Omnichannel Customer Service: Phone still king for first and second contact | CustomerThink

Omnichannel Customer Service: Phone still king for first and second contact 

Zendesk just announced the results of a global consumer study on omnichannel customer service. The results show plenty of room for improvement, despite years of talk about multi/omni-channel service.

For starters, while two-thirds have purchased using multiple channels, just 7% of respondents said they were extremely satisfied with omnichannel service, lagging behind sales. Consumer think brands are more willing to invest in a good omnichannel sales experience... perhaps because there's an obvious motivation. Selling something.

In customer service, consumers value a speedy response and resolution, with 59% expecting resolution within 30 minutes, when the phone is used. Email and social get more latitiude.

For those thinking that self-service channels will take over customer service, you'll be disappointed to learn that the phone and email continue to be the go-to channels, each used by about half of respondents in the past 6 months. And if the first contact doesn't work, the second one is most likely to be the phone.

The problem this poses for brands is that both the phone and email are much more costly. Unfortunately, it doesn't that these more labor-intensive service channels will die off anytime soon. Despite all the advances in digital self-service, there is still something special about connecting with a real human being!

Source: Zendesk

Bob Thompson 

Bob Thompson is CEO of CustomerThink Corp., an independent research and publishing firm focused on customer-centric business management, and Founder/Editor-in-Chief of CustomerThink.com, the world's largest community dedicated to customer-centric business. Thompson is a popular international keynote speaker, blogger and author of numerous reports, articles and papers.He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Customer Experience Professionals Association .

Read more at : Omnicanal Service à la clientèle: Téléphone toujours roi pour la première et deuxième contact | CustomerThink