Businesses overwhelmingly prefer email as a channel for communicating with customers, according to The State Of Customer Experience, a study from Mitto and Demand Metric.
Of those
polled, 75% of customer support staff and 70% of marketers favor email.
But that doesn’t mean they’re happy — revenue is flat all around, no matter what the channel or
maturity level.
The distant second channel for marketers — chosen by 46% is — Instagram. And 40% apiece list SMS, Facebook Messenger and Twitter. Voice is
the second choice among support staff, at 54%.
However, only 24% of marketers and 11% of communications staffers plan to adopt email next year. Why the low numbers? Perhaps because email
is already part of the mix.
Instead, marketers are moving toward Google Business (34%), Instagram (30%) and Voice (30%). And service staff is eying SMS (32%) and Google Business
(32%).
Of these teams, 62% of marketers say email is tops for complete omnichannel implementation, putting it behind Google Business (75%) but ahead of everything else.
Yet
only 38% rate email as best for customer support, again placing it behind Google Business (55%), Voice (48%), Instagram (43%) and Twitter (41%).
This is happening as companies experience
lingering flatness. For instance, 29% of the firms with a near-complete omnichannel strategy report a revenue decline, 25% say things were flat, 38% that there was a modest increase and 8% that there
was a significant jump.
And, 28% of the “mature” firms saw a significant revenue hike, and 40% a modest increase. Still 2%% also suffered a decline.
At the same
time, 64% of marketers and 58% of support employees predict that consumers will be more demanding in 2022.
"Customer demands are on the rise at the same time that brands are facing an
increased challenge to stand out from the competition," says Andrea Giacomini, CEO of Mitto. "During the holiday season and beyond, companies need to consider how they can best connect with and engage
their customers.
Overall, 67% of the respondents have achieved an omnichannel experience strategy, with robust tools and solutions to keep all touchpoints cohesive. The study defines
“maturity” as:
- Establishing a wide variety of channels.
- Connecting and unifying the digital communications landscape.
- Achieving cross-functional communications and collaboration.
Who “owns” or makes final decisions about the customer experience strategy at companies?
At 34% of firms, it’s the CEO, followed by the head of marketing (18%) and the head of customer support (18%). Another 9% have no clear ownership.
But
there is minimal information sharing—only 36% of marketers and 29% of customer service staff can see all customer conversations across platforms in one location.
Meanwhile, the holidays
are approaching Marketers say their biggest challenges are:
- Standing out among the competition—44%
- Increased ad prices—39%
- Keeping up with shopper demands—38%
- Using the right digital channels—30%
- Product availability—30%
The
list of hurdles for customer support teams is similar, although slightly less cite product availability.
Mitto and Demand Metric surveyed 619 iprofessionals between June 1-15
2021.