It seems like we have just started perfecting the Customer Experience (CX) delivery in the Web 2.0. world. We are all just getting to the point where we have figured out how to interact with customers, set up their accounts, and get impressive results from it in this current digital environment. However, as technology changes — the customer experience methodology and delivery have to adapt and change with it. Implementing 100% of CX 2.0 practices into a 3.0 world would be like fitting into your favorite pair of jeans you used to wear in high school. Feels good for a brief second, but then — incredibly uncomfortable, outdated, and looks a little desperate, to be honest.

Customer experience goes through evolutionary steps every time our society changes. We are living through this change right now, and that is why we understand the importance of adopting CX 3.0. strategies. It is a little cheesy to insert a famous quote in texts these days; however, we couldn’t find words better than these to describe the necessity of change. “It is not the strongest that survives, but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.” You all know who said this, right?

So CX 3.0. is basically customer experience in the Web 3.0 world.

Think back to the ’80s, ’90s, or 2000s. The promises of future technology seemed crazy. Not only did they seem incredibly unrealistic to the majority; many people couldn’t even wrap their heads around how it could work. However, here we are, holding our iPhone 12s in our hands, having unlimited data storage, and interacting with anyone at any time from anywhere in the world. Here is what’s important to understand. This didn’t happen overnight. The small incremental changes drove us to where we are right now. This process is continuous, and therefore the change will happen but will only be adequately noticeable with a naked eye in a significant amount of time from now.

If you are not stepping on the ladder now, it will be tough to catch up. We are not encouraging anyone to rush into changing strategies right now. However, as business leaders, business owners, or even specialists, we have to start immersing ourselves into this world so that we are not swimming with our eyes shut. Figuring out how and why customer experience is changing right now and understanding the technology behind it will allow you to go through this transition without a rush, with fewer risks and a deep understanding of its purpose.

So now let’s get to the fun stuff.

Fundamentally, CX’s primary goal is to create a positive experience and maintain a good reputation for your brand. However, the ways that you can do it are changing, which we will be looking at.

One important thing to remember is that most human activities are based on experience rather than analysis. Meaning that customers can forgive flaws if their overall experience is fantastic. However, analysis is something that you need as a company to provide that perfect experience. Of course, we always had analytical tools in this industry, but now it is a little different.

Big Data is turning customer experience into an art of science. Think about this… by 2025, there will be 463 exabytes of data created daily. Using this data to understand your customer is not just a suggestion. It is mandatory. As much as we believe in your gut feeling capabilities, now you won’t need to guess. You can personalize your customer experience because you can see the customer’s sentiment on specific topics. You can use your customer’s feedback directly in the decision-making process for product and service innovations. It’s like personalization on steroids. Everything will be so connected that you can leverage that information as a brand.

There is, of course, a big question of information ownership. Without the middleman, users own their information. Put yourself into the shoes of a customer and imagine that you could make your information an asset. Imagine that you get paid every time someone uses your data, kind of like royalties. Now put your business owner hat on.

Can you see the opportunity? Yes, it is scary at first because by now, you are so used to the graphs and numbers that Google or Meta provides us with. As a CX specialist, you know 100% that reputation is everything. Suppose people choose where and when they share their personal information with it. It makes perfect sense that they will select those companies that are more transparent, ethical, and friendly. Simply having good reviews isn’t enough. The customer’s perception of your brand is who you are. Therefore, the better your image, the more access you will have to their details.

Web 3.0. implies that people will have access to the Internet anywhere, at any time, via any number of devices. In CX, that means a huge deal because we will need to have the ability to talk to customers at any moment through THEIR preferred medium. Yes, that’s right. If someone messages you on Twitter, simply asking them to email you isn’t good enough. If they reached out to you via email, that means that, for whatever reason, they prefer to talk to you via this channel, and you have to respect that. Each medium also defines how much time is acceptable to take to reply. If a person is reaching out via email, they are most likely prepared to wait a little longer than if they are contacting through a chatbot or a phone.

Speaking of chatbots. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of AI? Chatbots? Everyone has one now, right? Most of them are pretty basic, and sometimes that is enough. But oftentimes, it isn’t. The context is changing. Contextual awareness is crucial in perfecting your customer service. Chatbots have to understand a user’s history, whether they were contacted before and what the issues were, were they resolved, and how. There also has to be a very smooth transition between different mediums. Let’s say we called your customer service department, and then we wanted to ask something in a chatbot. It has to understand what our issue was and what the outcome was.

Now let’s talk about the social side of things. Each business needs to have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., accounts. Common knowledge, right? You need to put engaging, good-looking content out there that is also a mix of short and long videos, images, and stories. Every single social media manager will tell you that. So, what is going to change?

There has been a very gradual transition: first, we needed to have many followers. Remember? Everyone was buying them, and well… no secret there, that some corrupt governments even have their “bot farms.” They created those because people quickly realized that the number of followers doesn’t matter. What matters is engagement. To have high engagement, you would look at the ratio of followers vs. comments, likes, etc. That was the first step toward the move of “quality over quantity.” This still wasn’t so much about CX but more about sharing some information to drive sales. In CX 3.0. the consumers will be able to participate more directly in the value and influence companies they support.

For example, you could issue your NFTs and sell them to your current followers as a blogger. As you grow in value, your NFTs grow in value as well. Meaning that your customers have a direct interest in your success. Try this and watch how actively they will start liking your posts now.

As you can see, creating a community, a truly caring group of people that are constantly engaged and interested in your company, is crucial. This is all very new and mostly done on Discord or Twitch platforms. The user interface on these is not familiar to people, and those that are new there can quickly get lost and disinterested. Therefore, it is a massive part of a successful CX 3.0 to invest in customer support regarding these new channels (whichever ones you decide to go for).

Another critical distinction between the CX 2.0 and 3.0 is that instead of creating an account on a social media platform, you now make your own social media on a platform. Do you see the difference? That is a HUGE opportunity to access and create some of your most loyal customers.

The big M! Many people actually use the words VR and metaverse interchangeably, and this is not entirely correct. Put it this way, VR can be part of the metaverse, but it doesn´t have to. There is no exact definition of “metaverse” so everyone is putting their own meaning into it, that mostly influenced by the limitations of Holywood’s imagination. Generally speaking, the metaverse is simply an idea, where you have your identity (for instance Meta Mask, or something along those lines), and you can do everything in both the real and virtual worlds with that one identity. That also means that all your assets are accessible and usable in any of these worlds. Think of it like, instead of creating an account for every single thing, you can just use your wallet to do so. Think of it that not only you can jump between games using the same avatar, and being able to use your assets in all the games, but also use them in the real world. Imagine that you are trying to buy alcohol, and they are asking for your ID. If you show your driving license, they will see a lot of information that they don´t need to know, such as your address, or your name. However, if your wallet has a token that just proves your age, you just scan that — job done. What does this mean for customer experience? This means that there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Starting from educating your employees that it is ok to prove age using your “avatar” (wallet) to actually building systems that will allow you to do so.

If you look at the metaverse from the Virtual Reality (VR) perspective you should know that simply putting Oculus on does not put you into Web 3.0 yet. Currently, only some parts of VR stuff are Web 3.0. For example, Nike is releasing NFTs for its sneakers that can be purchased in the VR metaverse. Or rumor is that you will be able to go into a VR version of Mcdonald’s, pay with crypto and get the food delivered to your door. If we use our imagination we can see how people will even be able to change their Virtual World, taking their virtual money with them and easily exchanging them for the currency that is used in the world they came to. Kind of like going to Europe and exchanging your dollars once you are there.

You have to understand that VR in itself is a whole separate door into CX 3.0. Imagine speaking with agents in the VR, imagine the level of personalization you can achieve there, imagine that Siri has a face, and a body, and imagine that the virtual and the real world become one. This is not the time to raise ethical and philosophical questions about it. This is the time to start researching and acting on it because it is happening. I haven’t met a single 10-year-old who doesn’t think this is cool. In 10 years, they will be your customers if you play it right. If you do it ethically then you create a good thing, and not pretend that you are good — that’s what matters.

Suppose the metaverse is too far for your perception of reality. In that case, Augmented Reality is something that is becoming more and more popular in CX 3.0 right now. For example, if you are selling furniture that needs to be put together by a customer, you could create an app. That app will give your customers instructions when they place their phone camera on the piece that they are putting together. It can recognize issues they are having and provide them with a set of instructions on how to fix it. Then if they can’t fix it, it automatically suggests to call support, and all they need to do is say “yes.” ​​71% of customers say that they would shop more often if they could use AR 🤫

If you are not ready to dive deep into Web 3.0 that is fine. We all have a business to run and studying this topic can quickly become a full-time job in itself. However, we can prepare our businesses and wait in the wings. How do we do that? By creating a fully functioning, integrated digital space for your business. By aligning all your digital assets you ensure that your technology is supporting your customer experience strategy. At the end of the day every good strategy starts with a goal. If your goal is to perfect your customer experience (which it should be because it´s one of the most important USP´s that exist right now due to hyper-competition) then web 3.0 technology attributes are just tools that you need to consider to achieve that goal. Perfecting web 2.0 tech and strategically adding web 3.0 tech into your digital mix will make your CX stronger. It´s the incremental change that matters!

Customer experience 3.0 is happening right now in front of you, along with Web 3.0. The sooner you recognize it — the better it will be for your business. Remember that we are just in the very beginning of the 3.0 experience ourselves. The technology is out there to use, but there are no strict rules. Those getting in this game now get to take this technology and principles and create their own rules and procedures. Those who understand that customer service has to step up will create a whole community of loyal customers around them. Those who will see opportunities in these technologies and genuinely help their customers understand by building better experiences and a better world will reap the rewards. Remember that customer experience is not a destination, it’s a lifelong journey where things change, and that’s ok.