New Research: Customer Support Trends Toward Messenger-Based

In the past year, customer engagements have dramatically changed. Largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing lockdowns, customer retention became more reliant on quality conversations.

Intercom, in collaboration with Forrester Consulting, released findings from their Drive Conversational Experiences For A Future-Ready Customer Support Strategy study. A survey of over 500 global decision makers, the study explores the major changes customer engagements have undergone in the past year. See below for a summary of statistics:

• Messenger-based support becomes the second most popular support channel, passing phone conversations.
• 58% of respondents report customer preferences for messenger-based conversational engagements.
• Less than half of customer support leaders believe they have the technological capabilities to deliver personalized support experiences.

Customers Emphasize Messaging Channels

Perhaps no other communication platform has seen the growth messaging-based support has seen in the past year. It accelerated past phone and in-person interactions to become the second most popular customer support channel.

58 percent of the respondents reported believing customers would prefer messaging-based interactions with brands over other types of interactions.

Customer Support Teams Need Technology Upgrades

Despite customer demand for personalized interactions, 57 percent of support leaders believe they do not currently have the technology to provide those experiences.

Related: Customer Experience Marketing Trends In 2021

Inefficient tech stacks may not only slow a customer support representative down, but they can even have adverse effects. Inadequate technology means reps are wasting time making up for it rather than providing service.

Conversational Support Is A Necessity

Forrester’s research found that conversational support is now a necessity, not a nice option. In fact, 71 percent of respondents believe providing conversational support will be key to helping them stay competitive.

Leveraging automation makes workflows more efficient, and it helps deliver fast and valuable service.