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EMEA Blog

COVID-19 has disrupted everyday life, but it hasn’t stifled the need for innovation. Artificial intelligence tools are creating true differentiation and customer journey management for brands in the growing digital space. Even amidst economic downturn, investments in AI may still reach over €20 billion in Europe said EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager at European Parliament’s new AI committee.

How has COVID-19 affected customer and brand loyalty and what can businesses do to regain that loyalty? Here’s what industry experts, researchers, and customer experience leaders are seeing on the ground as major corporations to SMBs attempt to answer this very question.

Businesses in every industry are continuing to deal with the effects of COVID-19. With many previous predictions on the economy now registered moot, experts are now weighing on what it means to deliver relevant customer experiences.

Understanding where your customers are and how to reach them in a seamless fashion is the cornerstone of any modern customer experience. Unfortunately, by the time a customer typically reaches your contact centre it means you have failed to deliver an effortless experience.

Over the past 10 years we've seen this buzzword called “omnichannel” come into play. This has left organisations with a channel-first strategy that ironically led to less access and fragmented conversations due to poor hand-offs, technology introduced for technology’s sake and misuse of data.

The customer experience (CX) technology market is hot right now. The pandemic revealed just how poor most companies’ CX infrastructure is and exposed wide gaps in how companies interact with customers, especially through digital channels. As a result, many companies have re-prioritized digital initiatives and are taking a hard look at their customer-related operations. In fact, Grandview Research predicts a 250% increase in CX spending by 2027.

It’s an incredibly disruptive time for the automotive sector in Europe. Right now, digital adoption, ride-sharing apps, and emission regulations are just a few factors that are reshaping a century old industry.

If we examine the space further, you’ll see that success in 2020 is not only about identifying the disruptors but knowing how to act on them as well: