The Future of Customer Interaction

A concept that aims to paraphrase existing knowledge on global societal trends and disruptive technologies towards specific domains and situations. It is a platform where relevant information is brought together as well as a community that shares insights and interprets consequences. The aim is not just to inspire, rather to support and guide companies in strategy and innovation programs. It is all about creating a holistic view of trends and their impact on society, business and customer interaction in 2030.

The Future of Customer Interaction is an idea of The Next Organization; an internationally operating consulting firm from The Netherlands, specialised in optimising and innovating the commercial performance of companies. With initiating this concept, The Next Organization aspires to fill a gap between knowledge and its applicability with regard to the Future of Customer Interaction – a ‘white spot’ we observe and experience in their everyday practice. The objective is to create a logical place to gather valuable insights, but also to establish a ‘consultation body’ for constructive dialogues and energetic brainstorms. The platform as well as the community will be developed together with co-creating partners; from profit to non-profit organisations, from universities and business schools to film makers.

Trends & Technologies

Trends can be described as developments that started in the past, that are currently present, and that are expected to continue in the future. Trends show in which direction something will develop. Trendwatching, an important capability, has everything to do with interpreting a development already noticed, and – unlike some people tend to think – nothing with ‘predicting’.

Domains of Daily Life

The global societal trends and disruptive technologies are influencing every aspect of daily life, both for businesses and consumers. The trends which are identified will have an impact on these aspects of live. These aspects of life are in this model classified in 8 domains in order to make the impact of the trends more specific; housing, feed and care, health, education, work, shopping, leisure, mobility and housing.

Future of Customer Interaction

In the Future of Customer Interaction the different societal trends and disruptive technologies that are identified in the model, will be combined with the different domains to see what kind of affect this has on the future interaction with customers. The Future of Customer Interaction helps to position these trends and technologies in a certain domain in order to inspire, support and prepare you for the future.

The challenge

Nowadays, companies need to survive in an extremely fast-changing world, characterised by societal movements and new technologies. The speed at which strategies and business concepts need to be renewed is ever increasing. A survey of Fortune 500, held in 2015 amongst all CEOs of companies on the Fortune 500 list (ranking the largest publicly held companies in the USA), turned out that ‘the rapid pace of technological change’ is the number one answer to the question ‘what is your company’s biggest challenge?’, thereby stressing the importance of the issue.

Not only the F500

Not only companies listed in the Fortune 500 face difficulties in adapting to the quickly changing context. The majority of companies face challenges, regardless of background and sector. This is caused by the fact that business actors are not able to perfectly predict how societal movements and new technologies will impact their business model. In order to overcome this challenge, organisations should closely track the trends and technologies and translate the most relevant ones (to them) into new ways of interaction with customers.