The metaverse, a virtual reality–based successor to the internet that is populated with live people, is yet another new digital space where brands can more fully engage with their customers. But, many questions remain, including: Are consumers interested and what are their expectations?
Results from custom research conducted by my firm, which surveyed 1,500 American consumers familiar with the metaverse, showed that 72% believe that it will fully replace many real-world brand interactions or be part of a hybrid offering. And, the time frame in which they predict it will happen may be sooner than you think.
Just over half (52%) of surveyed consumers think that the metaverse will be considered a standard offering, or “mainstream,” for brands to be a part of in two to five years, while 20% believe the timeline for this level of widespread adoption was closer to 6 to 10 years. A small but not-to-be-ignored group representing 13% of survey respondents think that metaverse experiences will be widely available in just 6 to 12 months, while 9% feel that the metaverse will never fully materialize.
TO DO OR NOT TO DO—THAT IS THE QUESTION
When asked what specifically consumers would feel comfortable doing in the metaverse, their responses varied depending on the task. A sampling of what we asked about included: purchasing large-ticket items like a home or car (35%), completing banking transactions (38%), conducting a telehealth appointment (55%), making a hotel reservation (59%), and ordering food for delivery (67%).
Not surprisingly, given the gaming industry’s early foray into virtual reality (VR) with platforms like Second Life, which launched in 2003, 79% of survey respondents said playing a game in the metaverse is what they would be most comfortable doing, followed by engaging with a brand’s customer service (68%).
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
With great opportunity comes great responsibility, and the metaverse bar is already set high for brands. Consumers we surveyed expect interactions in the metaverse to be more engaging (53%), better customized to their interests (49%), and more helpful in discovering new products and services (47%) versus those they currently conduct in the real world.
Survey respondents said that “feeling disconnected from reality” (40%) was a top reason for feeling uncomfortable about completing everyday tasks in the metaverse. In order for brands to realize their full potential, they must create environments where consumers feel both safe and authentically engaged. To accomplish this, brands will need to prioritize fraud prevention and content moderation activities as well as be able to design and build human-centered experiences.
With such high stakes on the table—Constellation Research analysts estimate the metaverse to be worth $21 trillion by the end of this decade—brands need to start evolving their overall customer experience (CX) strategy today to incorporate the metaverse.
IF YOU BUILD IT WITH GOOD DATA, THEY WILL COME
The metaverse’s potential is not limited to gaming and the use of AR/VR devices; it extends across all industry verticals, presenting brands with new opportunities to seamlessly merge their physical and 3D digital presences into a single unified offering for customers, employees, and other stakeholders. According to American consumers surveyed, metaverse experiences should be customized (49%) and more efficient in solving their issues (29%), among other benefits.
On the quest to meet and exceed these customer expectations, fortune favors the planners. Brands must build their metaverse on a solid foundation of data about its customers and their needs and desires. During this crucial early phase, brands should be as specific as possible to effectively action the findings. Their analysis should also include identifying metrics for accurately and continuously monitoring metaverse CX after the launch.
Without a robust data strategy that includes processes to mitigate bias in their data sets, brands risk running costly meta-experiments in “garbage in, garbage out.”
Make it a human-centered world where safety comes first
Despite its technology underpinnings, a brand’s metaverse experience must put real people at the center of its development process so that it is tailored to customers’ needs and resonates with them on a deeper level.
To do just that, Nestlé Toll House uses chatbots that respond to its customers’ queries—70% of which were to troubleshoot a cookie recipe—in a very humanlike manner. Nestlé’s “cookie coach,” Ruth, has since increased the time consumers spend interacting with the brand online to an average of more than seven minutes, compared with a typical digital interaction that lasts less than 60 seconds.
Of course, enhanced experiences like this are possible only after basic needs for safety and security are met; think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Who feels like shopping for shoes in a virtual boutique while being harassed by an avatar? On this count, the metaverse is no different from the real world and other digital platforms where issues like cyberbullying and fraud are simply unforgivable.
Brands will have only one chance to get this right, so they must be vigilant in ensuring bad actors are stopped before they’ve started. As on traditional platforms, robust strategies for content moderation in the metaverse must integrate the relative strengths of human moderators and AI technology.
Imagine new, authentic ways to build long-term relationships
Now for the fun part: dreaming up a whole new world of unique, innovative, and differentiated interactions that reflect a brand’s vision and values. Consumers are certainly ready for it, with 41% saying they want the ability to more realistically try out a brand’s products and services, and 33% saying they want it to be easier to navigate its content.
Companies that want to grow engagement in the metaverse should set their sights on cultivating long-lasting relationships with customers, rather than one time purchases. Swedish ready-to-assemble furniture retailer IKEA developed its IKEA Kreativ immersive app to do just that, enabling buyers to actually see how its furniture will look in their homes: a high-value experience for its customers, at no cost.
Brands will do well to explore these types of immersive options that drive customer loyalty, and their efforts will be rewarded. In fact, 27% of survey respondents said they would pay up to 5% more for a product or service that was supported by a quality metaverse experience, and 22% would pay up to 10% more.
The pace of change
Although our survey results indicated an even 50-50 split for consumers saying they would or wouldn’t choose one brand over another if it offered a metaverse experience, we know from past experience that tech trends shift rapidly. Just consider how quickly we went from 500 mobile apps in the Apple Store in 2008 to nearly 2 million today, and how they have become the go-to method for our daily transactions and interactions.
Whether it’s a friendly cookie coach, Swedish home design, or an immersive game, these applications represent just a few considerations for brands that are contemplating their entry into the metaverse, which is itself a work in progress. However, to keep up with increasingly sophisticated consumer expectations and growing numbers of digital native consumers, brands must act quickly to start exploring the boundless potential of the metaverse and planning how they will stake a claim in the new digital world.
Michael Ringman is the chief information officer at TELUS International, a leading digital customer experience provider.
From start-up to scale-up to large global brands, the company delivers CX support in over 50 languages across all traditional and digital channels for all stages of customer growth and engagement. To learn more about TELUS International’s digital CX offerings, please click here.
To see our article on content moderation in the metaverse, please click here.
