For the third year in a row, customer experience (CX) measures have remained flat. As Forrester notes, “…what little movement that did happen was toward the middle of our scale, where 62% of brands bunched up in an undifferentiated clump.” Similarly, a study by Bain and the father of the Net Promoter Score, Fred Reichheld, found that 80% of CEOs believe they offer a great customer experience but only 5% of their customers agree. Houston, we (still) have a problem!

With a vibrant economy and unemployment at an all-time low, there is little reason for businesses to stay status quo. Investment in CX is one part of the overall strategy, but according to multiple reports, firms will use 70% of repatriated money and recent tax cuts for the buyback of shares.

2018 was the year where data privacy took center stage. From Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg testifying in Washington, D.C. to the enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, businesses can no longer turn a blind eye to the question, What are you doing with my information? Data privacy will most certainly be a main driver on the CX landscape in 2019 for customers who want personalized service but are wary of sharing too much personal data.

Chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) were also everywhere in the CX discussion. Without further ado, here is our list of the top trends for 2019.