Support the new messaging culture, or customers will leave

Organisations that fail to adapt to the new messaging culture risk falling behind and losing customers, according to international research from BT and Cisco. With more than three quarters of consumers (76%) saying that they buy more from companies that are easy to do business with, the research findings suggest that organisations should upgrade their contact centre capabilities to support messaging and social media to help drive business growth.

The research, The Digital Customer 2017 — Chat, tap, talk: eight key trends to transform your digital customer experience, is based on an independent survey of 5,000 consumers across Belgium, China, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the US. Its findings suggest that a growing number of consumers internationally find it easier to deal with organisations via messaging and social media, a trend driven by a surge in their personal use of apps such as WhatsApp. The trend is particularly clear in China, where 37% of respondents said that they use the messaging app WeChat for customer service.

The research found that almost half (48%) of respondents get frustrated if text-based “chat” access is not available when dealing with organisations (rising to 58% in Singapore) while 70% of those aged 18-34 years said they are sourcing more and more of their products and services via social media.

Overall, 58% of respondents said they get a quicker, more instant response when using messaging compared with the phone, while 37% said they would choose to contact an organisation via Facebook or Twitter if they had a problem which needed solving urgently, peaking at 65% in India.

When asked how they would like to receive support from an organisation while accessing its services online — for example, while using an organisation’s app or researching a product on its webpage — 65% of respondents said that they prefer to use web-based chat, up from 45% in 2015. Despite this, consumers’ use of dedicated customer service phone lines only fell gradually between 2010 and 2017.

Andrew Small, VP, unified communications and CRM, Global Services, BT, said: “While ‘typing’ to request customer support is increasingly popular, the research shows that people still want the option to ‘talk’. This creates a challenge for contact centre operators as they now need a technology platform that can handle both the evolving mix of apps that customers wish to use and traditional service channels such as the phone.

“Cloud contact centre platforms are ideally placed to help. They can be deployed as a single package delivering voice, video and messaging-based customer service together with operational tools for recording and call and agent management. They’re hosted in the cloud, creating the flexibility to manage peaks and troughs in demand. They can integrate data from other business systems, which is vital for consistency in customer service. Finally, they include recording, which is essential for good service and regulatory compliance,” he said.

Tom Puorro, VP/GM, Unified Communications Technology Group, Cisco, said: “We live in a world where customers will change providers if an app is slow or it takes too many clicks to get a question answered. This research underscores that consumer-facing organisations need an integrated omnichannel strategy to be successful. Such a strategy will help them engage, innovate and be proactive to improve sales.”

Global findings include:

- Digital customers want easy journeys: 56% say convenience is more important than price

- The explosion of messaging provides an opportunity to build digital customer relationships: 58% say they get a quicker response with chat than by e-mailing or calling

- Big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and voice recognition technology can be used to transform efficiency: 80% are open to using chatbots for quick and simple queries

- Phone boosts digital, but service levels need improving: 81% say there should be a phone number on every web page or app

- Social media momentum continues, but needs integrating into omnichannel strategies: 38% say it’s the best way to make contact if the issue is urgent

- Video continues to transform customer experience: 62% think you should be able to switch from chat to a voice or video call (with the same agent)

- Safer transactions will drive revenue growth: 68% say they would have bought more if payments were more secure

- Consumers value proactive service powered by big data and AI: 78% like it when organisations notice they have a problem online and contact them directly to help

- The challenge is delivering optimal customer journeys: 81% of want organisations to offer different channels to meet their needs

BT is a provider of contact centre solutions and services. It has deployed over 4,000 contact centre solutions to more than 1,000 organisations globally, including some of the world’s largest banks, utilities, airlines and pharmaceutical firms. The company is one of only five Cisco Global Gold partners.

Over the past 10 years, BT has deployed Cisco contact centre solutions serving 12,000 agents in 40 different countries. Together, BT and Cisco can help organisations provide an outstanding customer experience by deploying future-proof cloud-based contact centres.