6 fintech and technology trends that will redefine CX in 2022

As we look out over the horizon of 2022, one thing is clear — we can only move forward. We won’t just dust off old habits, even for workers who finally return to the office. As individuals, our mindset, our needs and our priorities have shifted. And companies in technology, financial services, logistics, and other sectors will have to do more than just react.

Digital-first experiences are evolving at full-speed, driving further shifts in customer behaviors and expectations. For both B2B and B2C, an organization’s ability to manage change and innovation will be the keys to a successful 2022.

Our Beyond the Arc team collaborated to share our predictions – through a customer lens —  on where businesses will need to focus in the year ahead…

---

1 — CRYPTOCURRENCIES

prediction:  Crypto complaints will lead to CX headaches and increasing regulation

Cryptocurrencies have ridden a rollercoaster in the past year. As speculative investments like Bitcoin and Ethereum carry a high degree of risk, Nina Katz, our training and banking expert, predicts there will be increasing pressure to regulate them:

Beyond the Arc CEO Steven Ramirez sees there are also customer experience issues with crypto that will only get exacerbated as the audience expands past the early adopters.

In 2022, we also expect to see high-profile announcements by banks and other traditional financial institutions about their new cryptocurrency services. Our Beyond the Arc team encourages these providers to invest in developing plain-language product disclosures, educational resources, employee training, and customer communications to avoid regulatory complaints and improve customer experience.

2 — FINTECH 2.0 and SUPER APP FINTECH ECOSYSTEMS

prediction:   Super Apps will force banks to transform mobile services

Financial super apps such as China’s WeChat and Italy’s Tinaba are way ahead of U.S. banks. By giving consumers an integrated experience for social messaging, finances, and lifestyle services, these super apps are capturing hundreds of millions of customers. Big tech companies like PayPal are moving swiftly to fill the gap for American users.

To stay competitive, banks of every size will need to reinvent their digital customer experience. As a CX strategist and our Director of Creative Services, Gavin James sees it like this:

prediction:   Fintech 2.0 will require deep focus on holistic customer experience

Bundling multiple apps into a unified ecosystem is a slippery slope. With 88% of people using fintech in 2021,³ there’s a huge potential audience for financial super apps. However, Gavin cautions that it also opens the door for disjointed experiences unless there is cohesion across many services, some of which may be third party. She predicts fintechs and financial institutions taking this route will need to rethink how they communicate through the customer journey.

Steven adds that, in Fintech 2.0, traditional banks and credit unions will need to develop an effective framework for fintech collaboration:

3 — WEB3 

prediction:  The first successful DeFi (decentralized financial) offerings will be B2B, not B2C

Web3 holds huge promise as a new engine for technology innovation. As CNBC notes, “Web3 proponents argue that today’s online platforms are too centralized and controlled by a handful of large internet companies, like Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Facebook parent company Meta.”⁴

In a Web3 world, self-governing online communities, known as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO), make traditional corporations about as modern as a rotary phone. Online services will be provided by smart contracts operating on a blockchain, voted on by community member-owners.

But what happens when there’s a problem?  As Steven sees it:

Based on these dynamics, Steven predicts the first commercially-viable dApps (decentralized applications) will serve B2B customers with high-value transactions:

4 — BUY NOW, PAY LATER (BNPL)

prediction:   BNPL growth will fuel an M&A race

BNPL gives consumers financial flexibility to meet a rapidly growing array of needs, from shopping and airline flights, to medical bills and insurance. That makes BNPL leaders like Afterpay, Affirm and Uplift perfect acquisition targets, predicts Gavin.

prediction:   Consumers will grow wary of the downside costs of BNPL

Along with the rapid growth, however, Nina expects we’ll see consumers become more cautious as the disadvantages of BNPL become more obvious.

5 — THE METAVERSE

prediction: The metaverse will become an identity nightmare

The metaverse — virtual environments that will take the internet, social media, and e-commerce to the next stage — will enable entirely new customer experiences. However, the metaverse will still need to grapple with some of the internet’s most pressing problems like preventing the growth of terrorism, human trafficking, or the dissemination of false and misleading information.

We believe the metaverse will introduce a host of new challenges for verifying and protecting user identities. Steven expects it will have a forcing function on the cybersecurity industry:

For several years, we have been advocates of blockchain-based solutions to manage identity. Passwords and Social Security Number should be replaced by encryption and tokenization. The metaverse may turn out to be just the environment we need to prove who we are, while simultaneously keeping our private identities safe.

prediction:  Immersive experiences will require safer VR hardware to drive adoption

The metaverse aims to enable virtual reality (VR) for a world of activities. It could transform how we experience social media, group events, travel, arts and music, business training, and more. But VR has long been hindered by hardware restrictions that make it costly, limiting, and physically unsafe. Beyond the Arc’s Brian Yang is a fan of VR tech and expects the metaverse will only become mainstream once some key limitations are solved.

6 — SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

prediction:   More companies will adopt CSR values as part of customer experience

The importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) grew dramatically in the past two years, and we expect it to keep escalating. Designer Michelle Espinoza predicts that a company’s social ethics will play a bigger role in overall CX and brand reputation:

prediction:   Investments will shift significantly toward ESG funds

ESG focuses on socially responsible investing using Environmental, Social and Governance criteria to evaluate companies. Jacqueline Espinoza, a CX consultant, expects it will become a pivotal choice for investors:

---

How did our 2021 predictions turn out?

In 2021, we identified a handful of other top trends that gained traction throughout the year. Here are some thoughts on how organizations can take action and further progress in 2022:

• Hyper-personalization. By early 2023, Google will put an end to third-party cookies. Recently, for a national retailer, our data science team developed customer segmentation models that were able to identify high-value ‘look-alike’ customers without using cookie data. This approach reinforces the opportunity to use alternative data sources to personalize marketing and customer engagement.
• AI for contextual experiences. Many organizations are convinced of the potential of AI. The focus in 2022 needs to be on machine learning, best practices for increasing the accuracy of predictive models, and moving models into production. As Beyond the Arc data scientist Bruce Johnson notes, “To capture the business value from machine learning, in the year ahead companies will need to prioritize MLOps and increase their focus on deployment.”
• Payments as a starting point for designing new customer experiences. An exciting development is the progress the U.S. Federal Reserve is making toward FedNow, which aims to provide safe and efficient instant payment services. Enabling real-time payments will be an excellent starting point when it comes to designing new experiences.

The digital future looks bright for both consumers and business customers, with compelling opportunities and ever-increasing convenience. However, for many organizations (especially banks and fintechs), it will mean fiercer competition and renewed focus on engagement strategies and retention.

The Beyond the Arc team hopes that our discussion of these trends will strengthen your company’s customer experience and marketing plans in 2022.