The Digital Consumer Interaction Report.

Transcription

1 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report

2 2 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report Introduction Every year sees a lot of research published on how companies and organisations interact with their customers. Whether the focus is on customer engagement for customer service, marketing or other purposes, the majority of research is conducted with customer experience or contact centre professionals. This has left a gap in the research, with very few studies asking consumers directly about the reality of the service they are experiencing and how they would like to engage with a company. This has led to it being generally accepted that companies today are delivering more personalised engagement and experiences to customers over multiple channels, with many apparently moving towards full omnichannel. On top of that, the latest technology hype would have us believe that AI in the form of chatbots and virtual assistants is about to be deployed on a massive scale. But, is this the reality? This report presents the findings and insights from our latest piece of research into the customer communications landscape. We wanted to gain an understanding of how consumers are interacting with companies and organisations, but from the point of view of the consumer. With the goal of having them tell us what channels they currently use, which ones would they would prefer to engage over, their service expectations, what would make them change their behaviour, etc. By conducting the research this way, we sought to help customer experience and contact centre professionals verify that the new digital offerings, communication strategies and technological capabilities they are investing in will meet the demands of the modern consumer and undoubtedly give them a competitive advantage. Technology hype would have us believe that AI in the form of chatbots and virtual assistants is about to be deployed on a massive scale.

3 The questions we wanted to answer NOW What are consumers currently experiencing? Have contact centres really made progress integrating new digital channels over the last two to three years? According to contact centre research, digital channels now make up over 50% of interactions. Research also suggests that the contact centre industry in the UK is providing omnichannel customer service. OPPORTUNITY What are consumer expectations? Are the things that businesses think customers want actually accurate? These questions assess consumer behaviour and expectations regarding the use of mobile and digital messaging channels. What do consumers consider great service and how are they willing to change their behaviour to access it? FUTURE What do consumers think of AI and automation? Separating hype from reality, are customers really ready for the use of AI, Virtual Assistants and chatbots? And if they are ready, for what services would they be willing to accept customer service automation?

4 4 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report Highlights

5 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report 5 Key findings Broadband providers, mobile operators, utilities and banks have the biggest customer service experience challenges to overcome. Voice (landline and mobile) is still by far the most used customer service channel representing 71% of all interactions, significantly more than recent contact centre and CX research reports indicate. Expectations are sky high, with 67% of consumers believing their query should be answered in less than 5 minutes. Conversely, 78% of consumers would be willing to wait longer provided they get a proactive acknowledgement that their query is being handled. A majority (58%) of consumers are willing to embrace automation if it resulted in a more efficient customer service experience. Key conclusions 01 The use of digital channels for consumer communication is not as advanced as businesses believe. There appears to be a disconnect between what companies say they are offering (according to industry research) and what consumers are experiencing. 02 Consumers are willing to do things differently, which should lead customer experience and contact centre professionals to question their assumptions, broaden their metrics, and get more explorative with digital technologies. 03 There is still a HUGE opportunity for companies to gain a competitive advantage, save money and improve customer service, by using mobile and digital messaging channels to give consumers what they want.

6 Analysis

7 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report 7 NOW: What are consumers currently experiencing? Q. Thinking about when they ve last contacted a business, which type of company or service provider angers or frustrates respondents the most? TV and/or broadband provider 30.2% Mobile phone provider 25.5% Utility provider (e.g. gas or water) 19.5% Bank 19.4% Other 6.3% It s no surprise that the top four listed sectors above have the biggest challenges with customer service. As you would expect, customer interactions with these companies are more frequent, perhaps due to short billing cycles and the nature of customer engagement, so they tend to be front of mind. For most of the companies in these sectors, customer service is (or should be) a huge differentiator. In sectors such as utilities and broadband where products are almost completely homogenised or actually delivered by somebody else, customer service is a core differentiator for customer loyalty. These companies also generally deploy very large contact centres, vastly experienced management teams, expensive infrastructure and software, and the latest customer contact techniques. Therefore, the fact that they are being called out by consumers cannot entirely be put down to their high profiles and frequency of contact. Their customers believe they need to do better.

8 8 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report Q. How did respondents last contact this company when they last had an issue or query? Mobile % Landline % Webchat % Multiple channels % % Don t know % Facebook Messenger % SMS % Face to face/in-store 7 0.7% Twitter 5 0.5% Other % The surprises here are how prevalent the voice channels (mobile and landline) still are; how few omnichannel interactions (5.4%) there are; and how few interactions take place over digital and mobile channels. Voice channels still accounted for 71.4% of all interactions. Recent research into customer contact, conducted with providers, consistently puts this figure at below 50% (for example, Contact Babel s Contact Centre Manager s Decision Maker s Guide and Dimension Data s Contact Centre Benchmarking Report). Less surprising is that the mobile phone now accounts for the lion s share of voice interactions. So, are consumers shunning non-voice options? Or are the alternative channels simply unavailable or too difficult to access?

9 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report 9 It isn t surprising that a customer s reflex reaction upon encountering a product or service problem is to reach for their phone, as it is what they have been trained to do for two decades. It is up to companies to do more to promote alternative channels for customer service, which can save all parties time and money. Unless an immediate answer is needed, it can often be less time intensive and more efficient for consumers to use methods like and SMS, or real-time messaging channels such as Facebook Messenger, where the customer doesn t have to give the interaction their undivided attention. The relative lack of digital and mobile (other than voice) channel use is even more surprising given the make up of the survey audience. If a significant number were non-smartphone users we might expect low levels of digital channel usage; however over 97% of the respondents were answering the survey on a smartphone, a device which has a majority of the most popular digital channels already built right into it. A lot of recent research findings report that consumers, particularly the young, rarely use their smartphones for personal voice calls (31% of smartphone users make no traditional voice calls in a given week, Deloitte Mobile Consumer 2016) and yet when they interact with companies, according to our survey even young people look to voice first. Given the answers we received to the remaining questions in our survey, we do not believe this is due to a lack of appetite among consumers for digital and mobile messaging channels. If anything, consumers are asking to be served on the channels they use every day, not the ones that happen to be convenient for the business they are interacting with. The only explanation for our findings is that companies are not, in fact, deploying the new digital channels at the scale industry research suggests, or if they are, there is not enough effort made to make it easier for consumers to discover and use them.

10 10 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report Q. Were respondent queries answered first time when they last contacted a business for a customer service purpose? Yes 48.5% No 51.5% Q. How long did it take to resolve the query or get an answer? More than 1 hour More than 1 day 30 seconds minutes Less than 5 minutes minutes minutes 30 seconds Less than 5 minutes 5-14 minutes minutes minutes More than 1 hour More than 1 day

11 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report 11 Q. Was the resolution time acceptable for respondents? Acceptable Not Acceptable 30 seconds seconds 1 Less than 5 min 100 Less than 5 min min min min min hour hour 40 More than 1 hour 6 More than 1 hour 13 More than 1 day 4 More than 1 day 16 This set of questions shows an interesting relationship between consumer expectations and the service levels currently being delivered. While less than 50% of queries were resolved in the first contact which seems low compared to reported benchmarks (many contact centre outsourcers KPI s include a first-time call resolution in excess of 90%)* 58% of respondents did have their queries solved within 14 minutes, which is impressive. As shown by the table above, responding to a query in around 30 minutes is generally seen as the line between acceptable and unacceptable. It should be noted that the majority of the consumers surveyed were referring to a recent voice interaction, so most of the responses above refer to the voice channel. Expectations (see next chapter) do change when customers are asked to consider digital and automated channels. *Source:

12 12 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report OPPORTUNITY: What are consumer expectations? Q. According to respondents, acceptable response times by channel for when an issue is raised with a company seconds Less than 5 minutes 5-14 minutes minutes minutes More than 1 hour More than 1 day Facebook SMS Twitter Webchat Whatsapp Respondents were asked to give their acceptable response times for each of the digital and mobile messaging channels, to see how these compare to one another and to overall response time expectations. The graph above shows that consumers expect much faster response times on digital channels than they do in general across all channels, particularly voice. Over 50% expect a response on a digital channel within 5 minutes. Given these high expectations, it is reasonable to assume that consumers expect companies to be monitoring these channels. For webchat an astonishing 67% expect an answer in less than 5 minutes, and 30% within 30 seconds. This is not surprising given the immediate nature of a webchat, which generally takes place inside the customer s browser while they are on the company s website for some specific purpose. This highlights the risk of webchat, because even if dedicated webchat agents really can handle 5 simultaneous interactions it would require significant resources to consistently meet consumer expectations. Failure to do so, when the channel is offered, could easily lead to dissatisfaction and lost sales.

13 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report 13 Q. Would respondents be willing to wait longer for a response from a messaging channel, such as Facebook Messenger, if their query was acknowledged? Yes 78.2% No 21.8% Q. Why would respondents willing to wait longer for a response? 50.8% 27.2% 26.2% Can have enquiries answered while not committed to a phone call (No wait times) Don t have to talk to an agent Don t have to navigate multiple menu options 0.9% Other Of those who were willing to wait longer for a response provided their query was acknowledged, 50.8% said it would allow them to not spend time on the phone, while 27.2% preferred not talking to an agent. What these two questions show us is that, when given the option, consumers reveal their actual concerns to be different to those we normally assume. Time to answer and time to resolution are important if consumers are given no other option than spending from 5 to 30 minutes engaged with an agent, while their query gets resolved. However, it turns out that for 78% of consumers their own time is more important than getting their queries resolved immediately. Consumers seem to be saying that they would much prefer to simply tell you about their problem, then get on with their lives while you solve it. Too many times customers are put on hold while an agent looks up information, enters information into a database, searches for a solution, or updates a system. But, all of this can just as easily happen without the customer s participation. The company just needs to use proactive messaging channels which can be as simple as sending an SMS to let the customer know when their query has been resolved.

14 14 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report Q. Of those respondents who have contacted a business via a messaging channel (Facebook Messenger, Twitter, SMS, WhatsApp and Webchat), did they prefer it to phone and ? Yes No Age group % of consumers who had used a messaging channel to contact a business preferred it to using phone or . The younger the respondents were, the more likely they were to prefer messaging channels over phone or , as shown by the graph above.

15 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report 15 Q. Of those respondents who hadn t contacted a business via a messaging channel before, would they like to be able to contact businesses over these channels. Yes No Age group For those respondents who had not yet used a digital or automated channel to contact a business, 65% would be open to doing so.

16 16 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report Opportunity 1 Customer experience and contact centre professionals have a great opportunity to change the way in which they interact with customers. Instead of all queries being handled as they come in, by whomever gets allocated to handle the interaction, new processes could be put in place to intelligently gather information and triage queries at the front end. These can then be prioritised and dealt with by the most appropriate person or automated system. The query resolution could then be communicated back to the customer using the most appropriate channel. In the next chapter, we ll see how consumers might accept this being done. FUTURE: What do customers think of AI and automation? Q. Which Virtual Assistants had the respondents heard of? Amazon Alexa 63.20% Apple Siri 68.30% Google Now/Assistant/Home 58.20% Microsoft Cortana 56.50% None of these 11.90% Bixby 0.20% Across all age groups, 98% of respondents had heard of at least one of the most popular home Virtual Assistants, which rose to 100% for the under 25s. While this technology might not yet be in every home, it is already in the palm of most people s hands, embedded in their smartphones.

17 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report 17 Q. If it resulted in a faster or more efficient service, how happy would respondents be willing to talk to a company via a chatbot or Virtual Assistant? 58% of respondents would be happy to be served by a chat bot if it resulted in a more efficient service. 20% of respondents were neutral to the idea of using chatbots. 22% of respondents were unhappy about the notion.

18 18 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report Q. According to respondents what type of interaction would a chatbot be most useful for? Account and balance enquires Promotions and offer redemption Bookings and reservations Package and delivery tracking Quick emergency answers Fraud alerts Complaint resolution Purchasing Items Other Unsurprisingly chatbots are seen to be most useful to handle routine and generally quick interactions. More complex issues involving complaints, fraud and purchasing are generally seen as less suited to automation by consumers.

19 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report 19 Q. According to respondents what is the most important characteristic of a chatbot? Ability to deliver 24hr service 523 Ability to deliver instant answers 445 Ability to deliver to human agent 371 Accuracy of answer 497 Convenience 421 Ease of communication 474 Personality 143 Use of visual aids 126 The three most important characteristics of a chatbot are 24-hour availability, the accuracy of the answers they give, and ease of communication. The personality of a chatbot was one of the lowest ranked, as was its ability to use visual media. It s interesting that the new wave of home virtual assistants such as Google Home and Amazon Alexa do not include screens, and do not attempt to give their bots much personality.

20 20 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report Q. (Complete the sentence) A more automated world would be 66% of all respondents gave a positive answer to this question. The most positive were the younger and older age groups, with 70% of 18 to 24-year-olds being positive, and 67% of over 45s. The most negative age range was the 35 to 44-year-olds with 57% giving positive replies. Some of the best verbatim answers we received to this question include: Great if it was efficient for most enquiries. Provide quick accurate information to customers with no loss of engagement in brand. Quicker to get things done. We did receive comments that were negative towards automation, with some consumers seeing it as a threat to jobs. We suggest that companies introducing automation, position it as additional assistance and not as a replacement for customer service personnel.

21 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report 21 Opportunity 2 We saw, in part two, that consumers were telling us they valued their own time over the ability to get an answer as quickly as possible. This means queries could be captured, routed to the best person or system to deal with them, and solved while customers get on with other things. The answers to the questions in the Future section of the survey reveal how this might be accomplished while increasing overall customer satisfaction. There is a general level of acceptance of digital messaging and automation channels, and a certain level of enthusiasm for the use of these channels if doing so improves efficiency. Given that, companies should look at using front-of-house messaging and automation systems to understand queries before routing them to the appropriate team or system for a solution. This could include solving the query out of the customer s sight, then using the most appropriate channel to report back to them once it is solved. For most brands, this is not about doing something funky or cutting edge for the sake of it, or to appeal to Millennials. To get it right companies will need to focus on the key reason that consumers give for potentially embracing automation efficiency.

22 Learnings

23 The Digital Consumer Interaction Report 23 It is interesting to compare what companies believe (from B2B research) versus the reality that consumers are experiencing. It is also useful to understand what consumer expectations really are, as they might be different to what we think, particularly if we ask the right questions. Finally, understanding consumer attitudes towards potential future developments helps companies direct their investments, particularly in technology. Our survey of 1,000 consumers has found that: Digital channels are still massively under-used. One reason could be that companies don t know how to best integrate these with existing IT and technology infrastructure, or how to build these new digital customer service experiences As consumers expectations rise and their time becomes more valuable, companies have less and less time to respond using ANY channel and to provide a positive customer service experience. With most channels it is on average less than 30 seconds before consumer frustration kicks in The experience an organisation provides (regardless of sector) is measured against the digital native and digital disruptive companies, which helps drive consumer use of digital messaging and automated channels. Time is against you and your business needs to go digital now Buy yourself some time and save your customers time by triaging their queries and using proactive messaging channels to get back to them. This means using front-of-house automation via chatbots across all channels to take queries, understand them, appropriately route and triage them. - CONCLUSION - There is a HUGE opportunity to plug the digital disconnect between consumer expectations and what companies are currently delivering in order to differentiate the customer service experience and secure bottom line business impact.

24 Contact us For more information us at About IMImobile IMImobile is a cloud communications software and solutions provider that helps companies to use mobile and digital technologies to communicate and engage with their customers. Experts in multi-channel digital customer interactions, IMImobile currently delivers over 1 billion mobile interactions per month utilising its cloud-based technology. IMImobile works with companies including O2, EE, AA, Parcelforce, Centrica and leading banks to deliver omnichannel customer experiences. Copyright 2017 IMImobile. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution other than for intended purposes is prohibited, without the prior written consent of IMImobile. The trademarks and service marks of IMImobile, including the IMImobile mark and logo are the exclusive property of IMImobile, and may not be used without permission. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. Created 15/09/