This new research on how customers like to contact companies can help you decide where to budget next year’s resources.
Turns out, customers still want to talk to your agents more than anything else.
When Forrester Research experts asked customers, “Which of the following methods are you interested in using for customer service support in the future?” they said:
- Phone (63%)
- Email (57%)
- Web-based self help tools (51%)
- Website search engines (33%)
- Web chat (29%)
- Keyword searches (28%)
- Click to call (21%)
- IVR system (16%)
- Screen sharing (15%)
- Online forums (9%)
- Virtual agent (8%)
- Mobile messaging (4%)
- Social media (2%)
Customers still want to connect with a person more than they want to use their computers or smartphones to contact Service.
So keep resources focused on telephone help. And you might want to train agents to direct customers to other less-expensive online or web-based tools so they’ll adopt them eventually.
