Over three-quarters of brands to use VR by 2020

Over three-quarters (78%) of brands expect to be using VR to enhance CX by 2020, while 34% have already implemented the technology to some extent, according to a new study from Oracle.

With the unavoidable rise of the gig economy among consumer markets, the poll of over 800 top EMEA brands suggests ‘Uber-style’ interactions are beginning to be reflected in the work of B2B brands.

Indeed, 80% of brands will be using chatbots to interact with customers within the next four years – 36% are already doing so.

Similarly, just under half (48%) are using automation technologies to enhance marketing, customer service and sales activities, with a further 40% planning to do so within the same time frame.

However, there are still barriers to the adoption of these new technologies: a disconcertingly high 60% of brands admitted to not using social and CRM in their customer analytics, despite 41% knowing smarter data analysis makes the biggest impact on CX.

Moreover, 42% are unable to extract meaningful customer insights from the data they're already collecting from multiple sources.

“Brands are at a crossroads,” explained Daryn Mason, senior director, CX applications at Oracle. “There’s an early-mover advantage to experimenting and launching innovative services while others wait and see, but they need to walk before they can run.

“The reality is many brands are still unable to get a complete view of each individual customer, so the immediate priority needs to be to organise and get value from the data they already have.”