Brian Tong presents four customer priorities for 2023 drawn from Salesforce's fifth State of the Connected Customer Report (survey of nearly 17,000 consumers and business buyers across 29 countries, data through February 2022). The four trends are: Personalization (customers expect tailored offers but require transparency and consent), Flexibility (customers adopted new digital purchasing methods during the pandemic and still want both digital and traditional options), Connectedness (customers expect cohesive, cross-team/data-integrated experiences), and Values (customers prefer companies aligned with their social/environmental values). The video interleaves headline statistics and brief personal anecdotes and points viewers to the full report for more detail.
Questions this video answers
Nearly 17,000 consumers and business buyers in 29 countries across six continents.
February 2022.
56%.
79%.
69%.
Chapters
What's up, friends? Brian Tong here. And you're all here hanging with me to find out the four things customers want in 2023. And this list isn't me making up a list of my own. This is from Salesforce's fifth State of the Connected Customer Report, which just launched. And there's insights here from nearly 17,000 consumers and business buyers in 29 different countries and six continents. The survey ran through February 2022, so the data here is fresh. Now, if you want to check out the research in detail, you can. You can click the info card popping up on the screen right now. There is a ton in there that I'm not gonna cover here. And also make sure to subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications so you won't miss all the good stuff that we're putting out here and more videos like this. So I'm doing all the homework for you and bringing you again the four big trends that bubble to the top. Now, the first things customers want in 2023. Personalization. Of course, you need data about your customer to create a great personalized experience for them, and customers understand that. But they also want you to be transparent and consent forward. Now, I'm a consumer, and basically, when it comes to personalization and privacy, we want to have our cake and eat it, too. Like, I'm fine with my healthcare provider sending me texts that remind me to set up a date on my vaccinations or make an annual eye appointment. Like, I've allowed them to use my medical data in that way, and those texts make my life more convenient. But I'm not okay with a text from a random politician asking me if I'm planning to vote for them. Personalization matters. 56% of customers expect offers to always be personalized, but you've got to have trust and communication. 79% of consumers are more likely to trust a company with their info if its use is clearly explained. Now, the good news is trust in companies is actually on the rise. Consumers feel companies take online privacy more seriously than they used to, and they're more comfortable sharing their personal information than. Than they used to be. But there's still gotta be a good reason, and there's got to be trust. So personalization matters as long as companies are doing the right thing with our data. Okay, the second important thing to customers in 2023 is flexibility. That's why I'm stretching out right now. Let's go to the right. Back to the left. That feels good. Oh, not that type of flexibility. You know, I'm talking about the flexibility to engage with customers in new ways and traditional ways. So some customers will want to visit your store and touch and feel the merchandise, while others will really be excited to try out your cool new VR experience to test drive a car. We know the pandemic accelerated new digital ways of engaging with companies. Many customers, 69% in fact, tried new ways of purchasing things in the past two years. So let's take a look at curbside pickup, for instance. Between 2020 and 2022, the share of customers using curbside pickup nearly doubled from 31% to 60%. And now it's become part of our normal lives. According to the report, even as society opens back up, customers are spending just as much time online and still using those new ways of buying. I mean, personally, I have never used DoorDash, Postmates and Uber Eats more than I do now. And it doesn't look like it's going to change. Gen Z hasn't fully come of age and currently gen Z is 1.6 times more likely to engage digitally versus baby boomers. So digital is going to keep growing. Now, with all that said, that doesn't mean companies should stop investing in non digital experiences. Many customers still like the traditional ways of doing things and you're not going to want to lose their business. Customers want everything and often and at the same time. Like, I know you're online watching this, you're probably online shopping at the same time. Yeah. Sophia, you didn't think I saw you, did ya? Well, I did. And those blue slacks are going to look great on you anyways. You've got to be flexible enough to accommodate your customers and all their different preferences for making purchases and engaging with your business. All right? The third thing customers want in 2023 is connectedness. That means they want a cohesive and connected experience. Overnight, everything was shut down. And companies, they had to rush super fast to reinvent ways of doing things. Maybe their products and services aren't all integrated and the data to make it happen isn't being shared. Maybe their teams aren't talking to each other. Either way, customers can feel it. Now, here's a small example, like I was trying to make a change to some reservations at a specific hotel, but the reservation rep couldn't access any information on the hotel I was looking for. No one could explain why the data wasn't connected. So I gave up. And then finally I just called back a month later and then they could do it. But the whole thing, it made no sense. So unfortunately A lot of companies operate this way with siloed data. And this kind of stuff is a huge problem for companies. Customer experience is more important than ever. Right now, 88% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. So that's a big issue. If customers get frustrated when they reach out, they expect your company to work like a well oiled machine. Now, according to the State of the connected customer report, 83% of customers expect to solve complex problems by speaking to one person. But 52% say most support interactions are fragmented and send you all over the place to get an answer. Or sometimes no answer at all. Like we have all been there, I've been there, you've been there. So sharing data and information for a cohesive experience matters to customers. And finally, the fourth thing that matters to customers in the State of the Connected Customer Report is values. Don't stand on the sidelines, take a stand. Customers want companies to play a part in creating a better future. They want you to be vocal and involved and aligned with their values. And that can honestly go in many directions. But 66% of customers have skilled stopped buying from a company whose values didn't align with theirs. But it does show that values matter to the consumer and it's especially true for younger generations. And plenty of companies are already leading the way by leading with their values. Like Apple, it's committed to using 100% recycled materials for some of its products and plans to have 100% carbon neutral products by 2023. Now the report shows us that trusting companies is actually improving and people are trusting that companies do the right thing. And in fact, 68% of customers trust companies to act with society's best interest in mind. And that's up from 59% in 2020. If you don't have any values that are defined, it's time to step up. People are also keen on how companies operate and they say the treatment of customers and employees, environmental practices and actions on economic and racial injustice influence their decision to buy from a company. So we got personalization, flexibility, connectedness and values. Those are the four things that customers want in 2023. And there are even more trends, data and interesting nuggets that can be found in the State of the Connected Customer Report that you can go to right here and just dig deeper for yourself by clicking the link on the screen. Plus, it looks real fancy and nice too. Good job guys. And don't forget to subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications to get the latest videos from Salesforce when they drop. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you on the next one.
