23 total experience stats to know in 2023

Last year, we brought you 22 Total Experience Stats to Know in 2022. As a refresher, total experience is the strategy focused on addressing the needs of a brand’s key stakeholders — users, customers, and employees. A total experience mindset recognizes that every touchpoint with your brand is interconnected, so every experience matters. The good news is that in 2023, this way of thinking isn’t going anywhere. Experts predict that in 2023, many of the elements that make up total experience will be bolstered by advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and employee engagement. So, without further ado, we bring you 23 total experience stats to know in 2023.

CFOs plan to increase CX spending

Inflation is up and a recession may be looming, but now is not the time to cut customer experience (CX) spending, and nearly a quarter of chief financial officers agree. According to a 2022 CFO poll conducted by Gartner:

• 21% of CFOs plan to increase CX spending
• 72% plan to maintain current CX spending levels
• Only 7% plan to decrease CX spending

Contact centers are moving to the cloud.

Customer experience is a big category, so where exactly are organizations planning to allocate their CX dollars? Customer experience functions are increasingly moving away from on-premises solutions to cloud-based CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) platforms, and the projections are staggering. According to a Grand View Research market analysis report:

• CCaaS is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.4% from 2022 to 2030.
• CCaaS market size value was $4.43 billion in 2022.
• CCaaS market size is expected to be valued at $17.2 billion by 2030.

Conversational AI could drive down labor costs.

While cloud migration can help cut down on contact center capital expenses, advances in conversational AI will help organizations find savings through reduced agent labor costs. Today, labor makes up the vast majority of contact center costs, but that could be changing as organizations embrace new technologies. According to Gartner:

• Conversational AI deployments within contact centers will reduce agent labor costs by $80 billion within the next three years.
• One in 10 agent interactions will be automated by 2026.
• Approximately 25% of organizations will deploy chatbots as their primary customer service channel by 2027.

Customers continue to expect personalized service.

Of course, one key component of creating truly exceptional customer experiences with automation is personalization — a deep understanding of the customer — and organizations should double down on personalization in 2023 and beyond. Customers already know that brands have access to endless personal information, and they expect them to use that information to tailor a relevant experience. According to Gartner:

• 86% of B2B customers expect companies to be well-informed about their personal information during a service interaction.
• 71% of B2C customers expect an advanced level of knowledge and personalization.

But it’s not enough to simply know the basics, like a customer’s name. The Genesys Connected Customer Experience study uncovered that:

• Nearly 50% of those surveyed feel more connected to companies that remember them.
• 83% of consumers surveyed value customer service that understands their needs.
• 59% prefer an empathetic experience to a fast resolution.

AI can improve the employee experience.

The above statistics about empathy and understanding speak to a basic truth within the Total Experience — your employees matter. Even the smartest AI can’t provide the same human experience that your best agents can. Sure, with rapid advances toward cloud-based contact centers, AI, and chatbots, it would be easy to think that employees could become obsolete.

While these innovations can take over some functions of live representatives, future-looking organizations are leveraging technology to enhance employee/customer interactions — not replace them. According to the Customer Experience and the Future of Work report conducted by MIT and Genesys:

• Over 80% of organizations expect to roll out agent-assist technology and sentiment analysis by 2024 so agents can better course correct if customers are becoming frustrated.
• 70% of organizations expect to use AI-based coaching and training for agents within the next 1-2 years.
• 58% of organizations currently use agent-assist technology and 25% expect to roll it out in the next 1-2 years.
• 69% of survey respondents expect CX work to become more specialized in the next 1-2 years.

Data and security issues are still a major risk, but AI can help.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t address the risks to increased technology dependence, and those are data breaches and fraud. According to the 2022 Cost of a Data Breach report by IBM:

• The average cost of a data breach in the US is $9.44 million.
• 83% of organizations studied had more than one breach.
• 45% of all data breaches happen in the cloud.

The good news is that while security issues are a very real and costly concern, by implementing strong compliance components into their CX offering, organizations can mitigate these risks. The IBM study found organizations with a fully deployed AI and automation program could:

• Identify and contain a breach 28 days faster than those that didn’t have fully deployed AI.
• Saved $3 million in breach-related costs.

Technology and the total experience go hand in hand.

In 2023, brands that want to excel in creating an exceptional Total Experience must focus on understanding and thoughtfully implementing AI across relevant touchpoints in the employee, user, and customer experience. The benefits of this technology-forward approach include reduced costs and improved efficiency. Still, more importantly, when technology is executed correctly, brands can experience a major boost in their total experience.