Getting real with the customer: Web 3.0 and the future of customer experience

As Web 3.0 technologies march towards maturity, the next stage of the evolution of the internet is rewriting the first principles of winning customers. Here’s how customer experience strategies will need to adapt to the dynamics of Web 3.0.

From a technical standpoint, Web 3.0 differs from Web2 in two crucial ways: first, it enables users to not only read and write through its interface, but also own various assets in a verifiable fashion. Second, it tilts the balance of power further towards the user, as they own their data and presence, and take control of the narrative through micro-communities.

For businesses, the AR/VR interface of the Web 3.0 unlocks a new channel for engaging customers and delivering new experiences. But winning with Web 3.0 goes deeper than that. In a cookieless world, marketers are already losing a grip on the identities and behavior of their customers – and without the right strategy, Web 3.0 will only make it worse.

But those who understand the driving principles of Web 3.0, will be able to unleash a new paradigm of customer engagement, loyalty, and retention. So, what are these principles? Let’s have a look at them.

Web 3.0: yet another channel?

When Web 2.0 evolved after the static search and e-com capabilities of Web 1.0, it did not make the latter irrelevant. Instead, businesses could leverage the social, mobile, and cloud capabilities of Web 2.0 to operationalize new ways of connecting to their customers. New definitions of customer experience came into being, and content became the king as businesses set inbound strategies into motion.

Similarly, the emergence of Web 3.0 will not make Web 2.0 capabilities irrelevant either. This means that mobile, web apps, and e-com will maintain their importance in the channel mix. Web 3.0, however, will become an important part of this channel mix, because it will redefine ways of delivering experiences with an additional dimension much like how digital added a new dimension to physical. Platforms like the Metaverse will add yet another dimension to the flat experiences delivered by smartphones and large screens.

The end of selling

Web 3.0 will be primarily community and interactions driven. These communities will not only be more intimate than social networks like Facebook (Meta), but also focused on niche interests. In these virtual worlds where highly immersive experiences are on offer, brands will have to do away with the traditional approach to marketing in which selling is the end-goal.

Marketers will be tasked with the purpose of creating, nurturing, and participating in communities that are relevant to their products. For example, a headphone maker may offer exclusive access to virtual concerts for rock fans, or an SUV-maker could demonstrate off-roading capabilities of their vehicles via VR experiences to adventure enthusiasts. In Web 3.0, community strategies will become as important as customer personas in Web 2.0.

Building a cycle of trust

One of the key aspects of Web 3.0 is that every user will have complete control over their digital identities. In other words, they will own data on their preferences, their purchases, activity across platforms, and other personal information. This will be implemented through digital wallets like MetaMask, which will also provide financial mobility and provide SSO-like login capabilities across disparate platforms.

This also means that businesses will have to win this data from customers in exchange for something. For example, by providing exclusive access to experiences, crediting their wallets with relevant NFTs, or providing voting rights to determine the feature roadmap for an app. This will be the key to building a cycle of trust with the customer and winning a larger share of their digital wallet – which in turn, will unlock access to high-confidence zero-party data.

By making use of this data, businesses will be well-positioned to back each marketing dollar with evidence-based decisions, and act wholly in the interest of the customer.

New go-to-market strategies

In the Web 3.0 paradigm, the boundaries between users, content creators, customers, marketers, owners, and sellers will be blurred, and at best, provisional. This will unlock new ways of building, evolving, and marketing new products to customers. Presently, leading brands are only beginning to test the waters.

For example, Nike acquired RTFKT, a community-driven brand which makes unique virtual sneakers. Such artifacts, which will be used across platforms once Web 3.0 achieves interoperability, will pave the way for user-driven fashion trends, more customer-centric products, and items that are ideated and designed by users.

Such models are used only in their preliminary forms today – for example, Nike lets buyers customize the color of their shoes via a mobile app. In Web 3.0, buyers will be designers, engineers will be users, and everyone could be an owner – brands will be collectively owned, and customers will become more involved stakeholders in them.

Winning customer loyalty

In Web 2.0, social channels like Instagram and YouTube closed the gap between influencers and customers. Content creators now hold sway over purchase decisions, and the narrative around a product is significantly determined by them. Concurrently, servitization of products has driven brands to switch from sell-and-forget to sell-engage-retain models, and customer loyalty has become the key to success.

In Web 3.0, both of these trends will converge, and offerings with a loyal customer base will translate into highly active and engaged communities. In these communities, users will not only influence purchase decisions, but could also provide post-sales support to users. In return, brands could provide them with tokens, coins, or other incentives, thereby turning them into a brand advocate.

Finally, the idea of loyalty will come full circle, as customers will expect brands to be loyal to them. They will expect a greater stake in their ability to influence the direction of a product that they use, and communities will hold brands accountable for causes that are dear to them.

Summing it up

So, will Web 3.0 be just another channel to add to your overall CX strategy? Today, most brands and many customers are focused on the AR and VR capabilities of Web 3.0.

Of course, these capabilities are exciting, and the possibilities they will unlock are numerous. Avatars of technicians will help us fix our appliances, and interior designers will walk us through our dream homes with AR. But this is just a fraction of possibilities that Web 3.0 represents.

One of the most significant shifts that Web 3.0 will trigger, is a reimagination of what the idea of a customer means to a business. Today, customers are treated as passive entities, and the only move that turns them into a stakeholder is their decision to buy and the value of their transaction with the business. This is all set to change with Web 3.0, as customers turn into active stakeholders. In this future, the first principles of customer experience will need to adapt to the above-mentioned dynamics of Web 3.0 to win in the market.