2020 was truly the year of the unpredictable. Under the pressure of a global pandemic, businesses achieved the impossible by embracing remote work and reorienting entire teams to new environments and technologies. 

Read on to see what predictions Forrester has for the new year, and how these predictions directly translate to success in 2021, or download our infographic for a shareable visual. 

CX Renovation, From the Inside Out 

2020 saw a decrease in the reactive “whack-a-mole” approach of addressing customer experience (CX) issues as they appear. In 2021, we will begin to see more proactive CX prioritization – which implements CX research to arm employees with the training to consistently deliver an ideal experience.

Leading CMOs are expected to reinvent themselves and their teams to drive a customer-obsessed strategy. That means putting consumer experience at the center of everything they do, from operations to strategy and leadership. Finding out what really matters to your consumers and prioritizing their experience is the starting point for CMOs to succeed in 2021.  

Gaining Through Retaining 

Customer retention was the key to stability in 2020. The global pandemic and ensuing social and political unrest caused fragility to seep into the trust that businesses have nurtured with their consumers. Conditions of the pandemic made a loss of trust fatal for brands – a whiff of deception in your marketing tactics could cost you millions. 

Because of this, simply overseeing ad buying and promotions will not be enough to keep a business afloat as consumers are reevaluating their trust in any and all brands. Moving forward, leaders in the marketing industry are emphasizing the value of loyalty programs, with spend on retention marketing expected to increase by 30% in 2021. 

Thankfully, market research innovations offer convenient online tools that make it possible to connect with customers and share data with your team. From conducting remote qualitative research studies to running advanced quantitative analytics, to nurturing the growth of your customer community, the market research tools from Fuel Cycle and its technology partners will provide you with everything you need in 2021 to gain and retain your customers.

Automated Support for Remote Employees 

When surveyed, over 50% of employees expressed interest in working from home more often after the events of 2020 – and companies will be expected to deliver on this. Gone are the days of traditional work environments as 47% of North American managers anticipate a permanently higher rate of full-time remote employees.

Although the pandemic left many looking for open positions, desirable workers are expected to seek location agnostic opportunities. To acquire and retain top talent, leading businesses have implemented Artificial Intelligence advances to smooth communications between their separated teams and automate formerly labor-intensive tasks. 25% of remote workers are expected to be supported by new forms of automation by the end of 2021, and leading businesses will have the flexibility to adapt and grow alongside these innovations.

Inciting a Cloudy Recovery 

The global pandemic reinforced the apparent necessity for cloud computing in the workforce. Without the public cloud infrastructure, businesses would not have been able to send millions of employees to work from home or maintain their global supply chains during the initial stages of the pandemic.  

Predictions regarding the growth of the public cloud infrastructure market have increased from 28 to 35% as pandemic conditions create a more permanent view of remote working. Public cloud services like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Alibaba have maintained a rapid growth in revenue as companies accelerate cloud migrations and expedite new apps to keep up with consumer demands. 2020 exposed the vulnerabilities of businesses that failed to embrace cloud technologies, and we will continue to see an even greater emphasis on the cloud in 2021. 

Accelerate into 2021 with the FCX Marketplace 

As the world continues to shift into 2021, it is essential to keep your market research toolkit up to date. From UX testing software to advanced text analytics technology, the FCX Marketplace has everything you need to stay in touch with your customers in new and improved ways this year.  

For more information on how to successfully invest resources in 2021, check out our infographic on the future of market research in 2021.