Remember the good old days of customer service? You know, when the contact center was just a “call center,” and companies dictated the terms of engagement? No one needed to analyze consumers’ communication behavior, because there was only one channel: the landline. Life in the customer contact realm was sweet.
But times have changed. Over the past decade, the number of media and communication channels has boomed, with a plethora of new ways for consumers to send and receive information. As a result, consumers have come to expect constant connectivity through a wide variety of channels—and the expectation is that companies will keep up.
Different consumer segments have different channel preferences, and with such a wide variety of channels in today’s world it’s important for companies to understand how their customers are most likely to reach out to them. A new Temkin Group report revealed some pointed insight into the media habits of various consumer groups. Take a look at some of the most compelling data:
- More than half of consumers under 45 use Facebook daily
- About one-fifth of consumers under 35 use Twitter daily, but use is far more sparing among higher age groups
- Nearly one-third of consumers use mobile apps daily, including more than half of consumers in their 20s
- Consumers’ top-three communications channels for connecting with friends are calling on a cell phone (33%), sending a text message (24%), and calling on a home phone (21%)
- Women tend to text more than men, while men tend to call on their cell phones more than women
The biggest takeaway from all this information is that consumers will try to reach out to you in a variety of different ways, and the communication channel is likely to differ based on the consumer segments in question. Your contact center must be equipped for this next-generation customer, prepared to provide a positive, ubiquitous service experience regardless of the channel. And with the proper data analytics, companies can develop effective strategies to target and engage specific customer segments in the channels they use most.
Consumers expect it, so companies must deliver.
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