Stay Ahead of the Game: The Must-Have CX Design Skills for 2023
CX design skills are increasing in demand in 2023.
This year is looking like an exciting year for CX professionals! Companies across the globe are recognising the importance of designing a good customer experience.
With so many organisations competing in the same siloes, organisations are looking at customer experience as a point of difference from their competition.
And with rapid advancements in technology opening the door to more personalised experiences for customers, we can expect massive growth in this field.
But what skills are organisations looking for in a CX professional?
In this article we’ll be looking at 6 CX design Skills which leaders in the CX field use to excel.
Contents
- Empathy – Why you need to care how your customers feel.
- Data Analysis – The importance of Data-Driven Decision Making
- User-Centered Design – Why you need to design “relevant” experiences
- Technology Integration – The importance of staying up to date with the latest advancements.
- Adaptability – Designing with changing customer needs in mind.
Lets hop into it
#1 Understanding your customers – The importance of Empathy
Image source: QED42
Travis Brown, Head of CX at Officeworks said that the greatest lesson he ever learned was the power of listening and empathy.
I think the one thing that I’ve loved over my journey in the CX space is that there’s lots of avenues to get data and access to things, you know, and at the end of the day, your opinion necessarily doesn’t matter. You’ve got to be able to represent the voice of the customer and therefore you have to really listen and you have to really empathise and engage.
Listen to the full interview here.
Developing empathy in CX design involves truly understanding your customers and their needs.
You can design with empathy by utilising a range of user research techniques.
Techniques such as customer research, personas, user testing, empathy mapping, role-playing, customer feedback analysis, and collaboration with customer-facing teams.
These techniques can help you gain insights into the customer’s emotions, motivations, and pain points, and inform your CX design decisions to improve the overall customer experience.
Empathy is a critical component of effective CX design, as it allows you to design products and services that truly meet the needs of your customers.
It is a crucial CX design skill in 2023.
#2 Data Analysis – The importance of Data-Driven decisions
There are increasingly sophisticated ways to gather user data but your ability to interpret that data is what separates good cx from the bad.
Good data analysis starts with a quality data set. The techniques listed in the previous section can all provide you with valuable insights into your users. Using data to paint a clearer picture of your target audience can build customer engagement and loyalty and also direct your internal teams to pain points which they can then address.
Every major CX decision you make should be backed by data.
Crucial skills for Data Analysis include;
- Critical thinking
- Structured Query Langauge (SQL)
- Data Visualisation Software such as tableau
- Presentation skills
- Microsoft Excel
The following tasks are often described when Data Analysis is outlined as a skill in a job description.
- Map out an effective customer journey.
- Identify where user issues lie and the drivers behind them.
- Gain an insight into what is driving NPS (Net Promoter Score)
#3 Designing relevant experiences – User Centred Design
Quote Travis Brown – Ten In Ten podcast. January 2022
In his recent interview, Travis Brown said;
“People who design for everyone, generally design for no one.”
This is an essential element to understanding user centred design. Not every experience is going to work for every customer. The key to designing an effective customer experience is to keep in mind user needs and expectations which are unique to the user.
User-centered design in CX puts the customer at the center of the design process and uses their insights, feedback, and behavior to create products and services.
This results in a positive and enjoyable customer experience and higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. The key principles include understanding the customer, considering their needs, creating an intuitive design, and continuously testing and improving based on customer feedback.
Important skills for a User Centred Designer
- Visual design
- User research
- Prototyping and testing.
#4 Design Thinking – Preempting Customer needs
A design-thinking mindset helps CX experts preempt customer needs and better anticipate their wants, which is critical to providing a satisfying customer experience.
A good place to begin the design-thinking process is with a simple question: “What is the customer journey?”
Once you understand what the customer is experiencing in the current state you can then empathise with them and design an experience which addresses their needs.
“Design thinking is about low-fidelity, high-touch conversational design. It’s about asking lots of questions and being insatiably curious about collecting a high volume and variety of answers to those questions.”
PJ Stephen – Vice President at Valtech
If you are not utilising design thinking then you are simply designing from your own understanding of the situation, which may not accurately reflect the reality.
The 5 Design Thinking Skills
- Emotional intelligence
- Consensus Building – The ability to define the end user and how you define success.
- User Research – Conducting surveys, User Interviews and Direct Observations.
- Journey Mapping
- Brainstorming – Mindmapping, Storyboarding, Crowdstorming, Prototyping.
#5 Technology Integration – Keeping up with the latest trends
Source: inclusiveclassrooms.org
Cx is experiencing a period of rapid growth and the technology used to implement it seems to be changing by the day.
CX technology encompasses a vast range of customer facing and non customer facing technologies. Everything from Contactless payments or Augmented reality to automated user onboarding plays a role in providing a seamless customer experience.
This year the pursuit of a personalised customer experienced has kicked up a gear with the increasing accessibility of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
As a CX professional it is so important to be aware of emerging technologies and trends and understand the way in which you can utilise them.
Skills for staying on top of CX technology.
- Attend events and summits which showcase the latest advancements in the field of technology.
- Follow influential people within the tech world.
- Segment your user data as much as you can. If you can refine your user data to very specific characteristics then
#6 Adaptability – Designing for Change.
Image source: Grant Cardone TV
Designing CX can be like aiming for a moving target.
It can be difficult to build an experience with longevity if customer needs and expectations are constantly changing. 2023 will be no different, possibly changing at an even faster pace.
Being adaptable means you are able to track and meet their needs as they change. Anticipating and responding quickly as trends come and go.
As a CX designer the skills which will make you more adaptable to changes include;
- Design experiences which emphasise growing customer loyalty.
- Take in as many influences and innovations as you can
- Continually monitor user data to understand changing results.
It’s an exciting time to be in CX.
Make sure you’re on top of the CX design skills in this article in order to make the most of the opportunities to create amazing CX this year.
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