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As the world becomes more digital, so do customers’ channel preference for reaching out to customer service. While live phone support has been a top communication channel for most of the history of customer support, that trend is shifting. According to a recent Omdia report, “The State of Digital CX 2023,” only a third (32%) of enterprises claim live phone support as a top communication channel, down from 45% in 2022’s survey. The technology research company also found that live chat is the channel experiencing the most growth — pointing to a rising interest in digital-first customer experiences.
Ultimately, the research shows that organizations cannot skimp on any channel today – and businesses must connect with their customers no matter where they are. Even as fewer respondents cite live phone support as a critical support channel, it’s still a popular channel preference. And the rise of live chat indicates that companies cannot ignore their digital channels, either. In a world of changing channel preferences and an increasingly omnichannel environment, here’s what organizations should know to keep customers happy.
Behind Customers’ Changing Preferences
The pandemic jump-started a period in which organizations everywhere narrowed their focus on digital-first interactions to meet shifting customer needs. In this environment, customers want a few major features in the channels they seek out, including 24/7 availability, immediate assistance and seamless interactions. This could help explain the rise of live web chat as a top channel. While 23% of respondents listed it as a popular engagement channel in 2022, that number almost doubled to 41% in 2023.
Customers also expect digital self-service. Intelligent virtual assistants can make a major difference here by allowing customers to speak naturally and still have a seamless, easy conversation. IVAs use capabilities such as natural language processing (NLP), natural language understanding (NLU) and machine learning (ML) to create an easy conversation flow with customers. The best solutions also bring in human agents to a chat if a customer challenge becomes complex, thus bringing together the strengths of AI and human agents to best address the problem. Technology like this has greatly improved the quality of chatting and messaging channels that customers choose.
Voice Still Matters
Organizations shouldn’t forget about the importance of voice channels in customer service. Live phone calls may be the preference of customers looking for more interpersonal, empathetic interactions or those experiencing a complex issue. Even as live chat grows in popularity, voice channels will remain relevant. This fact is supported by other recent studies that explore the channel preferences of customers. For example, according to McKinsey, most people prefer to contact customer service on the phone.
The reach of human agents has grown from previous years thanks to new advancements in technology. Agents now are more likely to have access to customer analytics and AI recommendations that allow them to create a more personalized experience for customers based on previous brand interactions and behaviors. Now, whether customers choose a digital channel or a phone call, the support agent or bot they speak to can achieve more targeted resolutions.
While it’s undoubtedly vital that organizations invest in making their digital-first channels effective, they can’t leave behind voice channels as a priority of the past. Customer voice interactions give companies a lot of valuable data, which can be combined with other data to create a fuller picture of customer profiles. For example, speech analytics can give marketing teams valuable customer insights, and sentiment and emotion analysis can enhance a marketing team’s understanding of the customer.
Living in an Omnichannel World
Just perfecting one channel is not enough. To truly keep up with changing customer preferences, companies must focus on optimizing all their channels. Recent technology innovations don’t just have a place in digital-first channels; they also help improve the voice channel customer experience. By giving customers a positive, helpful, seamless experience across all channels, organizations can build more satisfaction and loyalty among their customers.
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In an increasingly complex ecosystem of customer channels, an omnichannel approach is the smartest strategy. According to the Omdia survey, when respondents were asked how their organization's usage of digital customer interaction channels has changed in the past year, both digital and voice channels saw an increase. More than half (52%) said use of chat has increased, 50% said live phone support has increased, and 48% said digital self-service has increased. This focus on omnichannel should service these organizations well.
Solutions That Thrive in an Omnichannel Environment
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for customer communication, and as trends continue to change, companies must be prepared to meet customers wherever they are, across a wide range of channels. In a digital-first world, people expect quick, seamless, 24/7 support, and no matter the channel, companies must give them the most efficient, optimized experience to keep customers happy, satisfied and loyal.
Conversational AI leader Interactions uses the latest AI technology to give customers a natural, seamless experience on digital channels, and its Human-in-the-Loop approach ensures that customers get the human empathy and connection they need when they’re dealing with a complex challenge. To learn more about the technology needed to improve CX across channels, check out the link below.
Download the report “CX and the Consumer: Pitfalls and Possibilities” here!
