Report: Consumers want personal communication

Vonage, a provider of cloud communications solutions, helps companies accelerate their digital transformation. Fittingly, the company has released a new study showing that companies still have technology shortcomings that prevent them from communicating meaningfully with their customers. After two years of uninterrupted digital transformation at companies, only 45 percent of consumers are "very satisfied" with the way they can engage with companies, it said. But there are opportunities to improve digital transformation through omnichannel communication channels, artificial intelligence (AI) and more, he said.

The eleventh "Global Customer Engagement Report" by Vonage, based on a survey of nearly 5,000 consumers from eleven countries, analyzes how people want to engage with their favorite brands.

Consumer expectations and satisfaction

The report reveals that 60 percent of consumers are "very satisfied" in their communications with friends and family, while only 45 percent give this rating to their contact with businesses and service providers. While many consumers use messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger (57 percent) on a daily basis and talk to friends and family on the phone via messaging apps (48 percent), the study found that phone calls (37 percent) are the most common method consumers use to communicate with businesses. This is followed by email (30 percent) and messaging apps (also 30 percent).

This discrepancy suggests that when it comes to communications technology, companies are not providing consumers with the same familiar experience they know from their personal lives. To achieve this, they need to focus on omnichannel customer interactions (voice calls, video, chat, messaging apps and more) and leverage emerging technologies like AI to prevent frustrated customers and technology gaps.

"The ubiquity of cell phones offers businesses the opportunity to speak and engage directly with their customers," said Joy Corso, chief marketing officer at Vonage. "However, this study shows that many companies are still not taking full advantage of the communication channels that today's technology offers them. As a result, they are missing the opportunity to make real customer connections and foster customer loyalty. This is where AI tools, which are still underrepresented, can help."

AI tools such as virtual assistants, for example, answer frequent inquiries and avoid long waiting times for customers. Virtual assistants can also take over the initial selection to forward customers to the right person. This proves very helpful when there is a large rush.

Another tool is conversational commerce, where AI helps to engage customers in the respective channel. Companies can use it to enrich communication with information, automated processes and self-service. For example, companies are able to provide FAQs on the front end, authenticate users and authorize payments.

"In the age of digital transformation, as more companies work to improve and simplify the customer journey, AI-powered technologies such as virtual assistants, programmable voice, chatbots and conversational commerce are putting consumers in control of their preferred communication channels," said Dan Miller, Lead Analyst and Founder, Opus Research. "With this year's edition of the ,Global Customer Engagement Report,' Vonage is shining a light on the importance of personalized real-time engagement as key to lasting brand loyalty."

Frequent frustrations and the way forward

The evaluation reveals some of the biggest frustrations customers have when contacting brands, including:

• Long wait times to speak with a customer service representative (63 percent)
• Multiple calls to customer support (63 percent)
• Repetition of their request (61 percent).
• Automated phone menus that are too lengthy (57 percent)

Although these disappointments are not new, they are high on consumers' agendas. Companies need to make a change here before it negatively impacts customer loyalty. They need to act quickly, as nearly half of respondents said they were likely to leave and switch after just one or two frustrating experiences. Brands can quickly address some of these issues using AI capabilities: Automation and personalization through virtual assistants, conversational commerce, voicebots, interactive voice response systems (IVRs), or automated phone systems.

Preferred purchasing channels

Surprisingly, overall, respondents indicated that physical shopping in a store is the preferred channel (45 percent), followed by e-commerce (39 percent), phone calls (38 percent) and emails (36 percent). While phone calls and emails are the preferred channels at all stages of the buying process, website chat is most preferred when it comes to asking questions while shopping or getting answers to problems during the purchase. This is not surprising, as today's consumer demands real-time, contextual, and seamless assistance at every step of their customer journey. This is another area where companies must engage to ensure exceptional customer experiences.

Regional customer loyalty

While the 2022 report shows slight differences in consumer satisfaction and preferences by region, by and large there are the same differences in personal interaction versus brand experience.

• Latin America has the highest daily use of many types of communication when communicating with friends and family via messaging apps (83 percent), phone call apps (77 percent) and social media comments (64 percent). In comparison, communication with businesses via messaging apps (50 percent), phone call apps (49 percent) and social media comments (46 percent) falls significantly.
• EMEA, which in this study is Germany and France, is above average in the use of messaging apps at 69 percent and far higher than North America (50 percent). However, in the area of private calls via messaging apps, Germany and France lag somewhat behind (43 percent compared to 48 percent on average. When it comes to video calls, the two countries are below average (13 percent, average: 20 percent); only Japan (seven percent) and South Korea (nine percent) make even fewer calls via video. The regions drift apart in terms of private SMS usage: while EMEA is in line with the global average at 41 percent, 67 percent in the USA still use SMS messages. In Latin America, on the other hand, the figure is only 25 percent, in China 22 percent and in Japan 23 percent. When it comes to communication with companies, EMEA is slightly below the average for almost all channels.
• While North America leads in daily private SMS use (see above), it shows a significant decline in the use of the same means of communication with businesses (33 percent), which is still very high by international standards (EMEA only 22 percent). It is also striking that only half of US Americans use messaging apps for text messages; for calls via apps, they are even ten percent below average at 38 percent.
• The UK lags behind other regions when it comes to daily communication with friends and family via cell phone (46 percent) and email (37 percent). Britons fall even further behind when communicating with businesses via cell phone (24 percent) or email (20 percent).
• While there are big differences in daily communications within Asia Pacific, the overall data is consistent with other parts of the world. For example, private use of apps for messaging (48 percent) and phone calls (47 percent) is significantly higher than in corporate communications: Here, 31 percent use apps for messaging and 32 percent use apps for phone calls (32 percent).

Corso added: "The pandemic has intensified the call for digital transformation. Whether it's messaging, chat, video or AI-powered conversational commerce, consumers expect to be able to engage with brands in the same way they do in their personal lives. Namely, through the channel they are currently in and feel most comfortable with. Therein lies a tremendous opportunity for companies. Companies should communicate more like they do with family and friends. This experience builds customer loyalty and keeps customers coming back."