8 trends to watch out for
1. Work from home
While workplace flexibility has been increasing steadily over the past decade, it has become the new norm in light of the pandemic. Almost all of us have encountered some kind of work from home since 2020. Of course, the conditions in the workplace have also been modified, but a significant part of the employees (at least to a certain extent) have maintained their practice.
This is a fact that we must accept and take into account in the future. Flexibility in terms of location and hours will become more and more expected of employees, and it is the job of companies to provide that – in terms of work processes and tools that enable them to work.
2. Digitization
It is a trend that has been going on for a long time and is nothing new to many. However, the epidemic has gained tremendous momentum. Entire industries that have been plagued by changes in the way they operate for years have had to take a step forward literally overnight. And there is no going back.
Therefore, it is necessary to think about how we can use the benefits of digitalization in our daily business. What tasks can you do (eg, drive to a meeting) or automate (eg, remind customers of unpaid bills)?
3. Volatility
The year 2021 was marked by an extraordinary number of terminations of employment by employees practically all over the world. Records are set in the US, with more than 4.5 million redundancies in November 2021 alone, and in Germany, 6% of the workforce has left their jobs. (source)
The bargaining power of companies in relation to employees is declining, at least in the area of educated and quality employees. So it’s time to think about how to make collaboration as attractive as possible and create conditions that inspire loyalty, while motivating employees to do their best.
4. Sustainability and green business
It is becoming increasingly important to consider the impact on the environment at work. What we do has a broader impact. Customer behavior also reflects a shift from searching for the lowest prices to ethical and moral reservations about purchasing products of disputed origin.
How does this affect work? It will be increasingly important to customers that the companies they work with or shop with and behave ethically, locally and responsibly. This also includes paperless work.
5. Artificial intelligence
We are not yet at a place where we should fear that technology will completely replace us. In the near future, the focus will be on collaboration between humans and robots – in the form of chatbots on websites, learning algorithms for recommendations in online stores and intelligent mammals.
In such forms, AI is much less threatening than popular movie scripts. But it’s also useful – so think about where you work.
6. Low customer loyalty
Customers are primarily loyal to companies they share values. If they only buy from you because you are (currently) cheaper than the competition, they will leave as soon as a lower-priced provider appears.
It has always been a well-known statistic that it is five times cheaper for a company to conclude a deal with an existing customer than to conclude a new one. And a few more facts about it: If you’re 5% more efficient at retaining customers, it could mean more than 25% more in revenue. The sales success rate for existing customers is 60-70%, while sales to new customers are only 5-20% successful. (source)
This is one reason why in the future the focus will be significantly more on retaining existing customers and not just acquiring new ones.
The next point is related to this…
7. Personal approach
Customers don’t want to feel like they’re just a number to you. That’s why it’s important to show them that you care. By listening to (and considering) their feedback, sincere desire to help, transparent work and authenticity.
8. Privacy and data protection
Somewhat direct threats to the security of personal data have prompted us to think in recent years. Facebook and Cambridge Analytica took care of one of the most high-profile scandals, but this is far from an isolated incident.
All of this contributes to raising the collective awareness of the importance of data and taking care of their security. Hence also benchmarks such as the European General Data Protection Regulation and the Slovenian ZVOP-2. The number of users of the Brave web browser, which provides many functions to protect user data, has been increasing by 200% for 5 consecutive years.
So be careful how you handle your customers’ data and be upfront about the purposes for which it will be used.
On the accbox.net website, you’ll find three additional trends that shouldn’t be ignored either.