Consumers Want Multichannel Customer Care Options

A recent Twitter poll conducted by Nuance Communications found that consumers are frequently in contact with customer care, both proactively and reactively. In fact, 70 percent of consumers reported contacting customer care up to six times within the past six months, and an additional 19 percent have contacted customer care seven times or more within the same timeframe.  

Additionally, 53 percent of respondents reported being contacted proactively by customer care one to three times within the past six months, while another 17 percent reported being contacted at least four or more times within the same period.

Email and SMS/text message topped the list of methods by which customers were contacted, at 42 percent and 35 percent respectively. Thirty-three percent reported being contacted on the phone via a live agent, and another 30 percent said they were contacted via an automated call. Customers were evenly split between speaking with a live agent via phone, speaking over chat or IM, using a Web site, and sending an email as their preferred means of contact.

Eighty-six percent of consumers surveyed said they like receiving proactive notifications from companies. Of this group, 70 percent said their feelings toward the proactive outreach was dependent on the content of the message.

"The preferred communications of survey respondents who contacted customer care span an array of methods. This further underscores the need for companies to increase the value of every customer contact by integrating their inbound and outbound communications across multiple channels," said Christy Murfitt, senior manager of solutions marketing at Nuance. "By combining inbound/outbound communications... companies can engage customers with smarter, automated conversations that solve more problems with fewer calls, ultimately delivering a better customer experience while reducing operational costs."