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Shoppers prefer using PCs to deal with customer service issues
A new study found that shoppers still find more comfort in logging on to websites and PCs over their phones when it comes to dealing with customer service issues.
June 4, 2015 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com
It seems the retail industry is nearly obsessed with mobile technology and apps; we hear daily about a company launching its own app or partnering with a tech company to enhance the customer experience. While it's imperative for retailers to embrace change to please customers, a new study has found that shoppers still find more comfort in logging on to websites and PCs when it comes to customer service.
The findings were reported by [24]7's Customer Engagement Index, which is focused on better illustrating how customers today interact with brands. The company conducted a survey of nearly 1,200 respondents in the U.S., focusing on how each individual chooses to interact with brands to solve issues and answer their inquiries.
"Despite the presence of more than 330 million connected mobile devices in the United States, the personal computer is the device of choice to begin an omnichannel journey," Kathy Juve, [24]7's chief marketing officer wrote in her blog about the findings. "This means that the 'website accessed by a PC' is the number one channel and device where companies can enable self-service and empower consumers to complete tasks themselves. Consumers are using smartphones and tablet devices but the survey results show that smartphone usage increases later in the omnichannel journey."
Other highlights included that:
- The website is still the most important asset a brand has, with 89 percent of consumers turning to the website within the first two channels, including 64 percent in the first channel.
- Despite the 330 million connected mobile devices in the U.S., 49 percent of respondents still depend on their PC as their primary device for service. In comparison, only 24 percent prefer to start a customer journey on their smartphone.
- 95 percent of consumers noted they require a third customer channel in order to solve inquiries or issues
- Email is no longer seen as a viable channel for customer service. In fact, none of the surveyed respondents in the U.S. selected email as their preferred first or second channel in their omnichannel journey.
- When it comes to assistance, customers still prefer to make a phone call, with 32 percent noting it as their second channel of choice. As more brands adopt chat technology, customers have followed suit with 16 percent selecting the tool as their preferred second channel.
Juve said that the study also found that 95 percent of consumers will use a third channel even after starting on a website.
"Why should it take three channels for a consumer to get something done? Companies need to provide robust self-service in the first channel and make it easy to get assistance and task completion in a second channel," she said.
The infographic below explains the findings in detail.
About Cherryh Cansler
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