The connected customer has emerged as the driving force in a world of constant innovation, mobility, and disruption. New technologies have put customers in the driver’s seat of the marketplace – giving them power over which brands sink or swim in the digital age.

Companies that treat customers with awareness and intelligence – and put the customer experience at the centre of their business strategies – will succeed in this connected world, according to a Salesforce, one of the largest providers of customer relationship management (CRM) software globally.

In its ‘State of the Connected Customer’ report based on insights from over 7,000 consumers and business buyers on expectations for a smarter customer experience, Salesforce predicts the following key trends on how customers and technology will interact in 2020.

Here’re the key predictions:

CONSUMERS EXPECT MAINSTREAM SMART TECH BY 2020
By 2020, forward-looking customers – especially millennials – envision a personal life that’s in uenced by intelligent technologies such as connected appliances and vehicles, Salesforce predicts.

Millennials (and their true digital-native successors, Gen Z) will continue to wield considerable cultural influence and purchasing power well into the future, when the Internet of things (IoT) and virtual and augmented reality will be as common as smartphones.

TECH WILL STRENGTHEN CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
By 2020, consumers foresee technology innovations as increasingly integrated with the customer journey. For example, according to Salesforce, 58 per cent of them predict that products will automatically self-diagnose and correct problems.

HIGH DEMAND FOR SMARTER, MORE INTUITIVE B2B EXPERIENCES
Social networks, cloud computing, smartphones, data analytics, and other technologies have fueled a dramatic workplace disruption in the last decade. Business buyers fully embrace this shift.

Salesforce predicts by 2020, business buyers expect companies to make great strides in technology that simplifies sales and service. 79 per cent want to be identified upon contacting customer service, while 75 per cent want companies to make relevant suggestions before being contacted.