Results from the 2013 Multichannel survey conducted by Genesys, in association with ProtoCall One, revealed that consumers are increasingly driving channel migration. A majority of respondents (63.3%) said their customers are migrating naturally, and as a result, they desire to offer channels that their customers prefer to use. Notably, customers’ preferred methods of contacting a company often depend on things such as whether they work from home, how much time they have available, and whether they need an immediate response.
As a result, the number of channels available for customers to make contact with a company is growing. The research shows that the use of newer channels such as web chat and apps was highly desired, with 36% of respondents indicating they would be introducing web chat in the next year, compared to 30% who plan to use mobile apps and 20% who plan to use SMS as a communications channel.
Given the increase in newer channels, it’s imperative that contact center technology support customer migration. Yet 51.3% of respondents said their contact center technology is not prepared for future channels, which is an increase from 32% in 2012.