As we look toward 2022, what’s the next big thing in staffing customer experience?
Two words: Predictive Analytics
I’m always reading about the future of CX, looking for new ways to create an even better service experience for staffing and recruiting firms like yours – and to help you create even better experiences for your customers. Over the years I’ve written extensively about CX trends, including the importance of surveying staffing customers.
But while customer satisfaction surveys have their merit, they’re not enough to help your staffing agency optimize – and individualize – each customer’s experience. Research from McKinsey supports this notion. In a survey of CX leaders from US-based companies of all sizes:
- 93% reported using a survey-based metric like Customer Satisfaction Score or Customer Effort Score as their primary means of tracking CX performance.
- BUT, just 15% of those leaders said they were fully satisfied with how their organization measures customer experience.
- AND, a mere 6% were confident that their “measuring stick” is the right tool for making CX decisions.
Why aren’t survey-based metrics enough?
According to the McKinsey article, low survey response rates, rapidly aging data (remember, satisfaction surveys are backward-looking) and the lack of a clear link between survey scores and the company’s bottom line are all parts of the problem.
So, what’s the solution?
“Predictive customer insight” is the future of CX.
The term sounds complex, but the basic concept is fairly straightforward. Across the globe, leading companies are using technology to get more value from the data they already collect. By combining information from a variety of sources (e.g., operations, website analytics, finance, ATS, CRM), the right software can dramatically improve CX – and your staffing or recruiting firm’s performance.
Here are a few of the potential benefits of predictive customer experience platforms:
- building stronger relationships with employers and job seekers
- anticipating customers’ behavior (that’s the “predictive” part)
- identifying CX issues in real time
- preempting customer problems
Deriving these benefits isn’t automatic, but with the right technology, company-wide commitment and strategy, your firm can transform raw data into actionable insights to elevate your customer experience. If you’d like to learn more, I’ll publishing a follow-up post to this piece soon.
So, should you ditch customer satisfaction surveys in 2022?
Absolutely not! Predictive analytics will become an important part of your success, but customer surveys are still relevant. In fact, actively soliciting feedback on your firm’s service will continue to help you uncover problems, improve customer retention and identify opportunities for improvement. As you look to the future, however, consider the ways predictive customer insights could prompt alerts and guide swift action to elevate your CX and boost your bottom line.
