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8 Digital Customer Care statistics you should know

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Among the major Customer Service trends this year, we have emphasized the need for companies to take a multichannel approach, to be responsive, and to increase customer satisfaction. To help you better understand these trends, we’ve gathered 8 essential stats on digital Customer Care.

Quality of Customer Service

1/ 97% of consumers consider the quality of customer service to be an important factor in choosing a brand (Microsoft)

This shows that customer service is now a key element of differentiation for brands. For this reason, it is essential for companies to invest in this area so that they can offer quality service to their customers, in order to keep them satisfied and loyal. Depending on the volume of messages a company needs to handle, it could consider adopting a message management system and growing its staff of customer service representatives.

Telephone

2/ 32% of consumers consider the telephone to be a frustrating channel (Aspect/eMarketer)

This figure shows that the telephone is the most frustrating customer service channel, ahead of the company website (15% among people surveyed) and chat (12%). Although the telephone option may be retained for customer service in some situations (resolution of urgent problems, a need to negotiate, etc.), it is essential to offer other channels (social networks, messaging, email, etc.) so that each customer can use the tool he or she is most comfortable with.

Digital Channels

Social Networks

3/ Solving an issue through social networks costs only $1, or 1/6th of the cost of handling it by telephone (McKinsey)

Transitioning customer interactions to social networks means savings for companies. Solving a problem through social networks costs $1 on average, or 1/6th the cost of customer service by phone. According to this same McKinsey study, handling customer interactions through social networks leads to a per-contact increase in revenues of 6.7% on average due to upselling, cross-selling and churn reduction.

4/ Over the last 2 years, the number of tweets related to customer service has increased by 250% (Twitter)

Thanks to Twitter’s fast and easy exchanges, which are ideal for reaching out to brands, it has become a major customer service channel. Because of this, Twitter has developed features to support the increase in customer requests (displaying average response times, links redirecting to private conversations, etc.). Brands absolutely must have a Twitter presence and respond to customer inquiries quickly – ideally in under an hour.

 

5/ 22% of UK companies do not respond to customer inquiries through social networks (Dimelo survey)

Despite the increase in customer inquiries through social networks, a large number of them go unanswered. Because contacting brands through social networks has become a habit with consumers, companies need to be present on these channels and respond to the messages they receive. Ignoring customer requests has a very negative effect on brand reputation. Answering questions through social networks allows companies to limit dissatisfaction and avoid losing customers to competitors.

6/ On social networks, 50% of responses ask the customer to switch to a different channel in order to get a response (Dimelo survey)

To keep customers happy and require less effort from them, it is important to handle the entire interaction on the channel the customers chose to begin with. However, half of brands ask the customer to switch to a different channel (website, store, telephone, etc.). As much as possible, companies must limit this type of redirection by enabling representatives to respond directly to requests on social networks.

Messaging

7/ In 2019, more customer service inquiries will come through messaging applications than social networks (Gartner)

As user behaviors change, messaging applications will be used more than social networks for customer interactions. For the customers, these apps have clear advantages, like the ability to interact synchronously or asynchronously, conversation histories, and push notification systems. A good option for getting started with messaging is Messenger for Business, which has 1.2 billion users. The application has features dedicated to customer care, such as responsiveness badges, instant responses, and a “Contact us” button that can be added to your company website.

 

8/ 45.8% of consumers prefer to contact a company through a messaging app rather than by email (Ubisend)

For their personal purposes, consumers have replaced email with messaging for some types of exchanges. These new behaviors are also reflected in their expectations for brands. Compared to email, messaging has several benefits:

  • a less formal type of exchange that is better suited to mobile
  • the option for synchronous or asynchronous interaction
  • multiple short messages rather than one long email

These figures show how important it is for brands to offer quality customer service through channels that correspond to the preferences and expectations of their customers. It has become essential for brands to be present on multiple channels and to anticipate changes to customer service trends, particularly the significant increase in messaging, so that they can offer customer service that meets the needs of their customers.

Originally published Nov 05, 2017, updated Oct 03, 2021

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