Looking ahead is always a tricky business. While the turn of the year presents an opportunity to take a fresh look at your strategy and plan where to focus your energies, it can be hard to sort real trends from hype. In 2023, leaders will have to search for ways to do mores with less, find value where innovations overlap, and strategically invest in technologies that are hitting a tipping point.

However, although technology is important let’s not forget it is only an enabler that will leverage us to success. Everything begins with the customer, and the experience we deliver to them (Customer Experience). Passing through our people (Employee Experience), with the right leadership and strategy and being agile and innovative.

Businesses have faced huge challenges and have undergone and incredible amount of change over the past few years, and this will not slow down in 2023. According to Forbes, it is five the key challenges businesses will have to deal with in 2023:

Immersive customer experience: In 2023, customers will crave experiences above all else. That does not necessarily mean that price point and quality take a back seat, though. Both will play a part, to some extent, in the way we experience the process of choosing, purchasing, and enjoying the goods and services we spend our money on. The role that technology plays here, traditionally, has been to streamline processes and remove hassle from the life of customers. Think recommendation engines that help us choose what to buy or online customer service portals that deal with problems and after-sales support. These will still play a key role in 2023, but the game has evolved, with this year’s keywords being immersion and interactivity. Digital experiences will become more entertaining, shared, and live; brands will have to position themselves as life partners; immersive experience will become the new normal; and brands will literally need to walk in the footsteps of their customers and will ditch demographics for behavior-based targeting. As well as customer experience, businesses need to think about employee experience as competition for the most talented and skilled workers grows more intense. Pay attention to the next trends customers will be looking for:

1. Positivity with impact.

2. The rise of empowered CX.

3. Bright CX – Increase CX efficiency, performance, and convenience.

4. Customers expect you be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

5. Re-invent your customer loyalty – From customer journey to life journey.

6. Make people believe – Walk the talk, and with an extra mile.

7. Invisible CX – Bring in the robots and AI! – To anticipate customers needs and be proactive.

The talent challenge: Over the past year, we have seen huge movements of talented people, referred to as great resignation and quiet quitting, as workers reassessed the impact of work and what they want to get out off their lives. This has put pressure on employers to ensure they are providing attractive careers, the flexibility of hybrid work, and an enticing work environment and company culture. Offering people fulfilling work, ongoing opportunities to grow and learn, flexibility and diverse, value-oriented workplaces will all be essential in 2023. The accelerated digital transformation leads to more workplace automation that will augment pretty much every single job in the world. Humans will increasingly share their work with intelligent machines and smart robots, and that has huge implications for the skills and talent companies will require in the future.

Accelerated digital transformation: There will be a continuation of innovations and developments in transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), cloud computing, blockchain, and super-fast network protocols like 5G. What is more, these transformational digital technologies do not exist in isolation from each other, and we will see the boundaries between them blurring. This brings us closer than ever to the point where we will be able to create “intelligent enterprises” where systems and processes support each other to complete menial and mundane tasks in the most efficient way possible.

Inflation and supply chain security: Experts say we should expect ongoing inflation and subdued economic growth. To combat this and stay afloat, companies need to improve their resilience in any way they can. This means reducing exposure to volatile market pricing of commodities, as well as building protective measures into supply chains to deal with shortages and rising logistical costs.

Sustainability: The world is increasingly waking up to the fact that climate disaster will pose a much bigger challenge than anything we have experienced in recent decades. That means investors and consumers will prefer businesses with the right environmental and social credentials, and buying trends are increasingly being driven by conscious consumers. In 2023, companies need to make sure that their environmental, social and governance (ESG) processes are moved to the center of their strategy.

Now that you have a general idea of the business trends for 2023, it is time to start strengthening your business for what is to come.

Listen and understand your customers to be able to deliver exceptional Customer Experiences and to build a Sustainable Business Success.

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Dogma C3X is an Intelligent Business Consulting Platform inspired by the 3Cs industry model, which offers a strategic look at the pillars that every company needs for success: Customers – Company – Competitors. "Intelligent" because by using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) it can collect, process, and analyze the growing tsunami of data (structured and unstructured) related to the 3Cs, which is incredibly valuable. Only by strengthening, positioning, and integrating these three pillars (Customers - Company - Competitors) you will be able to build a sustainable competitive advantage.