured text feedback
and link it to structured information such as an NPS
score is still missing. AI can make the decisive
difference here. Secondly, the methods of market
research are still very dominant, people are asked
anonymously with large, feature-related questionnaires
and periodically. This costs customers time and the
company too much money. The reason given for this
is often that if you change the procedure, you no longer
have any time series information. However, this is not
From year to year, fewer customers will be willing to fill
out extensive questionnaires if they are not based on
Third, we find that an in-depth understanding of
customers' everyday lives and values is often not
viewed as “of primary interest”. Large companies in
particular prefer to talk about their own values today.
Few people realize that this is precisely how customer
experience and advertising/PR are decoupled from
one another.
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PROCESS #8 Value management

value management

Short definition:

With value management, the focus is on the overall
relationship with the customer. A relationship develops
when both partners know “what you have in each
other”. The term “customer value” is therefore two-
sided. Here we consider both the value of the company
for the customer and the value of the customer for the
company. Both must be in a balanced relationship so
that both the company and the customer perceive the
exchange as "fair" and sustainable value-adding. The
following figure also shows this.
For our readers who have been following our trend
forecasts from both Harald Henn and Nils Hafner for a
little longer: Yes, we've been talking about this since
the mid-2000s. And since last year we have included
this topic of “value management” in the trend radar
again, as companies are increasingly trying to control
this value exchange.

Fig.: The two perspectives of customer value

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What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
With regard to the customer value of the company for
the customer, the "outside insights" also result in
knowledge of the central goals and values of the
customers. And it is precisely these values of our
company that must now be brought together with the
value proposition of the customer and analyzed.
Businesses are increasingly realizing that creating
and delivering good customer experiences leads to
relationships with customers. And that such
relationships are based on the exchange of values.
Methodologically, value management has been well
developed since the mid-2000s. A company with a
high level of maturity in this field of work is able to use
suitable surveys to determine which value patterns
have which customer groups, and to address these
values systematically in corporate communications.
ESG (environmental, social, governance) issues that
are important for communication today arise from such
value patterns. It is important to know for which
customer groups these topics are relevant and which
customers, for example, react more positively to
product- or solution-centric communication because it
better suits their goals and values.
On the side of customer value for the company, every
manager is now aware that customer relationships
have a certain value that usually arises over the long
term. So a company needs to know for its existing
customers how profitable they have been in the past,
how profitable they will be in the future and how long
these relationships will last in the future. This is the
only way to evaluate the amount that can be invested
in the customer relationship in order to create
experiences that correspond exactly to the values and
needs of the customers. At a very high level of
maturity, companies can also carry out such a value
assessment for target customers and thus
systematically focus their marketing and acquisition
efforts on the right customers.
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#8 Value management
Interfaces to other trends
2 CX innovation management, 3 CX strategy, 5a
CX Governance, 6 Customer Journey Management, 7
Outside Insight, 9 CX Management Cockpit, 15
Conversational Automation and 17 Marketing Automati
on.
What's new this year?
What is new is that the values of the customers can
be derived in a standardized way from surveys. As
part of CX governance, the gap between customer
research, CX and marketing communication is
increasingly being closed. The question of “why do my
customers use my offers and not those of the
competition” is becoming a survival criterion, especially
in highly competitive markets. The first excellent
companies have recognized this.
At the same time, a lot has happened in the area of
determining the values of customer relationships for
the company in the past year. Manufacturers of CX
suites are also in the process of having customer
values, potential and churn probabilities calculated in
a standardized way using machine learning algorithms.
In this context, the customer base is analyzed with
regard to the characteristics of customers who have
left the company or who have bought additional or
more expensive services without any additional effort
for the company. However, this information must be
available at the customer level in order for the machine
to calculate. The latest research approaches at the
University of Friborg and at the Lucerne University of
Applied Sciences even assume that a certain degree
of imprecision (through the use of fuzzy logic) in these
calculations will bring better medium-term results for
controlling investments in marketing, sales and service
for the individual customer relationship .
These two aspects bring the fundamental considerations
of customer relationship management, the long-term
profitable control of CX initiatives and the design of
individual experiences for individual customers back
onto the management agenda.
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PROCESS #8 Value management

How is the trend developing?

We continue to assume that this trend will gain ground

comparatively quickly, as the demand for CX to be a profitable
corporate strategy and to deliver sustainable success is gradually
manifesting itself. The methods that companies use for evaluation
and the presentation of results are therefore of interest. At a high
level of maturity, companies can proceed semi-automatically here
and therefore often have a better basis for discussing investing
in CX than companies at a lower level of maturity. Should times
remain tense politically and economically for a longer period of
time, this will favor the implementation of this trend on the market.

Trend: value management

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CX Management Cockpit
Short definition:
The CX Management Cockpit is the switching and
control center of Customer Experience Management.
This is about measuring customer experiences in an
integrated way. It is important to reconcile the
customer's perspective with that of the processes and
the business results.
CX Management Cockpits play a central role when it
comes to achieving CX and business goals. However,
this only happens if the evaluations of the company's
performance by the customers and – through their
behavior – the influence on sales and costs are linked.
So, an ideal CX cockpit drives business results by
showing how improved survey metrics (eg, customer
satisfaction) correlate with a decrease in contact center
calls. If then the one with it
43
#9 CX Management Cockpit
associated cost savings are shown, those responsible
can better assess the value of customer experience
management and the associated optimization measures.
An instrument whose importance should not be
underestimated! This is also the reason why this trend
is at the center of the CEX trend radar, i.e. at "12
o'clock".
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX Strategy, 4 Feedback Loop, 5 EXM, 6 Customer
Journey Management, 7 Outside Insight, 8 Value
Management, 10 Value-Irritant-Matrix, 11 Multiexperience,
12 Customer Data Platform, 13 Customer Analytics, 15
Conversational Automation, 17 Marketing Automation,
18 Service Cloud.
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What is a high and what is a low observed level
of maturity?
The majority of companies already measure the
classic, behavior-related key figures such as NPS,
employees and customer satisfaction and, in rarer
cases, the customer effort score at a medium level of
maturity. At the operational level of the marketing,
sales and customer service departments, process-
related conversion rates, the first solution rate, service
level and the probability of termination are measured.
This may be a good guide for the individual
departments to manage their goals, but it does not
help to get a common picture of the degree of
implementation of the customer experience strategy,
since the connection, for example, between the first-
time resolution rate (FCR) and customer satisfaction,
as well as employee satisfaction and customer
satisfaction and the effect on profitability and growth
(which is of interest to senior management) cannot be
made transparent.
In order to be successful in customer experience,
key indicators must first be prioritized and related to
the contribution of the company strategy. Companies
that have successfully mastered this task are at a high
level of maturity.
What is particularly interesting is which procedural
operational key figures really have an impact on the
customer's assessment. Management with ratio-
based key figures, for example the number of value-
adding customer contacts or the self-service rate (see
also Trend No. 10 Value-Irritant-Matrix), the first-time
solution rate or the service costs per customer (see
Trend 18 Service Cloud). ) is not yet very widespread
in 2023. However, it is these key figures that provide
very good information about the medium and long-
term development of customer management with
regard to a differentiating CX
44
#9 CX Management Cockpit
and provide cost-effective service excellence.
An additional complication for effective CX
management is that many key figures collected are
touchpoint-related but not customer journey-related
(here there is a dependency on trend no. 6 customer
journey management). However, since customers
assess the customer journey as a whole (trend no. 11
multi-experience), a customer journey measurement
method is important – if possible in real time in order
to be able to react promptly.
What's new this year?
We gained significant insights into this trend in 2022.
And that is also urgently needed. In politically and
economically challenging times, those responsible for
customer experience have to answer the question of
the profitability of concepts and measures. To do this,
the collected data on customer behavior must be
related to the activities of the company. The
observation of NPS scores with the simultaneous
implementation of efficiency programs will therefore
strongly shape the picture in 2023. Against this
background, we tested the findings from theory and
practice in relation to excellent CX management
cockpits at several banks in a research project. The
conclusion of the project is that the "triad" of
performance indicators of the customer-oriented
company processes in marketing, sales and service
(1), behavior-related indicators such as NPS or CES
(2.) in combination (3.) with business indicators such
as sales or profitability development, segment growth
or cost development in customer management
represents a solid company-wide basis. The art,
however, is the selection of the right KPI. This can
only happen company-specifically. This perspective
also prevailed in the discussion of the project results
with around 60 companies from all sectors at the
MarketingTech Summit 2022 in Hamburg.
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PROCESS #9 CX Management Cockpit

How is the trend developing?

In our estimation, CX management cockpits will develop faster

than expected as an integrated management tool due to the
recession.
Although the hitherto weak understanding of cause-and-effect
chains in top management still stands in the way of very rapid
growth, board members and executives worldwide have
recognized that the area of customer management can be
measured and controlled in the same integrated way as
production or the finance department of a company. The degree
of acceptance required for this will be achieved this year in the
area covered by the sectors we have observed.

Trend: CX Management Cockpit

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Value Irritant Matrix
Short definition:
The Value Irritant Matrix was developed in 2006 by Bill
Price, Amazon's Chief Service Officer at the time, and
David Jaffe. It is an instrument for classifying customer
dialogues in terms of relevance. The authors assess
whether there is an interest in a dialogue from both the
customer's and the company's point of view. The basic
idea of successful customer service is to determine in
which dialogs the customer and the company are
interested in personal contact at the same time. This is
the only place where valuable discussions can take
place (upper right quadrant).
46
#10 Value Irritant Matrix
On the one hand, the matrix considers, from the
company's point of view, whether it is interested in a
personal dialogue with the customer from a service
point of view, because it can learn something about its
products and services, this gives rise to ideas for
savings, or because the contact creates an opportunity
to sell additional products or services.
On the other hand, the customer's perspective on the
dialogue is systematically taken. Is the customer really
interested in personal contact because he can get
answers to his questions or advice and ideally save
money, or does he see no need to get in touch with a
company and perceives the contact as time-consuming
and aggravating?
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If there is a divergence of interests (i.e. the customer
has a high interest in getting a solution to the problem
and the company regards this contact primarily as an
additional cost), the contact should be automated
through self-services. This is particularly exciting where
customers ask the same, recurring questions. In this
context, it is often about understanding how products
and services work.
However, the Value-Irritant Matrix also provides support
in the opposite case, in which the company relies on
the customer being in contact with the company and,
for example, disclosing or confirming certain information
with regard to compliance requirements. Customers
often find such contacts annoying. Here it is important
to simplify the contacts (such as a check-in or partial
contacts of a process such as a necessary identification
of the customer) as much as possible. The diverse
approaches in several industries to online self-on
boarding show the success of such efforts.
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX Strategy, 6 Customer Journey Management, 7
Outside Insight, 8 Value Management, 9 CX
Management Cockpit, 12 Customer Data Platform, 13
Customer Analytics, 15 Conversational Automation, 17
Marketing Automation and 18 Service Cloud.
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
The Value Irritant Matrix was originally developed in
the context of an online retail company with few
dialogue channels. Due to the increasing measurability
of the volume of incoming and outgoing communication,
it has also become possible, especially in the last five
years, to use the Value Irritant Matrix for a company
that interacts with customers via a variety of digital and
physical touchpoints. However, this is also where the
specific challenge lies, which ultimately determines the
degree of maturity and the applicability of the
methodology.
Of course, such an instrument can be used much more
precisely if the reasons for contact are recorded
completely across all touchpoints and the potential
costs and benefits associated with the contacts are
known in the company's accounts.
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#10 Value Irritant Matrix
But how can a company actually use this analysis tool?
The aim here is to read out the “jobs-to-be-done” from
the operative contact management systems. This also
makes it clear which customer concerns cause which
contact volumes. But the assignment to the quadrants
is company-specific. Would you like an example? While
a telecommunications company, for example, considers
a change of address by the customer to be primarily a
cost-generating process, an insurer (which traditionally
has far fewer customer contacts) will see its sales
opportunities since it can sell the customer household
or valuables insurance. It is therefore important to
understand the company's cost and revenue drivers in
depth. At the same time, however, it is important to be
able to realistically assess the customer's point of view
and his assessment of the "value" of the company's
individual dialogues. Above all, this is where the
interface to Trend No. 7 Outside Insight lies.
Value can only be created for the company in the form
of knowledge, saved costs and cross- or up-selling
where customers and companies are simultaneously
interested in a personal dialogue. But there are also
many questions:
• How exactly can dialogues be made more useful?
What does the improved customer experience
look like?
• What happens when many issues require
significantly less manpower? Where exactly do
the remaining dialogues require a changed
employee requirement profile and thus training?
What's new this year?
Interestingly, in the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, more
and more companies will deal with the issues addressed
here. We see many tenders, especially in retail and
banking, that require a CX and customer service
strategy (trend no. 3) and its technical implementation,
for example in a service cloud (trend no. 18) from the
systematic considerations of the contact want to make
allocation dependent on the Value-Irritant-Matrix.
Of course, the enormous investments in one also apply
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to justify functioning customer service through increasing added
value. After evaluating more than twenty practical projects, there
is now a good sense of realizable savings by avoiding unwanted
dialogs (approx. 6% of all dialogs over the year), simplification
(2-4% of all dialogs over the year) and automation (approx 9% of
all dialogues over the year). In terms of time and resources, this
potential can be reinvested in the establishment of higher added
value.
In the last twelve months, we ourselves have done a lot of
research into the design of the value-irritant matrix. On the one
hand, with a team of authors, we examined whether and how the
instrument can be used in the context of "smart
services" (Landmann et al., 2022) and on the other hand, we
found that the "automatable" quadrant is getting bigger and
bigger when, for example, bots (Trends No. 15) can also take
over parts of the sales process in dialogue with the customer
(Hundertmark et al. 2023 iP). We also researched which aspects
of automated dialogs should be emotionally charged from the
customer's point of view, and which rather less (Hundertmark &
Hafner, 2023 iP).
Trend: Value Irritant Matrix
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#10 Value Irritant Matrix
All in all, these developments are making it increasingly clear
that the question of a potential automation of customer dialogues
must be answered systematically and in relation to the business
case. The Value-Irritant-Matrix gives the first answers here.
However, it is important to subsequently implement the service
catalog structured by the matrix in an operating model and then
in concrete initiatives to improve the CX in automated and
personal customer dialogues.
How is the trend developing?
This trend will clearly continue in the coming months and years,
which are likely to be economically and politically challenging.
On the one hand, it is important to save costs. On the other hand,
especially in excellent companies, the view that the customer
experience decides in customer service is gaining ground.
As a result, even more companies will start to justify investments
in a functioning customer service through increasing value
creation (faster learning or increased cross-selling income). The
Value-Irritant-Matrix is therefore a strategic tool that management
has to deal with as the number of touchpoints increases so that
all efforts in CX management are not wasted through poor
contact management.
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multi-experience
Short definition:
In 2022, Gartner – as a market research and leading IT
analyst company – coined the term multi-experience.
The aim is to replace the technological approach
inherent in the word "omnichannel" with the customer-
oriented approach of multiple "experience". In this
context, “multi” can be described as “building on one
another”. Instead of customers getting used to evolving
technologies, technology will evolve to better understand
people. And we have been very happy to replace the
term omnichannel with the term multiexperience since
2022.
The “Omni” stood for the coordination and orchestration
of the previously existing touchpoints for end-to-end
conversations. Customers expect and expect companies
to enable an end-to-end and consistent customer
journey. As a concept, multi-experience involves
enormous requirements in terms of the integration of
the touchpoints in terms of data management, the real-
time integration of data from different systems, and
ensuring the consistency of the data at every touchpoint
along the customer journey. A customer data platform
(cf.
Trend No. 12 CDP) and systematic customer journey
management are essential for this from a technological
and organizational point of view.
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX Strategy, 5a CX Governance, 6 Customer Journey
Mapping/CJ Management, 7 Outside Insight, 8 Value
Management, 9 CX Management Cockpit, 12 Customer
Data Platform, 17 Marketing Automation, 18 Service
Cloud
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
A low level of maturity in this trend is still the
Rule: The classic inside-out view based on “marketing”
via “channels” on the customers and the
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#11 Multi-experience
The extensive organization of large companies into the
departments "Marketing", "Sales" and "Customer
Service" is only changing very slowly. These are also
often divided into “online” and “offline” teams. Internal
organizational structures, competencies and the
delimitation of responsibilities are directly opposed to
the demands of customer experience.
The basis for multiexperience is the outside-in
perspective (see also trend no. 7 outside in sight) and
thus detailed knowledge of the customer journey - with
a clear focus on the customer's effort for the product
and service evaluation, the purchase and to reduce the
answering of the associated questions. At a medium
level of maturity, the primary goal is to support the
customer in solving his problem, his question. There is
a "jobs-to-be-done approach" instead of "building in"
moments of surprise or wow for the customer. Customer
experience management has the task of ensuring the
basic and hygiene factors in dialogue with customers.
Enthusiasm factors are optional, not mandatory. A good
example here is the Austrian company Raiffeisen Digital,
which is successfully trying to avoid overcontacting
customers with its “Signalcontainer” project.
From our point of view, multi-experience concepts
require strong networking with customer journey
management, i.e. the organizational orchestration of a
customer journey along the various touchpoints (see
also trend no. 6 customer journey management/customer
journey mapping) and a powerful “real-time -IT".
If applied consistently, such a multiexperience
management could be divided into the customer-related
activities “content”, “conversion” and “conversation” with
a high degree of maturity.
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Fig.: Customer journey and responsibilities according to the multiexperience principle
All three work areas span the customer journey and
relate to every phase of influencing the customer's
decision for a company. A closer look reveals that
“conversion”, i.e. the systematic analysis of cross-
and up-selling as well as other sales opportunities,
is a central area of responsibility even after the first
signing of a contract or the first product purchase.
This insight is usually associated with the conception
of rule-based outbound activities and marketing
automation. The ongoing review of the customer
relationship for possible added value for the company
and the customer is therefore a core task in the
context of multiexperience. Of course, content is
required for this. The earlier in the customer journey,
the greater the importance of this content in
influencing the customer's decisions in favor of the
company. This begins with the question of how the
company and its solutions “get into the minds of the
customers.” An analysis of the basic value patterns
of the customers as part of a “laddering” provides
insights into values, needs and motivations. The
“Conversation” workspace at the end plays this
content to the customer for problem-solving purposes.
Here the main focus is on the time
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#11 Multi-experience
of the customer and his effort, while the company
answers questions and solves problems. It is
important to strategically decide, for example with
the help of the Value-Irritant-Matrix (cf. Trend 10),
which dialogs are to be automated (cf.
Trend 15) and which are so valuable that either a
very good customer experience is created here, the
company can learn something or the dialogue has
to be conducted in a sales-oriented manner from the
point of view of "conversion".
What's new this year?
Unfortunately not much. CX specialists complain
about the persistent silo mentality. But even the
implementation of CX initiatives in more and more
agile teams made up of different departments cannot
hide the fundamental gap. Although we repeatedly
spoke to medium-sized and larger companies about
this approach in 2022, there is no sign of movement.
However, we are also noticing that more is being
published about this trend (e.g. Daniel Renggli in
“Marketing Börse” on August 22). Automobile
companies such as Opel or VW, which announced
some time ago that they would combine marketing,
sales and service, or the newly founded smart
Europe GmbH, are at a high level of maturity.
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which is based on the customer journey from the
outset. Various branch banks are also discussing
what such an integrated approach could look like.
Unfortunately, the service center is often excluded
from the central considerations here. Naturally,
companies that sell centrally (e.g. via an e-shop)
have an advantage.
How is the trend developing?
of an integrated implementation approach in the
various sectors. E-commerce and digitized business
models are very advanced (due to the lack of a
decentralized sales organization). In other industries,
the realization that a customer journey orchestrated
from the customer's point of view is necessary is
only slowly beginning to emerge.

The technology and the management tools for such

a change in the direction of multi-experience are
already fully documented today. Stimulating the
change in people's minds and implementing it in
the organization will be the task of the coming
years. It is often about a redistribution of power and
influence in the company. We continue to see a
wide spread in the CEX trend radar, ranging from
prototype to standard. This can be explained by
awareness and necessity

Trend: multi-experience

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CX ecosystems/platforms
Short definition:
CX ecosystems are characterized by a focus on specific
customer environments. Living environments can be,
for example, health, housing, mobility or financial
investments/financing. They include products and
services from several partners/companies - e.g. on the
subject of health: preventive care, doctor visits, hospital
stays, rehabilitation clinics, health insurance or
pharmacies - and are based on technological platforms
that allow the exchange of data from different partners
and functions such as shopping, payment , logistics or
customer service and orchestrate them. When we talk
about CX ecosystems below, we mean platform-based
CX ecosystems.
From the company's point of view, the goal is to make
it as easy as possible for customers to find information,
obtain information, shop, and use the service. You want
to become the platform of choice for customers for a
specific topic. Simplicity, convenience and time savings
are powerful drivers of loyalty to a CX ecosystem or
company. Positive experiences – let's take Amazon as
an example once again – can help increase customers'
price tolerance. The factors of convenience, time saving
and customer service balance price differences up to a
certain point.
This effect can be transferred to other CX ecosystems.
With excellent implementation, successful ecosystems
can assume a dominant position in the market.
From the company's point of view, the relationship
structure, the networking and orchestration of the
partners in a CX ecosystem guarantees that the
partners involved are able to cover customer needs
that they cannot offer on their own. They often get
better market access to customers and functionalities
that would be too costly to implement on their own.
From a customer experience perspective
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#11a CX ecosystems/platforms
A deep understanding of customer behavior, preferred
touchpoints and customer journeys in this CX ecosystem
is crucial. Of overriding importance is the ability of the
participating companies with their different offers to fill
roles and to synchronize themselves.
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX strategy, 5a CX governance, 6 customer journey
mapping/CJ management, 11 multiexperience, 12
customer data platforms, 13 customer analytics, 16
CIAM.
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
Companies have historically been very focused on
keeping their ideas to themselves. Now a rethinking
begins. It is often easier to develop innovations together
with other companies, to cooperate in order to assert
oneself in the market and to meet customer
requirements. Focusing on the positive customer
experience, understanding what the customer wants to
achieve - the job-to-be-done principle must be the
starting point for a CX ecosystem. This thinking from
the customer's point of view, but also the conception
and construction of technological platforms, are lengthy
processes. There are no simple blueprints and recipes
to transfer Amazon, Apple or WeChat strategies to your
own conception. In this respect, we see a large number
of good approaches and initial pilots in the DACH
region; However, it does not yet have a high level of
maturity comparable to the Amazon ecosystem.
Packages for everything to do with cars, homes, health
or investments are only to be expected in the future.
Prototypes such as the Mercedes me example shown
below show a good approach to bundling and integrating
services on a central platform for the customer.
However, many functions, such as communication with
the partners involved, are still rudimentary.
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Fig.: Mercedes me: development from app to ecosystem; Image source: mercedes https://group.mercedes-benz.com/innovation/
drive-systems/electric/eq-ecosystem.html
Booking a workshop appointment, a direct chat with
the charging station operator, integrated payment and
service functions are either only rudimentary or not
yet implemented consistently. There's still a lot of
room for improvement.
What's new this year?
What we clearly see is the trend of software
providers offering appropriate platforms for building
and operating CX ecosystems.
And there are first prototypes of CX ecosystems
in the banking, insurance and mobility industries
as well as from energy suppliers (here the Smart
Home area). These first steps are not immediately
complete CX ecosystems, but can also mean
cooperation with two or three partners in
intermediate steps - an evolutionary development,
but not a revolution. This development can be
seen in both B2C and B2B and is also due to the
fact that companies are very risk-aware and
cautious when approaching this topic.
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#11a CX ecosystems/platforms
This trend is new this year.
We talked for a long time about what this is about
and sharpened this trend in countless one-on-one
conversations. It seems important to us that the
providers of large CX systems in particular are
able to develop communities that exchange and
network with each other on the basis of concrete
work results. This networking takes place in an
ecosystem. For example, our partner BSI collects
the AI applications (called brains) and the
marketing automation steps in its customer suite
that were developed together with customers or
technology partners, and thus makes them
available again to the user community. The
ecosystem is therefore developing successively
through the expansions within the BSI Customer
Suite, but also through exchanges in industry
communities. Thanks to no- or low-code
applications, users can develop process steps and
automations in a configurable manner, which can then flow
This topic is interesting when the ecosystems
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PROCESS
opened to third parties using APIs. The lighthouse
project from last year at smart Europe clearly shows
that technology is often only able to support multi-
experience setups in real time if providers are able
to network their solutions with each other and get
them running in such a way that integrated
processes from the company's point of view and
reduced-effort journeys from the customer's point
of view become possible. Industry initiatives such
as "FRIDA" in the area of insurance are also trying
to speed up development here. (https://www.bsi-
software.com/de-ch/live/post/open-insurance-fri da-
schafft-innovation)
How is the trend developing?
The motto is to cautiously grope your way forward.
As long as the existing business model is not
threatened, the companies will only proceed step
by step. start-up companies with
Trend: CX ecosystems/platforms
54
#11a CX ecosystems/platforms
a “greenfield approach”, on the other hand, are
more innovative. The further development of this
trend can be clearly observed using our Mercedes
me example. The Mercedes Benz Group has
systematically expanded the app introduced in
2015 and laid the foundation for a CX ecosystem.
With Reach Now or the Moovel app for mobility
services, there are further building blocks for a CX
ecosystem. We see this development analogously
for other sectors such as banks. They take the first
steps without completely calling the existing
business model into question. CX ecosystems are
complex and extensive constructs that pose a
challenge to the IT architecture. The orchestration
and marketing are also not self-perpetuating. With
no pool of experience for marketing and sales
leaders to build on, there will be a "trial and error"
approach that will not allow this trend to evolve
rapidly over the next few years.
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TECHNOLOGY

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TECHNOLOGY #12 Customer Data Platform

Customer Data Platform

Short definition:

Customer Data Platform is a term coined by David Raab
of the Customer Data Platform Institute.
“A Customer Data Platform is packaged software that
creates a persistent, unified customer database that
is accessible to other systems.”
Translated into German, this means:
An integrated customer data platform that generates
a permanent, uniform customer database and that is
accessible to other systems (e.g. marketing
automation, campaign management) in which actions
are carried out.
This definition is heavily influenced by marketing
departments and their desire for customer engagement
and real-time interaction as well
• a 360 degree view
• immediate availability at any time
• and executability without an IT department.
Customer data platforms are operated and used by the
specialist department, not by IT. What is striking about
the definition and description is the strong focus on
marketing. This is where the suffering was and is probably
greatest. From the point of view of those responsible for
marketing and sales, neither data warehouse, data mart
nor CRM systems adequately cover the requirements
listed above.
“A customer data platform is an end-to-end system
managed by marketing, sales, finance and customer
service that creates a persistent, unified customer
database that is accessible to receiving systems in
real time.”
One more note on the terminology Customer Data
Platform. As with many technologies, there are a variety
of terms that are used and essentially describe a customer
data platform. Master Data Management (MDM), Customer
Database, Data Management Platform and many more.
There is a degree of Babylonian confusion of tongues.
Many companies have a CDP platform, but call it
something completely different internally. They may at
times deviate from the ideal state of our definition, but
there is a common basis.
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX Strategy, 5 EXM, 6 Customer Journey Mapping/
CJ Management, 11 Multiexperience, 11a CX ecosystems/
platforms, 13 Customer Analytics, 15 Conversational
Automation, 16 CIAM, 17 Marketing Automation, 18
Service Cloud

From the point of view of customer experience, we have

therefore expanded what we believe to be a too narrow
definition:

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TECHNOLOGY #12 Customer Data Platform

Fig.: CDP solution from SAP; Image source: SAP

What is a high and what is a low observed level

of maturity?
Online trading, e-commerce and all companies
that rely on a high level of professionalism in
personalized addressing based on campaign
management solutions or marketing automation
software usually also use a CDP. However, the
degree of maturity cannot only be determined by
industries, but also by the strategic orientation of
the company. Our lighthouse project from last year
- smart Europe GmbH - has a clearly formulated
CX strategy and a consistent implementation concept.
This also includes a systematic approach to the
systems. At smart Europe, the Customer Data
Platform forms the basis for operative marketing,
customer service management and much more.
The less pronounced and complex the customer
journeys are, the fewer touchpoints - and in this together
hang mainly digital touchpoints - are used, the
fewer marketing automation systems are used, the
less the use of customer data platforms. This can
be observed regardless of industries or the
distinction between B2C and B2B.
What's new this year?
Expansion and conversion: This is the motto for
the further development of the customer data
platforms in 2023. Expand because the restriction
to marketing applications such as marketing
automation does not go far enough when, for
example, sales and customer service applications
also need easy access to all customer data in real
time.

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TECHNOLOGY
How is the trend developing?
Although many companies already operate a customer data
platform - often under other names such as customer database,
data mart, master data management - there is a lot of dynamism
here. There are several reasons for this. Those responsible for
customer experience also want to use the customer data in these
systems in customer service and in an end-to-end concept. And
they have to consider new requirements such as CIAM (Customer
Identity and Access Management, Trend #16). This means that
existing systems are expanded as far as this is technologically
possible
Trend: Customer Data Platform
58
#12 Customer Data Platform
must. In the future, many more data sources on the one hand
and operational CX systems on the other will be connected to
customer data platforms.
If the existing systems reach their limits, replacement investments
are necessary. Exactly this market development can be observed
at the moment. The replacement of existing systems as well as
expansion will determine the trend over the next few years. This
explains why development appears to be stable and static.
The momentum is actually much higher than other trends;
however, conversion or expansion is not visually recognizable in
the trend radar.
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TECHNOLOGY #13 Customer Analytics

Customer Analytics

Short definition: What is a high and what is a low observed level of

Customer analytics - often referred to as customer
analysis in German - is the systematic process of
collecting and analyzing customer behavior data across
all touchpoints and interactions. Customer analytics
provides the data and basis for decision-making for
optimizing customer journeys, identifying profitable
customers and showing changes in customer behavior.
In order to use customer analytics processes and
software systems, companies must use techniques
such as data collection and segmentation, modelling,
data visualization, statistical processes and much more.
More than in all other trending topics in the technology
category, expertise in the application and interpretation
of the data is a mandatory requirement.
maturity?
In order to assess the degree of maturity of this trend,
we assume an integrated use of different measurement
methods. This means that data from as many relevant
digital and analog touchpoints as possible are recorded
and analyzed to provide a comprehensive picture of
customer interactions.
These integrated approaches can be found in
companies where a digital customer journey, a
personalized approach and efficient customer service
have a direct impact on sales and profits.
Above all, companies with a digitized and online-based
business model such as direct insurance, streaming
services and direct 2consumer companies are therefore
pioneers in the use of customer analytics.

The goal of customer analytics is to obtain a unified, Where continuous, cross-departmental customer
detailed view of customer interactions, which then journeys do not exist, but where the classic organization
forms the basis for optimizing customer experience by departments - marketing, sales, customer service -
strategies. prevails and digital processes play a subordinate role,
A challenge arises from the large number of systems integrated customer analytics systems are hardly to be
used, the different measuring methods, measuring found.
points and touchpoints as well as from the mix of
analogue and digital interactions. An analysis of the
customer data from different systems and the large
amount of data is only possible if the different data
sources are merged into a uniform database. Customer
data platforms are predestined to take on this role when
using fragmented data sources.

Interfaces to other trends

3 CX Strategy, 6 Customer Journey Mapping/CJ

Management, 7 Outside Insight, 8 Value Management, 9
CX Management Cockpit, 12 Customer Data Platform,
17 Marketing Automation, 18 Service Cloud

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TECHNOLOGY
Fig.: Customer Journey Analytics Software, image source: BSI
What's new this year?
The hunger for data continues to grow, but now
another dimension is added. Those responsible for
customer experience increasingly want and need to
answer the question of the cost-effectiveness of
concepts and measures. To do this, the collected data
and the values of customer behavior must be related
to each other. Data from different, fragmented data
sources must be standardized and appropriate
derivations made from the analyses. Customer
journeys in customer service, for example, can look
completely different depending on the customer value,
and the designed processes for an online order can
differ significantly from reality. The providers of
customer analytics systems try to meet the above
challenges by acquiring specialized companies or
expanding the functions by acquiring, processing and
analyzing data as comprehensively as possible
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#13 Customer Analytics
Enable analysis in an integrated system.
As a result, the systems are becoming more and more
powerful in terms of their range of functions, but at the
same time they are also more expensive to purchase
and only attractive for larger companies. Individual
solutions such as customer journey analytics will
therefore still have a strong impact on the picture in 2023.
The visualization of customer journeys and the use of
AI-supported methods for forecasting customer
behavior make the work of those responsible for CX
easier. Ultimately, however, the process of customer
analysis cannot be completely automated or
accelerated. Employees in the customer analytics
teams and their professional competence are the
limiting factor for further development; Analyzing,
forming hypotheses, testing, implementation in
customer journeys, etc. are time-consuming. The use
of analytical systems alongside the brand is particularly exciting
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TECHNOLOGY
ting automation (trend no. 17) also in customer service. In field
service in particular, there is great potential if, for example,
periodic service intervals with "predictive servicing" can be
replaced by flexible, needs-based service intervals in which the
use of sensors and algorithms calculates when a service team is
called becomes necessary, for example, to replace wearing parts.
Trending: customer analytics
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#13 Customer Analytics
How is the trend developing?
The further use of customer analytics is influenced by the ability
of companies to connect the relevant data sources to the
systems, to standardize the data on a customer data platform, to
carry out analyzes and to implement the recommendations
derived from them. A development that cannot progress quickly
in view of the volume of data, the number of different data
sources, the complexity of customer journeys and the specialist
expertise required to analyze the data.
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TECHNOLOGY
Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality/
metaverse
Short definition:
By definition, Virtual Reality (VR) refers to the creation
of a computer-generated virtual world, such as that
used in gaming.
In augmented reality (AR) , on the other hand, reality
is augmented with computer-generated objects, a kind
of 'enhanced' version of the physical world that is
technologically enriched through the use of digital visual
elements, videos or sound.
Together, the two technologies are considered mixed
reality. Augmented Reality is used to enrich the
customer's view of the existing physical world. When it
comes to customer experience, augmented reality is
more prevalent than virtual reality. Companies in the
B2B sector were the first to adopt AR in customer
service, while sales and marketing and the B2C sector
lagged behind.
Augmented reality or extended reality can be used in
customer contact, for example for product
demonstrations. AR/VR technologies fulfill an important
function in the customer journey. They convey security
in the purchasing decision phase. Whether an armchair
really goes with the existing furniture, for example, and
how it fits into the living room, a customer usually only
knows when the armchair he has bought is unpacked
and in its place. With AR/VR, this image can be
generated virtually in front of the customer's eyes and
conveys an almost realistic impression. In this way, the
customer receives support in his purchase decision.
In customer service, AR/VR accelerates the solution
process. For example, if there is a problem with the
cooling settings on a milling machine, a customer
service representative can use the High
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#14 Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality/Metaverse
Tech-Glasses analyze together with the customer what
the problem is and solve it. This is significantly more
efficient and more satisfying for the customers, since
they are virtually “taken by the hand” and do not have
to look for the information or the solution on their own.
This takes the customer experience to a whole new
level.
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX strategy, 6 customer journey management, 7
Outside Insight, 9 CX Management Cockpit, 11 Multix
perience, 18 Service Cloud
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
AR/VR and video-assisted support are an accepted
solution in B2B customer service , which pays off for
companies through quick solutions to problems and
also through time savings in instruction and training for
new machines and systems. AR/VR technologies meet
customer expectations and save costs. Misunderstandings
are not uncommon on the phone, especially when
servicing processes or products that require explanation.
AR/VR systems shorten telephone calls and avoid
some on-site appointments by the customer service
technician, because the service employee is virtually at
the machine via the customer’s smartphone in advance
and recognizes whether an appointment is necessary
at all or whether the problem is solved can be solved
remotely with instructions via video, sound or image.
Rapid ROI in B2B customer service is a driver for AR/
VR and video.
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TECHNOLOGY
In the B2C area, AR/VR solutions are more likely
to be used in sales. The point here is to make the
customer experience offered by the new product
tangible in advance, virtually and digitally. Retailers
such as ALDI or IKEA have made great progress
with the application in recent years.
What's new this year?
Technologies are becoming easier to use. Thanks
to providers such as Apple with the ARkit
development tool (https://developer.apple.com/
augmented-reality/quick-look/) the creation of AR
applications is easy and inexpensive. Companies
can choose from a wide range of offers on the
market, which are designed for different applications
Fig.: Use of AR in customer service for systems; Source: https://3dqr.de/
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#14 Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality/Metaverse
offer cost-effective systems for creating your own
applications. AR/VR is now a stable and mature
technology. Innovations are less to be expected on
the technology side than in the use cases for
customers.
The term metaverse appears for the first time on
the Gartner Hype Cycle for emerging technology.
The term metaverse itself is not clearly defined.
There isn't THE Metaverse either. Rather, Metaverse is a
Term for an ecosystem on a virtual platform on
which people can meet, collaborate and also trade
digital goods and services economically. Although
a metaverse is virtual, it sometimes has smooth
transitions into the physical world.
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TECHNOLOGY #14 Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality/Metaverse

To put it another way, the Metaverse is a different
way of going online. By moving through virtual
worlds as a character (an “avatar”) and interacting
with other people or companies, the Internet
becomes more “three-dimensional”. It is important
to note that the control of avatars in two-dimensional
space in computer games has been around for
decades. What is new about the Metaverse is that
meeting places and marketplaces are being created
here, where a different form of customer experience
will be created. The American entrepreneur Marc
Zuckerberg, who renamed his company from
"Facebook" to "Meta", has become the advocate of
this trend. However, Gartner assumes with the hype
cycle that the development to a mature metaverse
will take more than ten years.
How many things are currently being tried out can
be seen, for example, in the first bank branch of
Bank JP Morgan in “Decentraland”, in which a tiger
can be seen next to the avatars of customers and
employees. Whether one expects one in a bank
branch and whether it improves the customer
experience remains questionable. The interesting
thing is that this "bank branch" is integrated into a of large companies like Meta, attention for experience
"decentraland" ecosystem (cf. trend no. 11a "ecosystems/platforms).
In contrast, the Metaverse approach of the German
Degussa Bank is not ecosystem-based. Several
branches were permanently closed here during the
COVID pandemic and replaced by a "digital bank
shop". A two-dimensional representation
A separate platform shows a circular branch of a
bank, through which customers can use an avatar
to go to counters and advice centers. By means of
a connection to the Microsoft Teams solution, real
consultants are available medially for a service.
Customers receive the same service here as in
Degussa Bank's physical bank shops by telephone
or video consultation - a very intelligent application.
How is the trend developing?
The predicted faster penetration in the market - here
especially in the B2B market - is overlaid by the
overall economic situation and the increasing
question of the profitability of solutions for customer
experience. In the B2B customer service environment,
the ROI is calculable and the amortization times are
short. The ROI of AR/VR applications in marketing
and sales in the B2C sector is more difficult to prove.
It remains questionable whether ALDI will sell more
tents, paddle boats or inflatable swimming pools
through the use of its augmented reality brochures.
However, due to the communicative market power
topics in the Metaverse is increasing.

Trend: augmented reality/virtual reality/metaverse

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TECHNOLOGY
Conversational Automation
Short definition:
Conversational automation stands for a category of
solutions that harness the power of AI to help companies
deliver automated conversational opportunities. The
dialogs themselves can be either fully automated or
partially automated on different platforms and systems,
e.g
Instant messengers, live chat, chatbots, voicebots,
voice assistants, smart speakers, video collaboration
take place.
Important for the classification of these technologies in
In our opinion, customer experience concepts are the
following:
Long-term successful implementations can only be
successful on the basis of an individually created Value
Irritant Matrix for the company (see also Trend No. 10
Value Irritant Matrix). Only if both sides - customer and
company - see an advantage and benefit in an
automated dialog for certain applications, this technology
brings the desired success.
The current hype about these technologies must not
obscure the relative share of the total communication
volume. We are still in the single-digit percentage range
as far as the volume of conversational automation
systems is concerned. For comparison: 60-80% of the
volume of customer communication is still handled over
the phone, as the Service Excellence Cockpit shows.
Yes, chatbots have now entered the consciousness of
management and the public. Proof of this is that the
magazine “Computer Bild” published an article on the
evaluation of digital assistants in its November issue.
The newspaper writes: “Digital assistants are practical
for many customers and everyone who wants to
become one. Users are happy to turn to the helpers
who are always available to get the information they
need quickly and conveniently
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#15 Conversational Automation
information and services without having to wait a long
time on a hotline or clicking through confusing
homepages”. Customer acceptance is definitely no
longer a stumbling block.
Overestimated in the short term, underestimated in
the long term: This statement applies to many new
technologies during the hype phase, but it is particularly
evident in the case of conversational automation.
According to the forecasts of some analysts, chat bots
should have processed 80% of all customer service
requests two to three years ago: an interesting
misjudgment. And making a forecast on the basis of
the chatbots implemented today – often purely rule-
based – is just as error-prone.
New technologies based on broadly supported
foundation models that are no longer developed purely
application-related (such as ChatGPT in the area of
digital assistants) make forecasts that are extrapolated
linearly into the future look very old overnight.
Conclusion: We are facing an exponential development
in the use of conversational automation and will have
to adjust our forecasts again and again in a very timely
manner.
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX Strategy 6 Customer Journey Mapping/CJ
Management, 9 CX Management Cockpit 10 , Value
Irritant Matrix, 12 Customer Data Platforms, 15 CIAM, 17
Marketing Automation, 18 Service Cloud
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
The corona pandemic and multiple crises have
rocketed conversational automation to new heights. At
the latest since the November article in Computer Bild
and the classification/evaluation of chatbots and co, it
has been clear that conversational automation is used
across industries, from corporations to
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TECHNOLOGY
small medium-sized company, is used. Municipal
utilities, otherwise not exactly a haven for
innovations, use chat bots for simple, high-volume
service requests such as meter reading reports.
Online retailers use chatbots to automate status
inquiries about shipping. It is the simple, recurring
facts that are taken over by chatbots and co in the
first step. We find that the integration of chatbots in
CRM or customer service clouds is still very
different. A personalized approach based on
customer-specific data can only be found in some
advanced implementations. And even when it
comes to dialogue, the chatbots are still at very low
levels. Lots of room for improvement! ChatGPT will
make big leaps forward in dialogue management.
And very quickly if you look at the current
development.
Fig.: Schematic representation of conversational automation, image source: VIER
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#15 Conversational Automation
What's new this year?
Since November 30, 2022, the common and
prevailing world view of conversational automation
technologies and AI in general has been shaken
up. And honestly, very few of us know whether we
should love or fear this new world. The reason is
the announcement of GPT 3, a generative AI
language model.
The ChatGPT-3 application based on it was
published by OpenAI on November 30th, 2022 and
has been freely accessible to everyone since that time.
ChatGPT is based on broadly supported foundation
models, which are no longer developed in a purely
application-related manner. It is designed to
conduct human-like conversations, even on
complex issues. It can therefore be used in many
areas of a company (such as customer service)
where human-like communication is required.
Complete dialogues with queries from the chatbot,
with understanding of the context, are now possible.
Even experts are amazed at the dialogue quality.
However, it is important that the company's specific
knowledge of its own products and solutions is also
available for models such as ChatGPT.
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TECHNOLOGY
Based on ChatGPT-3 and other future releases, many providers
will set up their own solution. For example, Microsoft will provide
its search engine based on ChatGPT-3 from March 2023.
A search based on “questions and answers” is then very similar
to a dialogue between people. The next step in 2023 will be the
connection to company-specific knowledge databases, the CRM
and customer service system. Energy suppliers or banks must
provide specific know-how for effective use. The question of data
protection has not yet been fully answered. Dialogues between
customers and companies that are transmitted to an open source
solution are subject to the applicable data protection guidelines.
Commercial providers of comparable language models such as
ChatGPT as well as open source associations are required here.
The municipality of de Roskilde proves that the use of
conversational automation in smaller projects also works in
Denmark. The 50,000 residents there will use the chatbot on the
homepage more than 50,000 times in 2022. With a voice gateway
from VIER, the municipality was able to offer its citizens a
voicebot for the final processing of issues at short notice and
without great effort.
Trend: conversational automation
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How is the trend developing?
This trend is progressing faster than we had forecast. We have
therefore classified this trend with significantly increasing
momentum for the coming years.
There are good reasons for it. Corona and especially the shortage
of skilled workers continue to be strong drivers for automation.
The new generation of conversational automation systems - if
they are based on ChatGPT-3, will have a very high level of
customer acceptance and thus convince many skeptics. This
new generation no longer has much in common with the first
generation of rule-based chatbots, which could only answer
questions within a very tight corset. We see great growth
opportunities, especially in companies that are hesitant or
skeptical about the use of conversational automation.
The combination of personalization and integration into the
existing knowledge management, CRM and customer service
systems in a conversational design leads to human-like dialogue.
And that will bring automation closer to the customer experience
philosophy over the next few years: the dialogues will become
more empathetic, more individual and can also process complex
issues in a conclusive manner.
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CIAM – Customer Identity and
access management
Short definition:
After retiring CRM from our trend radar in 2022, we
are presenting our new participant in the Technology
sector today. CIAM—Customer Identity and Access
Management. Why did we choose this trend in
particular? Breaks in customer journeys or complicated
processes are poison for the customer experience. As
are deficiencies in data protection and the security of
personal data. Companies therefore need a system
that effectively protects customer accounts and data
without impairing the customer experience. CIAM,
Customer Identity and Access Management, helps
companies to securely record and manage identity and
profile data. Managing the numerous online accounts,
passwords and access procedures overwhelms many
customers. Each additional hurdle during the customer
journey (e.g. through a new registration) reduces the
willingness of customers to complete the purchase or
process step.
The confirmation of identity, the legally secure signature
during an online session for the conclusion of a contract,
for example based on the inSign solution from the BSI
software, is therefore one of the important functions in
order to offer customers a time-saving and secure
experience.
CIAM solutions offer various functions along the
customer journey – starting with registration, through
self-service management of one’s own account, the
ability to manage and change consent to profiles and
preferences yourself, various tiered access procedures
such as single sign-on (SSO) or multi-factor
authentication (MFA). Companies are always caught
between the conflicting priorities of simple, time-saving
processes for the customer, the legal requirements for
data protection and privacy, and the trust that customers
have in the company's systems, processes and brand.
CIAM sol
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#16 CIAM—Customer Identity and Access Management
Solutions must provide secure, seamless customer
experiences. A business model like online trading also
requires high scalability and performance across all
touchpoints that customers use along the customer
journey, and access to different systems – web
applications, smartphones, partner applications. In this
way, CIAM systems become a valuable supplier of data
for the customer experience strategy: standardized
customer profiles that, when connected to a customer
data platform (CDP), allow personalized addresses.
The security functions of the CIAM solutions are an
essential aspect for trusting customer relationships –
especially in new customer business and where the
customers have little or no direct personal contact with
the company. Data leaks and identity theft unsettle
customers. Lost sales, damage to image and lost
customer trust can hardly be made up for with
inadequate CIAM solutions. The communication to the
systems, the security functions, the customer's options
for access, the modification of the data is therefore of
great importance. Excellent communication is even
more important than with many other systems that
customers use for orders and service requests. "Trust
is the beginning of everything", to use an advertising
slogan of a German bank, also applies to and especially
through CIAM solutions.
Customers are providing companies and their partners
with more and more information to simplify and
personalize interactions with them. However, their
concerns about data protection are not abating, so they
expect business partners to handle their information
appropriately. With a CIAM, the company demonstrates
its commitment to security and gives customers control
over how and who their data is
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TECHNOLOGY #16 CIAM—Customer Identity and Access Management

be passed on. The company also has the option of
querying customer consent and complying with data
protection regulations such as the General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX Strategy, 5a CX Governance, 11 Multiexperience, only used for access and authentication, but are also
11a CX Ecosystems/Platforms, 12 Customer Data
Platform, 13 Customer Analytics, 17 Marketing
Automation, 18 Service Cloud
What is a high and what is a low observed level
of maturity?
and online - and where the legal requirements for
data protection are particularly pronounced. Banks,
insurance companies, online trade and healthcare
organizations are the typical users of CIAM solutions.
CIAM users are usually also CDP and Marketing
Automation users. Uniform customer profiles are not
the basis for personalized customer contact. There is
a tendency - also because of the costs of the systems
- that it is currently rather large companies that use
CIAM solutions.

A high degree of maturity can be found in companies
that have a high degree of interaction (authentication,
registration, account queries, ...) with their customers
due to their business model and that have different
touchpoints - analog and digital, offline
Companies with a weak digital or mobile presence,
with more traditional sales and customer service
models and a low level of marketing automation use
show a low degree of maturity here.

Fig.: Overview of essential functions of a CIAM solution. Image Credit: ForgeRock

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TECHNOLOGY
What's new this year?
From a purely technological point of view, CIAM providers are
attempting to establish new methods such as identification by
voice (voice biometrics) or passwordless methods on the market.
In doing so, they are pursuing the goal of making it easier for end
customers and thus also increasing the pressure of demand on
the company side. Customer profiles as the basis for personalized
approaches represent a high value. CIAM providers try to position
their products more attractively here by integrating additional
functions into their solutions that are geared towards marketing
automation.
How is the trend developing?
As with many other technological developments, the principle
applies that the adaptation speed of the market, i.e. the customer,
is often lower than the technological development curve. Not all
offers that (should) make life easier for the customer are taken
up, accepted and used immediately. This currently applies to
voice biometrics or other passwordless processes. It may be
related to trust in new procedures; by
Trend: CIAM - Customer Identity and Access Management
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#16 CIAM—Customer Identity and Access Management
Personal data is the most sacred asset a customer has. Caution
prevails over curiosity.
Another reason for the rather slow development is the
implementation and integration effort of such solutions. CIAM
solutions per se do not generate any directly measurable
business benefits; a cost-benefit calculation is therefore difficult.
In combination with other systems as mentioned above, however,
these solutions create the necessary data basis. Further
development will be rather slow unless new providers enter the
market with new, easy-to-implement and inexpensive offerings.
The need for a CIAM solution becomes relevant for companies
to the extent that these companies expand their business model
and offer additional touch points where authentication is
necessary and/or mandatory - for example when retailers offer
their orders or services expanded to include digital touchpoints.
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TECHNOLOGY
Marketing Automation
Short definition:
The definition prevailing in the market refers to
“marketing automation” as software solutions that
automate marketing processes and consist of the
modules database, controlling, operational display of
content via various touchpoints, workflows and CRM
integration. The main difference to CRM or campaign
management systems is that a campaign is automated
and personalized on the basis of defined rules. Strictly
speaking, one cannot speak of campaigns in the classic
sense, since these are always linear, in one direction -
from the company to the customer. However,
monologues are not helpful for our understanding of
customer experience. In this respect, the definition of
marketing automation must be formulated more clearly
and also expanded. Here is our version:
Marketing automation systems are software
solutions that support and enable end-to-end
support for rule-based, automated and personalized
dialogue paths across various touchpoints for
marketing, sales and customer service.
In our CEX trend radar, we expand the classic definition
to include customer service applications and assume
rule-based dialogs.
The origin of the technology is in marketing (as the
term suggests), but a holistic approach to customer
management must also include rule-based, automated
campaigns in customer service. Analogous to the
expansion of the area of application for customer data
platforms, an end-to-end view is important to us here.
Marketing automation systems are therefore of great
importance for customer experience concepts because
every prospect or customer can be personalized and
addressed individually in real time. This individual
approach, the inclusion of special affinities and the
consideration of the context
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#17 Marketing Automation
which the customer is currently acting are basic
requirements of customer experience concepts. A
farewell to the "watering can strategy" that still prevails
in many companies. From our point of view, a key
aspect is the possibility of using these systems to
create dialogues between the customer and the
company. The marketing automation system can react
to the reaction of the customer - or even non-reaction -
with new, individualized approaches. The defined rules
then run in the background, so to speak, invisibly for
the users in the specialist departments.
In order to achieve customer experience goals -
individual, context-related addressing - the connection
to several systems is necessary, such as the customer
data platform, the CRM system or the customer or
sales database. A coupling with the touchpoints via
which the content is to be played out is also necessary.
On the other hand, the integration of customer feedback
is important in order to be able to measure the results
of the campaigns at the touchpoints and dialogue paths.
The content management system should also be
connected in such a way that marketing and sales
content such as images, text, videos, product or process
information can be easily integrated for the customer.
Or, as in the case of the BSI Customer Suite, it is even
directly integrated or part of the marketing automation
solution.
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX strategy, 6 customer journey mapping/CJ
management, 8 value management, 9 CX management
Cockpit, 11 Multiexperience, 12 Customer Data
Platforms, 13 Customer Analytics, 16 CIAM, 18 Service
cloud
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
The degree of maturity of marketing automation
systems essentially depends on two factors.
How simple are the systems in day-to-day work
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TECHNOLOGY
to use and what are the costs for acquisition,
implementation and integration into the existing
system landscape? The good news: Today,
companies have a very wide range of marketing
automation systems at their disposal. Integrated
systems that already have their own customer data
platform, visual workflow functions and much more
(such as the BSI Customer Suite shown here)
reduce the training and usage effort and therefore
increase the usage rate by the specialist
departments. The employee experience (see
Trend No. 5 EXM) has been further simplified and
improved through standardized and ready-made
templates, didactically well-prepared onboarding
materials and courses.
Companies that are already running large-scale
campaigns – banks, insurance companies,
Fig.: Marketing Automation Software, image source: BSI
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#17 Marketing Automation
Telecommunications or online trade are therefore
quickly switching to marketing automation systems.
In other words: The degree of maturity has already
reached the standard stage for classic campaign
management users; the only thing that had to be
done here was to switch from one technology
evolution stage to the next in order to reduce
complexity. Other companies are only now getting
into rule-based and automated customer contact
based on marketing automation systems. The
speed of adaptation will be somewhat slower for
the latter, since know-how in systematic, direct
customer contact still has to be built up here. In
this case, integration tasks with other systems
such as CRM, service cloud or a customer data
platform also have to be taken care of.
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TECHNOLOGY
What's new this year?
In the past two years, companies have come to know and
appreciate the advantages of marketing automation systems.
Customer response to personalized approaches, higher response
and conversion rates whet your appetite for more.
Relatively easy handling thanks to "low code" or even "no code"
customization options ensure good acceptance in the specialist
departments. Personalized addresses are expected and
appreciated by customers. Companies want and need to invest
in marketing automation to increase the effectiveness of marketing
tools. In 2023 we see the focus on the greater use and inclusion
of customer data from customer analytics, the customer data
platforms, CRM or service cloud systems and the expansion of
use to sales and customer service applications.
How is the trend developing?
“Two of them looked for each other and found each other,” is a
popular saying when two people or, in our case, a company and
customer are a good match. Customers expect personalized
speeches
Trend: marketing automation
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#17 Marketing Automation
right time with the right offer, taking into account history and
interests.
Companies are looking for effective ways of addressing
customers that are easy to use and allow a high degree of
flexibility. In a word, it's about relevance. Marketing automation
systems meet these expectations. More companies will switch to
this technology in the next few years. The speed of further
development within the CEX trend radar depends on the extent
to which providers manage to penetrate medium-sized companies
with attractive solutions. Necessary knowledge in direct marketing
and digital marketing is required to use the systems in the best
possible way. Where this knowledge is not yet well developed,
the manufacturers are required to integrate the competence and
know-how into the software at the same time. There was a similar
development with CRM systems, which are now a commodity.
Therefore we foresee a continuous development. Marketing
automation systems will move from the acceptance stage to the
standard stage in two to three years.
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TECHNOLOGY
Service Cloud
Short definition:
Service Cloud is a process-oriented, software-supported
system for processing and managing the receipt,
confirmation, classification, processing, forwarding and
escalation of customer inquiries in customer service
across all touchpoints offered in an integrated system.
Service Cloud solutions are used when customers have
questions about products or the status of a delivery, or
when other problems arise.
We still see the topic of customer service as an unloved
and neglected child in customer management.
Unfortunately, we cannot revise our assessment from
last year. On the contrary: the crisis year 2022 with its
many facets (such as delivery bottlenecks) hit the
customer service departments of companies particularly
hard. This had a direct, measurable impact on NPS or
customer satisfaction scores. The workload has
increased due to higher request volume. However,
customer service is rarely seen as an opportunity to
differentiate oneself positively from the competition, but
is still often classified as a cost factor in top management. level of complexity in customer service. External
In 2022, customer expectations for faster and more
conclusive processing at the first attempt were
particularly often disappointed. Even basic requirements
such as accessibility were often not met in the past
year. Almost like a prayer wheel, we repeatedly refer to
the connection between excellent customer service and
customer satisfaction, willingness to recommend and
intention to buy again. Service cloud solutions are a
means to an end; although they can increase efficiency
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#18 Service Cloud
achieve gains, for example by reducing the time
required for processing, but they cannot compensate
for chronically understaffed contact centers and
customer service departments and inadequate processes.
As long as the connection between excellent customer
service and the resulting added value for the company
is not - or not sufficiently - recognized and appreciated,
service cloud solutions remain at the level of operational
efficiency tools.
Interfaces to other trends
3 CX Strategy, 5 EXM, 8 Value Management, 9 CX
Management Cockpit, 11 Multiexperience, 12 Customer
Data Platforms, 13 Customer Analytics, 14, Augmented
Reality/Virtual Reality/Video, 16 CIAM
What is a high and what is a low observed level of
maturity?
The expansion of communication offerings through
chat, instant messengers and others leads to a high
influences (such as delivery or production bottlenecks,
logistics problems) amplify this phenomenon. A bundling
and synchronization of customer service requests in a
centralized approach, the service cloud, is therefore
essential. Since the lion's share of inquiries will be
processed by people in the foreseeable future, functional
solutions are a lever for more employee satisfaction
and thus indirectly a lever for more customer satisfaction.
Service cloud solutions are a kind of Swiss army knife,
in which many of the necessary functions for processing
service requests are bundled in an integrated work
interface.
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TECHNOLOGY
In our opinion, the employee experience (cf. also
trend no. 5 EXM) in customer service depends
crucially on the systems and tools used. When
employees can focus on engaging with customers
without having to search for necessary data and
juggling between different applications, this
translates into better conversations. Dialogues that
help customers quickly lead to positive customer
feedback and satisfied employees. The approach
taken by companies to offer customers a wide
range of communication options must lead to the
bundling of data and applications within the
company itself. "Fan outside, bundle inside"
becomes the implementation maxim. The Service
Cloud is the central communication hub between
customer and company.
Fig.: Service Cloud solution, image source: SAP
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#18 Service Cloud
What's new this year?
The trend from the previous year, the networking
and integration of the systems used (both the
direct communication systems with the customers
and the supporting systems such as knowledge
management) will continue in 2023. The bundling
of data and systems and the simplification of
working methods on a central service cloud
platform are the most urgent tasks for companies.
AI will play a greater role as support in many
aspects. From intent recognition and analytics
functions to knowledge management support, AI
will take on the role of digital assistant for
employees. More relief for employees in customer
service is a must for all companies. Complexity
when using too many systems leads to errors and
long
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TECHNOLOGY
processing times. Both have negative effects on both the
customer experience and the costs. The topic of customer service
certainly doesn't have what it takes to become management's
favorite topic, since there isn't enough potential for profiling.
Nevertheless, companies have recognized the need for a
powerful platform and are implementing it - even if it's just for the
motivation to achieve further gains in efficiency.
The project to set up the corona vaccination hotline with gkk
Dialog on behalf of the Federal Health Office proves that cloud-
based and highly scalable omnichannel platforms are now also
available hosted in Germany. The solution used in this project (a
cloud ACD from VIER), for example, was able to distribute very
high call volumes - in this case 500,000 calls per week - to
employees of 19 different customer service providers across
locations within a very short time.
Trending: Service Cloud
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#18 Service Cloud
How is the trend developing?
Similar to the customer relationship management system, the
service cloud is developing into the standard infrastructure and
then into a commodity in the next few years, especially in sectors
that offer their services through distributed sales. It is not so
much new functions as the integration of touchpoints, data and
systems that are in the foreground. We don't expect major
innovations in the Service Cloud; the level of development has
already reached a very high level (also and especially among the
supporters of this CEX trend radar). There will be advances in AI
technologies over the next two years, some of which will be
exponential.
On the one hand, however, these are presented as an
independent trend in Conversational Automation or they are
catalysts for functions within the Service Cloud, such as
knowledge management.
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lighthouse
projects

Photo by Tyler Maddigan on Unsplash

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DPD (with BSI)

Customer experience conclusion in one sentence:

How to use the NPS score and good employee
communication to increase employees' sense of
belonging and pride, and how to achieve a top
position in a highly competitive market. Winner of
the Customer Relations Award 2022 in Switzerland.
Trigger/Background/Challenge:
The market for logistics service providers has been
highly competitive for years; there are three to four
major providers who provide comparable services.
It is now very difficult to differentiate based on the
service. Advance information on delivery times in
half-hour intervals, punctuality and reliability are
already at a high level in the industry as a whole,
but cannot be increased infinitely. At the same
time, however, delivery must be maintained at this
consistently high level in order to satisfy the
customer.
DPD does not have any structured information
about customers' needs. That was the perception
in the company four years ago at the beginning of
the project. How do you align a company completely
with the customer in terms of processes and culture
by consistently measuring the relevant KPIs in
order to achieve a top CX position? The absolute
commitment of the CEO and the entire management
was the foundation for the success. A significant
improvement in market performance from the
customer's point of view should be the focus of the
change. The Net Promoter Score, which is widely
used internationally, should become an instrument for this.

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The solution:
The tools were very specifically adapted to the logistics
service provider DPD. Project manager Marco Kaiser
designed NPS surveys both at the relationship level with
the customer (the company commissioning DPD) and at
the level of an episode (e.g. the delivery) or an interaction
(e.g. a complaint on the phone) with DPD at the recipients
of the packages. The survey of the recipients upon
delivery could be traced back to the level of a specific tour
by drilling down. This KPI system was to assume the
central control function for DPD to consistently focus on
the customer. The results are processed in an internal
real-time cockpit.
In order to initiate the change in the organization, the
goal, the KPIs and the individual connections had to be
understood at the level of the 1,200 employees. A central
question in the project was therefore: Why are we doing
this? The
"
The passion of the employees for the best possible
customer experience cannot be compensated for with any key figur
Marco Kaiser, Head of Marketing & Communication
79
Convincingly communicating the sense of the measure
is enormously important for employee motivation and the
success of the change process. How to go about it "Walk
the talk" and not "talk the talk," explains Marco Kaiser,
Head of Marketing and Communication, one of the mottos
in the project that was consistently implemented. Every
single depot was visited and the initiative presented.
The next step is “From why to commitment”. With 800
drivers and 14 depots, this step is a sporting task. But it
works: Between 80 and 90% of drivers today know the
NPS score and can even explain it. The daily morning
routine at DPD starts with communicating the previous
day's NPS values for each individual tour. Punctuality,
language skills and, above all, driver-friendliness are
measured. Timely feedback on one's own performance
has an enormous leverage effect. The friendliness of the
drivers – the value that the driver himself values
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can influence – has increased continuously. By
linking the drivers to the respective depot, the sense
of unity in the teams has increased further. The
consequence: The NPS value of your own tour now
arouses pride among the employees.
The BSI Customer Suite forms the technological
basis. The NPS measurement is based on a survey
tool that is controlled by the BSI CX marketing
automation solution with callback management,
complete documentation, evaluation and connection
to the data warehouse, including a link to the
package ID. The NPS values are stored in the
contact history in BSI CRM so that the development
over time can be traced. In organizational terms,
DPD proceeds step by step and analyzes each
touchpoint separately. A responsible person is
assigned for each touchpoint. In this way, customers'
desires and frustrations are systematically recorded
and analyzed at the lowest level. A company-wide
CIP team initiates improvements and meets
regularly with the management.
Continuous process for individual & structural improvement
CEM@DPD in a nutshell – V1
80
In any case, systematics is one of the recipes for
success of the DPD project. Monthly talks, including
the drivers, and central management of the
measures are important components of the
continuous improvement process. The Happiness
Team ensures the further development of CX management a
And the good NPS score also pays off economically
in the market. The NPS value stored in BSI's CRM
system is a strong sales argument for sales staff in
the market. The Swiss DPD organization is now
regarded as a pilot region for customer orientation
within the DPD Group. The jury of the Swiss
Customer Relations Award saw it that way and
named the project the winner of the year in the
“Customer Focus” category in 2022.
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BLKB (with BSI)

Customer experience conclusion in one sentence:

Implement uniform and system-supported consulting and to be able to carry out the advisory process in
processes that are based on the customer's life a structured manner. Everything is based on the
situation. A systematic approach gives the advisors customer's life events.
security, ensures that customers appreciate them A necessary prerequisite for counseling occasions,
and increases customer value for BLKB. which are to be based on the customer's respective
life situation, are customer data, structured
knowledge about the customer's life events and the
Trigger/Background/Challenge: associated need for a counseling interview. The BSI
Until 2018, BLKB did not have any uniform advisory Customer Suite forms the basis for the BLKB.
processes for customer support. Each consultant
designed the consultation process with his customers
more or less individually. Result: There was no BSI's CRM system was already in use; the addition
consistent customer experience; the proverbial red of the automation solution BSI CX to automate this
thread in the care was missing. Depending on the process was the clear logical consequence.
consultant's preferences, the focus was more on the
products he had chosen instead of making the
customer's life situation the focus of the advice.
“Away from the product – towards life event
counseling” was the goal of the BLKB project in
2019. The core goals of the project are initially to
enable the counselors to set goals for the counseling
sessions based on a 360-degree customer view

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What counts tomorrow
The CX solution:
The so-called “advisory suite” created as part of the
project supports the bank's advisors in planning,
scheduling and conducting advisory talks, setting goals
for the talk and preparing documents for talks with
customers and prospects. The suggestions for the
storyline of such a conversation, which are automatically
created by the system, serve as a guide for the consultant,
and the documents can be individually adapted and
supplemented by the consultant. Customers experience
a consultation that is both structured and individual. The
BSI Customer Suite is the invisible helper in the
background, while the advisor can concentrate on the
conversation without having to worry about forgetting
something or overlooking important points that are of
interest to the customer in their individual phase of life.
From a technological point of view, the procedure was
not only an important step towards a customer-centric
approach in banking advice, but also a challenge from an
organizational point of view. A change process that
supposedly restricts the “degrees of freedom” the advisors
have been used to. consultants apply
82
Welcome
Harold Hafner
12/12/2022 | 10:10 a.m
yes, generally as freedom-loving and many a CRM project
has failed in practice due to low acceptance and use. Not
so at BLKB.
Involving the key figures of the consulting organization
from the beginning was a key focus in the project's
change management process. Around 30 consultants
were actively involved in the project and contributed their
ideas and requests. A good basis, then, to achieve a high
degree of utilization among the 400 consultants. It was
important to everyone involved that the system gave the
consultant freedom and that it could be used flexibly.
During the consultation, the advisor and customer discuss
the important events in life and how the bank would like
to address them.
This approach makes the consulting suite the system
that consultants use most frequently in their day-to-day
work. "Such a process is culture-forming for the entire
company, and that is impressively reflected in the results,"
says Sofia Sager, Marketing Manager at BLKB. Today,
the counseling suite is used in 70% of all qualified
counseling sessions.
And what do the customers, about whom everything
revolves in this project, say? The results of a mystery
shopping study were very positive and
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of this dimension also surprised the executives.

Learning experiences and a continuous and
cooperative exchange with the BSI project team
ensure that the “teething troubles” of the consulting
suite were quickly eliminated. And BLKB itself is
also continuously learning when using the consulting
suite: Instead of one long consulting customer
journey – called “story” in the BSI Customer Suite –
which has proven to be difficult to handle, many
small stories are designed.

The momentum that set the project in motion will

continue in the future. The concrete measurement
of the increase in the share-of-wallets of the
customers and an overview of the exploited potential
resulting from the improved customer experience
are already set as goals. Work is also continuing on
the seamless interaction between the BSI CX
marketing automation solution and the CRM system
so that the information from the consultation flows
back into the customer file so that customers can
be looked after even better.

“ The integrated mapping of sales, consulting and

marketing processes in the BSI Customer Suite

offers us very individual applications in the bank.

Yannik Kunz, project manager "sales workplace and consulting suite" at BLKB

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Helvetia Germany (with FOUR)
Customer experience conclusion in one sentence:
Simple, well thought-out and consistent solutions in
customer service increase employee satisfaction,
increase customer satisfaction and amaze customers
with simple systems such as callback management.
The formula for success is: Introduce and implement
technologically simple elements that benefit customers
and employees.
Trigger/Background/Challenge:
The replacement of a telephone system is initially a
little spectacular process. In this case, however, it was
the starting signal for a remarkable CX project with a
measurable impact on both customers and employees.
The existing telecommunications system at Helvetia
Germany had reached the "end of life" stage and
offered few functions. At the same time, the telephony
of the entire company was switched to MS Teams in
2021/2022. In this context, the decision was made to
purchase an omnichannel ACD (Automatic Call
Distribution) for customer service. Due to the corona
pandemic and the
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After switching to home office, the "pain" with the old
system only got bigger.
And that became the booster for the project.
Procedure for the project:
One of the core requirements for improving the customer
experience was the ability to quickly customize the
system itself. In the event of local storm events, for
example, the number of calls to the claims department
skyrockets. The volume can be controlled and processed
much better by using a voice dialog system, special
announcements and the option of adding “groups” in
customer service. Long, annoying waiting on the caller
side is no longer necessary. But the ability to route the
customer immediately to the right contact person based
on skill sounds technically rather trivial, but in practice
it often fails because customer service and specialist
departments work with different systems that mutually
influence each other
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Unicorn
Logo: The development of an internal project
logo underlines the importance and uniqueness
of the project for the company.
Unicorn
hoodies: In the spirit of the employer experience,
blue unicorn hoodies were designed, which were
well received by the employees. In the picture
from left Sabrina Rotarme, HR and organizational
development consultant, who advised on change
management, Ralf Rohrbach, IT project manager,
and Simone Krüger, project manager in the
Business Organization and Customer Journey
Management department.
85
communicate poorly or not at all.
If the customer service employee sees which of his
colleagues in the relevant department is free and
available, this leads to targeted forwarding, better
availability and a shorter overall processing time.
Technologically, the VIER ACD communicates in
customer service with the Microsoft Teams Office
telephony and thus eliminates the usual ping-pong
game with forwarding.
For even better handling of call peaks, the solution
from VIER is also supported by a callback
management system from virtualQ: If no employees
are available in customer service, the customer is
automatically offered a callback appointment either
as soon as possible or with a selectable date and
time. From a technological point of view, such a
recall management is not a groundbreaking new
innovation, but it is customer-oriented and has
made the answering machine in the specialist
departments superfluous.
The new Omnichannel ACD, the integration with
SAP and the connection to MS teams also simplify
the way employees work. Everything employees
need is now clearly visible on the screen in a
unified desktop; tiresome switching back and forth
between different systems is no longer necessary.
The aim of this simplified processing is to be able
to focus more on the customer and his concerns
instead of having to concentrate on the different
systems. The fact that the system is fun to use is
not least due to its ease of use.
For Helvetia Germany, an insurer with special and
very demanding customer segments, this is an
investment that pays off. As a logical consequence,
Helvetia is planning to connect further systems to
the Unified Desktop workplace. For example,
SABIO knowledge management is the next building
block.
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Of the 860 Helvetia employees in Germany, 340

work in customer service. Today they all work on
the VIER Omnichannel solution.
The project managers have invested a lot of time
and energy in communicating the project goals,
training and project marketing. A specially created
project logo, a multiplier concept, complex feedback
loops after each project phase and an e-learning
platform guarantee a high level of acceptance and
use of the system.

Customers can experience this in the key figures

for the first solution rate/case closure rate – FCR –
and the lost call rate: the LCR has fallen to almost
zero.

Helvetia Germany plans to continue optimizing System

networked corporate communications and the
direct interface with customers and sales partners
in the future. The use of voicebots to relieve simple,
recurring inquiries is part of the considerations for
further expansion. An iterative approach with
concrete objectives for customer and employee
benefit always takes precedence over all projects.
mapping: Perfect interaction between
VIER, SAP and teams: The VIER engage
Multichannel ACD identifies the callers,
whereupon customer data transmitted by
SAP enables routing to the personal
contact person. This data is displayed to
Helvetia customer service employees in
the VIER Unified Desktop before the call
is answered. The employees take the call
in teams, and the status synchronization
between teams and VIER guarantees a high level

With the VIER engage Omnichannel ACD and our

" innovative ideas, we are now able to react ad hoc to
the needs of our customers. At the same time, it is
also a modern and convenient tool for our employees.
Simone Krüger, Project Manager Business Organization & Customer Journey Management

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Läderach (with SAP)
Customer experience conclusion in one sentence:
Laying the foundation for future-proof CX and end-
to-end customer journeys with a customer data
platform and 360-degree customer view. How the
systematic digitization of the existing systems
enables data-driven retailing, supports personalized
customer experiences along the analogue and
digital touchpoints and ensures perceptible, positive
customer experiences.
Trigger/Background/Challenge:
Läderach Chocolatier Suisse is a Switzerland-
based company that manufactures chocolates and
confectionery. The company was founded in Glarus
in 1962. The high-quality products are sold in their
own chocolateries with sales locations in
Switzerland, Germany and Austria, Great Britain,
the USA and Canada, as well as through sales
partners in the Middle East and Asia.
During the Covid pandemic, Läderach took up the
cause of internationalization and international
scaling as part of a strategic reorientation. As part
of the strategy
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This development also raised questions about
future customer expectations and, in particular,
about the digital customer experience. Both end
customers and retailers should notice a significant
improvement in the customer experience.
Customer expectations are not only different for
end customers and in retail, but also in the different
sales markets, the customer journeys, the preferred
touchpoints and the relevant information. Cultural
differences – in England, for example, chocolate
with mint traditionally has a high status, which is
not only reflected in the product, but also in the
presentation of personalized content along the
customer journey. In the past, customers primarily
experienced the Läderach brand in retail; today,
90% of the first chosen touchpoint for the customer
is a digital touchpoint. In the subsequent steps,
however, many different variants in the customer
journey – analogue and digital touchpoints – have
to be taken into account. For example, in individual
countries, the products are selected and pre-
ordered online and
Machine Translated by Google
then picked up with your own air-conditioned car.
As a premium provider, for Läderach the entire
customer experience - from storytelling to the
content played - must be "premium".
These extremely high demands on data,
information, personalized content and end-to-end
customer journeys logically led to a step-by-step
and systematic approach.
The pivotal point here is data management. A
central customer data platform from SAP forms
the foundation for the end-to-end customer journey,
which helps to connect offline and online worlds.
This system helps those responsible both centrally
and regionally at Läderach to make decisions
based on current and valid data.
Various "data suppliers" must be taken into
account: product data, previous customer behavior,
preferences, selected touchpoints and many
others. This data must be operationalizable for the
display of personalized content along the customer
journey.
Läderach proceeds with this CX project just as
carefully and professionally as with the production
of the chocolate. Good ingredients, good recipes,
good employees and care in the "production".
" Products are Made in the Factory but Brands are
Created in the Mind.
Brand and commerce strategy, Läderach based on Walter Landor
88
the difference. No “hasty glance” at supposedly
quick sales successes through isolated campaigns,
but first the foundations are laid by a central data
platform that defines requirements for the customer
journey and systematically generated content is
made available.
The technological reorientation depends crucially
on the support of the employees.
Läderach has a long tradition with the highest
standards of product quality. When it comes to
digitization, internationalization and the conception
of customer experience management, management
attaches great importance to preserving tradition
on the one hand and inspiring employees to try
something new on the other.
Based on the clearly defined target architecture,
the first customer experience management
experiences will then become visible to the
customer from the beginning of 2023. With the
SAP Emarsys Marketing Automation solution,
omnichannel campaigns can then be played out,
for example for loyalty management. In this context,
gift vouchers are designed and issued. This creates
a premium customer experience for a premium
brand.
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DEEP DIVE

Photo by Jonas Allert on Unsplash

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Customer centricity maturity measurement

Developing a CX culture:
The customer centricity maturity measurement
creates the analytical basis
By Prof. Dr. Jan-Erik Baars and Prof. Dr. Dominik Georgi, Customer Metrics, a spin-off from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

The organization's customer focus is the starting point of the
customer success chain, which links the internal prerequisites
(“backstage”) with the external effects (“frontstage”). This value
chain begins with customer focus as a prerequisite for excellent
customer experiences, which in turn leads to increased customer
loyalty, which ultimately has a positive impact on customer value.
This is where the measurement of customer centricity comes in.
Customer centricity measurements support CX management
on many levels, so they contribute to various trends of the CEX
trend radar, including CX culture, CX innovation management,
CX strategy and the CX management cockpit.

Fig. 1: Customer centricity as the starting point of the customer success chain

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Fig. 2: Possible contributions to the CX fields of action according to the CX trend radar
We see the most important lever of such a measurement as
input for the development of a CX culture and explain the
importance of the CC measurement for this below.
Evaluate and promote CX culture
CX experts are increasingly mastering customer experience
management with all its facets. However, according to the CEX
Trendradar 2023, these are, firstly, negligibly small in number
and, secondly, often not really well anchored in the hierarchy in
order to enforce real customer centricity. Most companies still
lack an established CX culture.
There is often a lack of strategically developed competencies,
starting with pure methodological knowledge on the one hand,
but also on the other hand operational employee skills for real
culture change. And this is the main reason why the CEX
Trendradar assumes that CX culture, while "accepted", is only
implemented well by a few companies. And that although
specific potential for differentiation lies fallow here, it is also the
most complex to implement.
91
In order to develop the underlying CX culture, you need above
all a starting point: you have to know where the organization
stands, where its strengths and weaknesses lie in terms of
customer centricity. Here it makes sense to use an evaluation
to evaluate the current degree of customer focus – from an
internal and external point of view.
CC score: Measurement of “customer centricity” from an
internal perspective
The CC score measures customer centricity from the employees'
point of view. They evaluate 15 customer centricity criteria that
are assigned to the three topic groups of leadership, collaboration
and implementation.
These criteria were derived from scientific studies. In recent
years, the CC score has proven itself in measurements for
companies such as Swisscom, CSS Versicherung, Mibelle
(Migros) in Switzerland and Targobank in Germany. Based on
the NPS scale, values between -100 and +100 are determined
for each criterion, each upper group and the overall CC score.
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Fig. 3: Exemplary CC score result

To ensure that the internal view of the corporate culture
does not remain the sole evaluation parameter and, where
possible, can be misused for navel gazing, it makes sense
to also include the customer's perception in an integrated
analysis. Customers' perception of the extent to which a
company appears and acts in a customer-centric manner
is an important indicator of whether the company's efforts
are bearing fruit. A customer evaluation, which can be
carried out parallel to the existing CX measurements,
provides an additional KPI that reflects the maturity of the
CX culture: the CI score we developed.
The CI-Score: assessment of (perceived)
Customer centricity from an external (customer) point of view
Enthusiasm, added value and basic performance assigned.
The evaluation can also be distributed across touchpoints
and only carried out in small tranches, which are then
consolidated into overall results. The CI score values are
also created using the NPS logic and are between -100
and +100.
As part of a panel study, 20 companies were rated with
the CI score by 100 respondents each. The result of the
study shows which companies can be considered “customer-
centric” in the eyes of customers. The study also shows
that companies have different profiles in terms of how they
are perceived. The dimensions of functionality, individuality
and emotionality are expressed differently in customer
perception.

The 15 empirically derived factors of perceived customer

centricity form the basis for determining the CI score: They
show how customer centric an organization is from the
customer's point of view. The factors are subject-logical to
the three subject groups

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Fig. 4: CI score criteria for customer centricity from the customer's point of view

Fig. 5: Customer centricity of well-known brands - 2022

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Typical use cases of the CC measurement are:

1. Customer centricity programs: More and more
companies are launching explicit customer centricity
programs or CX initiatives or similar.
For these, the determination of the Matura represents
an important starting point.
2. Growth strategies: No growth without customer
centricity. Putting the customer first is imperative for
businesses looking to grow.
3. Innovation programs: Innovations are more successful
the more they are geared towards customers and
their needs. Customer-centric companies innovate
more successfully, and they are more successful at
commercializing innovative solutions.
4. Digitization programs: Digitization only works if it
is customer-centric. Accordingly, digitization
programs are all the more successful the sooner
they are customer-oriented. Explicit thinking
about customer focus makes a significant
contribution to this.
5. Efficiency programs: Even if this seems
counterintuitive at first glance, customer centricity
can make efficiency programs more successful.
A focus on the customer helps to save costs
where it bothers the customer the least.

Fig. 6: CC score and CI score

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partner presentation

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BSI

Urs Frick René Konrad

Head of BSI CX at BSI Banking Community Manager BSI
urs.frick@bsi-software.com rene.konrad@bsi-software.com
LinkedIn LinkedIn

Charlotte Malz
Marketing & Communications
Manager at BSI charlotte.malz@bsi-
software.com LinkedIn

BSI Customer Experience

With the BSI Customer Suite, the Swiss software le be bid away. From the acquisition to the offer process
manufacturer BSI offers a holistic platform for the to the conclusion of the contract - thanks to seamless
digitization of customer relationships. For retail, banking, integration and AI support, companies build real customer
insurance and energy & utilities, BSI has everything you proximity.
need for an excellent customer experience. The basis for
this is provided by many years of industry expertise. In the The BSI Customer Suite is primarily aimed at medium-
insurance industry, BSI is regarded as the market leader sized and larger companies with complex marketing, sales,
for CRM software. 130 banks, insurers and trading service or operations requirements.
companies use it to reach around 27 million end customers
throughout Europe. The company, which was founded in
reference customers
Baden in 1996, has a further 7 locations and around 400
employees in Germany and Switzerland. Its customers
• BSI best practices and success stories
include companies and organizations such as ADAC, the
Raiffeisen Banking Group, Signal Iduna and PostFinance
• Best practice Baloise property insurance
as well as other market-leading companies in Europe.

• Video: Best Practice Raiffeisen Digital

CX solution offering • Video: Hornbach Best Practice

«What makes BSI different is the proximity to the Additional Information:

customer. You are not given a standard, you can actively
• Things worth knowing about CRM, CX and AI
help develop the roadmap.”
Silvia Bauer, Senior CRM Manager, HDI
• Customer Experience – functions and areas of
application
The cloud-based BSI Customer Suite covers the entire
customer lifecycle: from the IP address to the buying
• The BSI Customer Suite on OMR Reviews
customer to the fan. It enables comprehensive
personalization and automation of customer contact and
interaction in real time.
With BSI, customer journeys can be designed and
customers can have an inspiring experience across all channels

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SAP

Kai Stubane Tanja Fischer

Senior Vice President Head of Sales, Regional Marketing Lead,
SAP Customer Experience SAP Customer Experience,
Middle & Eastern Europe, SAP SE Middle & Eastern Europe,
LinkedIn SAP Germany SE & Co.KG
LinkedIn

SAP Customer Experience

As a market leader for business software, we help companies Marketing solutions

of all sizes and industries to achieve their goals in the best With our SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement solution we
possible way: 87% of the global trading volume runs through provide you with a platform for personalized real-time
SAP systems. Our customer experience solutions for interactions with your customers.
companies offer comprehensive insights by linking your trade,
marketing, sales and service data and allow our customers to
customer examples
better identify, win, convert and retain their end customers.

• Here go to the SAP Customer Experience

customer reports

CX solution offering • Find out in this video more about the common path of
MVV Enamic & SAP
E-Commerce Solutions
With our customizable and scalable e- commerce platform
• Read here like PUMA Europe a clear one
you can react flexibly to changes in the digital business and
Revenue growth through the use of SAP
support your online sales with the flexibility required today.
Emarsys Customer Engagement achieved

• Here you can find out why Vileda relies on a global

digital platform in the B2C and B2B business
Customer data solutions
With the help of our SAP Customer Data Platform You get a
company-wide insight into your customer profiles and can Additional Information:
derive interactions that increase your conversion rate and
• SAP Customer Experience Portfolio
customer loyalty.

• SAP Podcast CX Café – Customer Experience in a

nutshell
Sales solutions With
the SAP Sales Cloud solution streamline and automate
• Find out about the latest articles,
important sales processes and provide salespeople with
Research results, demos and videos
intelligent recommendations.

• Study on the status and perspectives of digital B2B

Service solutions
Commerce Platforms
The SAP Service Cloud supports your customer service
management by ensuring that contact with the customer is
maintained throughout the entire customer journey.

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FOUR

Rainer Holler Ralf Mühlenhoever

FOUR CEOs VIER Head of Product Strategy and
LinkedIn
marketing
LinkedIn

company description reference customers

VIER rethinks customer dialogue and communication.

• Read here how Congstar reduces the administrative
With our cloud offerings "enrich", "engage", "evolve" and
effort with the VIER ACD and improves the
"empower" we make contact-based business processes
customer experience
more efficient. Whether in service or sales, in HR, customer
service or in clerical processing: Our intelligent solutions
• Find out here Read more about how highly complex
connect, analyze, assist and automate – so that
routing increases the CX of ADAC customers
communication with companies is once again experienced
as a genuine service.

• Improving the Employee Experience in Inbound and

CX solution offering Outbound - Here along to the case study with the
team bank
What software and/or CX services are offered?

Additional Information:
FOUR engage as a cloud offer for omnichannel contact
• Better CX Through the Phone – Six Tips For
centers – all channels, first-class reporting, in-depth your customer service
understanding of your business processes and German
support.
• Current trend study on the contact center market

FOUR evolve with products for language, text and emotion

• Trend study AI in medium-sized companies - About
analysis, voice of the customer, learning and employee
the use of modern AI technologies in customer care
development, voice and chatbots, cognitive voice gateway,
email response management.

FOUR enrich for conferencing – from 3 to 5,000

participants, telephony and video, for webinars and
collaboration.

FOUR empower for learning and employee development

- increase the potential of your employees, your managers,
your company.

Who is the target group?

Whether financial institution, energy supplier, online retailer

or insurer - the intelligent omnichannel and AI solutions
from VIER process contact- based business transactions
in all industries and for every company size. For an FOUR Ltd +49 511 95 73 95 1111
excellent customer and employee experience! Hamburger Allee 23 info@vier.ai vier.ai
30161 Hanover

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Author introduction

Prof. Dr. Nils Hafner

Prof. Dr. re. pole. Nils Hafner (born May 17, 1973) is an international expert in building long-term, profitable
customer relationships. He is a professor for customer relationship management at the Lucerne University of
Applied Sciences and Arts and heads two study programs on digital banking and sales and marketing in
banking. Prof. Dr. Hafner studied business administration, psychology, philosophy and modern history in Kiel
and Rostock, Germany. He did his doctorate in innovation management/marketing on the quality control of call center ser
After working as a CRM practice leader at one of the largest consulting firms in the world, he set up the first
CRM master's program in the German-speaking region from 2002 to May 2006. A total of 18 academic programs
on the subject of customer management and customer integration followed. Today he works as an author and
international keynote speaker and advises management and board members of medium-sized and large
companies in Germany, Switzerland and throughout Europe on developing corporate competencies in customer
management. Nils Hafner holds about 30 keynotes at public and non-public events on the subject of "customers"
per year. His customers include around 120 companies from the banking, insurance, telecommunications, retail
and mechanical engineering sectors. His focus in consulting is in the area of long-term profitable service
strategies. At the end of 2018, the second edition of his Amazon No. 1 bestseller “The Art of Customer
Relationship” was published. In his blog "Hafner on CRM" and his podcast "Hafners CX Podcast" he tries to get
the informative, beautiful, bad, tragic and funny sides of the topic.

Harold Henn
Harald Henn is managing partner of Marketing Resultant GmbH from Mainz in Germany. Since 2004 he has
accompanied and supported companies in customer experience and digital customer service projects.
His vision: Combine well-founded methodological competence with effective results in project work. His focus is
to achieve effective and measurable results in the projects. The know-how is based on more than 15 years of
experience in leading marketing and sales functions for American companies in the IT industry. As head of
marketing at Dell Computer GmbH, Harald Henn was responsible for market entry and establishment in
Germany. After that, as managing partner of PRISMA management consultancy, he was jointly responsible for
building up the leading call center consultancy in Germany for more than 10 years. His customers include well-
known banks, insurance companies, telecommunications companies and companies from the healthcare sector.
He is the editor of several books and e-books on the subject of chatbots and AI in customer service, digital
customer service, contact centers and organizer of several virtual events on the subject of customer experience
and customer service.

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bibliography

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Forrester (2022): https://www.forrester.com/report/predictions-2023-customer-

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