Customer Service

Customers' desires are driving need for conversational support experiences

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May 25, 2021

A good majority of global customer support leaders believe strong customer relationships are built via personalized support experience and that conversational experiences boost customer retention as well as business growth, according to a study commissioned by Intercom and conducted by Forrester Consulting, a news release said.

The study, "Drive Conversational Experiences For A Future-Ready Customer Support Strategy," surveyed more than 500 global customer support leaders on the changes in delivering support and how they're future-proofing their strategies. Messenger-based support has risen from the fifth most-used support channel pre-pandemic to now second, overtaking both phone and in-person support, according to a release on the findings.

"Customers demand easy, effective service that values their time and provides them with personal experiences that are in context of their actions. They increasingly use self-service and digital channels to interact with companies as these channels meet their expectations," Kate Leggett, vice president, principal analyst, Forrester, said in a blog post on the findings. "If companies deliver experiences in line with customer expectations, customers will keep their business with them, buy more from them, and serve as company advocates."

Additional findings from the study include:

• 71% of respondents believe the pandemic will have an enormous or large impact on how they address customer support in the long term. 55% say the pandemic increased customer preferences for interacting over digital channels and 58% believe customers will prefer conversational, messenger-based engagements with brands going forward.
• 73% of support leaders say customer support is now recognized as a more important function at their company, but only 43% said their support teams have the resources they need to meet demands for personalized customer experiences. Only 37% said they're satisfied with their organization's current digital channels/solutions.
• 50% of support leaders either already provide conversational support or will invest in providing it over the next year. Customer retention, increased business efficiency and enhanced customer satisfaction were identified by respondents as the main benefits of embracing conversational support.