These are what I think will be the three biggies:
Wearables
Remember the 2004 film Supersize me? If you think our current consumption of Apple Watches, Fitbits, Pebbls etc., is a healthy appetite for wearable tech, 2016 is going to leave you fuller than you’ve ever been before. Over the next four years, sales of wearables worldwide are predicted to reach a staggering 175 million, up almost eight-fold from last year – the UK is about to go supersize on wearable technology.
I think that we’ll see the wearables market expand in several ways. When it comes to the devices themselves, we are expecting a whole host of launches, many from non-tech companies like Tissot with its smart watches and Nike with its Accelerate shoes. These launches will increase both the access to and the appeal of wearables for UK consumers.
If you’re a B2B company and are wondering what this has to do with you, let me assure you that the boom in wearables won’t just be coming from consumers. A large portion of the expected growth will be driven by businesses. Wearables, in headset form, first came to life in the contact centre and have been a growing part of business life ever since. These days the use cases are boundless – especially in areas where early-adopter workers need hands-free access to information. For example remote healthcare workers in rural general hospitals could use communications-enabled wearables to video call specialist, surgical teams when operating on a patient. Or, police officers could be assisted by wearables while on traffic duty. Most people just think of wearables as being a new, exciting channel for customer engagement but actually, there are almost endless possibilities for the use of wearables in businesses.
Data Science
Regardless of any budget constraints you may have, I’m sure that at some point in 2016 you’ll want to call on the services of a data scientist. In fact I think that they’ll be so in demand by the end of the year that we’ll start to see a data science skills shortage. Why? Because of the power of Big Data. You may be sick to death of hearing about the potential of Big Data, but it really is changing the business landscape. Data science offers businesses a massive point of differentiation in terms of their ability to deliver the ideal customer experience. That’s why more and more companies are going to be putting resource behind dealing with the mountain of data they have at their fingertips. It’s also why in the long-term, I’m sure it’ll be the companies that employ big data statisticians that succeed and, as they realise this, everyone – yourself included – will want to work with a data scientist.
Seamless customer experience
How many online profiles do you have? Probably more than you think: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Skype or FaceTime for a start, but what about all the accounts you have with retailers and other organisations? These days everyone has several versions of the ‘online me’ as well as the original ‘in-person me’ and we’re starting to see these merge. Next year, I think brands will be hard at work getting to know both the online and the in-the-flesh you and combining these two into one person. And I’m sure consumers will be very relieved when they do, as it will mean a higher level of service.
For most companies this ‘joined-upness’ is still very much a ‘work in progress’. For many, siloes and legacy IT are preventing them from connecting the dots and, as a result, they’re still facing a huge gap between customer expectations of a seamless on- and off-line experience and the reality of what they can offer today.
But, in 2016, I think we’ll see companies striving to deliver an omnichannel customer experience – understanding customer behaviour and preferences through every touch point, including physical ones. For example, they might send welcome texts and offers to customers via their mobile phones when they enter a high-street shop. And these texts will be personalised and highly relevant, because they’ll be based on the customer’s online history. The customer experience is evolving to be all about one seamless customer journey that connects all the possible touchpoints.
