The Metaverse is everywhere. From Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber playing to digital audiences, to South Korea investing directly in metaverse projects, it’s hot. Small wonder, then, that according to analyst firms and tech pundits, the emerging digital universe is one of the top emerging trends.
The topic is already packed with hyperbole, such as Mark Zuckerberg's reflection that the Metaverse might be the next best thing to physical teleportation. But if even a portion of the promise becomes reality, we’ll be meeting on new digital plains to socialize, shop and work in coming years.
Tapping into this emerging demand are a raft of businesses designing digital shopfronts, products and experiences to meet customers on emerging Metaverse platforms. Beyond this initial investment, companies must fundamentally re-examine their customer support and expertise in the emerging digital world. The Metaverse can potentially provide a high-touch support channel in which consumers submit requests for help that are then conducted in a virtual environment—in a sense, adding a new channel to omnichannel strategies.
And for many businesses, high-quality customer experience (CX) in the Metaverse will serve to lure customers onto their platform, into their digital shop, and to consume their digital products.
Success in the Metaverse demands far more than aligning the right pixels for a digital billboard or linking an existing app to a new platform; it's about creating a compelling digital experience. To ensure customers have a high-quality experience and trust the digital environments created in the Metaverse, business leaders must develop new and innovative support functions.
Regardless of where they stand on their metaverse journey, there are three critical actions leaders must take to ensure CX success:
1. Map out the customer journey
Regardless of industry or business model, the customer journey in the Metaverse is likely to be manifestly different than it is on more traditional routes; new digital touchpoints create new forms of friction that businesses must work to smooth.
Conventional, more predictable customer journeys in a physical retail or e-commerce environment follow simple pathways: browsing a selection, honing that selection, and then moving to purchase. In the Metaverse, consumers have the option to move seamlessly across environments in ways traditional routes cannot allow.
This brings a challenge. Interoperability across platforms doesn't exist, so support functions will inevitably be platform specific. This throws up challenges like the consistency of experience across platforms—assuming the business plans to operate on several. Or issues mapping customer journeys as they bounce from one platform to the next.