Is your center prepared to engage with this influential customer segment?
There has been a lot of buzz in recent years about digital natives and the impact that they are having—and will continue to have—on the way that brands engage with their customers. Digital natives, which include millennials and post-millennials (Gen Z), have grown up with computers, video games and digital devices. Constant exposure to the Internet and digital media has shaped their expectations of service interactions and communications with organizations.
Much has been written about the characteristics of digital natives, with popular stereotypes depicting them as inherently digitally literate, addicted to their devices and having a desire for all content and information to be delivered digitally. Undoubtedly, there are some myths being perpetuated about what this segment knows about technology, how they use it and what they expect from their interactions with organizations. Yet their influence is clearly being felt in corporate boardrooms everywhere, and their expectations are driving organizations to focus more attention and resources on expanding digital channels.
But despite some speculation that self-service and digital channels will replace phone interactions, recent research points to a continued need for human interaction. Digital natives, it seems, do prefer the human touch when it comes to service interactions. While they desire the availability of self-service and digital channels for certain types of transactions, when it comes to customer service, the phone is still the preferred channel. Where they differ the most from other generations is a propensity to share their feedback, recommendations and experiences online.
Human Touch Still Preferred for Customer Service
Recent research shows that, despite the rise in digital customer service channels and options, 79% of consumers prefer that the human touch remain part of customer service when engaging with brands and service providers.
A global study, “The Digital Tipping Point: How Do Organizations Balance the Demands for Digital and Human Customer Service?” just released by Verint Systems, with support from Opinium Research and IDC, surveyed more than 24,000 consumers in 12 countries and polled more than 1,000 businesses to identify the right balance between digital and human customer service. Download the report: http://bit.ly/2eMM09E*
The study found that a key factor in whether consumers choose digital or traditional channels (e.g., phone, in-store) is the complexity of the service request: When the service request is simple, 22% of survey participants chose the phone as the most popular channel, while email and SMS tied for second place at 19% each. As service requests become more complex, reliance on human interaction increases. More than one-third (34%) of respondents said that they prefer to go in-store for answers to complex inquiries, while 33% said they prefer the phone. The highest-ranked digital channel was email with only 7% of consumers reporting that they use it to handle complex requests.
The report points out that, while digital natives are the driving force behind the shift toward digital channels, they still prefer human interactions. Phone (24%) and in-store (22%) ranked as the most popular top communication preference among millennials, similar to preferences cited by Gen X (phone, 24%; in-store 23%) and boomers (phone, 24%; in-store, 24%). However, digital channels ranked much higher as second and third preferences for millennials than for other generations. Across generations, 64% of those polled said that engaging with organizations by phone or in-store is more convenient and a better service experience.
What does this mean for businesses? “As consumers become more digitally savvy, organizations are considering and even implementing more cost-effective digital channels as part of their evolving customer engagement strategies. However, the message from consumers is clear. They still want human touch as an option in many customer service scenarios,” explains Dave Capuano, global vice president, integrated marketing, Verint.
Report recommendation: Improve digital services, but not at the expense of traditional engagement offerings. “Businesses considering more cost-effective, digitally driven channels need to ensure they understand customers’ channel preferences and the influence they have on customer behavior and engagement,” adds Capuano. “Those organizations that tip the balance in favor of digital at the expense of traditional service may risk not keeping their customers happy in the long run.”
Increased Transparency Puts the Consumer in Control
Ernst & Young’s study, “The Digitisation of Everything: How Organisations Must Adapt to Changing Consumer Behaviour,” sheds some light on a key challenge that businesses face as they make move toward digitizing customer service—the loss of control over the customer relationship.
Download the report: http://bit.ly/2dOZ3dM*
The communication and collaboration that takes place in the digital world is changing the way consumers engage with businesses. Whereas brands used to control the flow of information to their customers, today’s consumers have real-time, mobile access to pricing, product features and values, and other knowledge that they need to make informed buying choices.
In addition, today’s consumers, and the digitally savvy in particular, trust recommendations from friends, family and peers over businesses, and they tend to not only seek out the advice from their peers, they’re very willing to share their own feedback. According to the report, 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations versus 14% who trust advertisements.
Brands need to pay attention to Gen Y’s constantly connected, collaborative and highly social characteristics, the E&Y authors state, since “they are determining the way digital communication technologies are being used, and are initiating social behaviors that are transmitted to other generations.”
Report recommendation: Identify and engage with your brand’s “prosumers.” The report defines prosumers as consumers who are unusually interested in a brand’s products and/or services. As the authors point out: “[Prosumers] will dedicate their spare time to upload reviews and comments and respond to other reviews and comments about the product. These individuals can be very useful sources of product development ideas, or can be incentivized as a low-cost provider of technical service to other consumers.”
Digital Native Citizens Demand More From Government Centers
While digital native consumers prefer a human element in service interactions, as citizens, they want more self-service and digital options when engaging with government agencies.
Despite the fact that millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation, most government contact centers still cater to older Americans who are accustomed to speaking with a live agent. According to a recent survey by the Governing Institute, 78% of state agencies identified live-agent calls as the primary way they engage with citizens.
The “Citizen Engagement Modernization in the State Contact Center” study, which was commissioned by Contact Solutions in collaboration with the Governing Institute and the Center for Digital Government, surveyed 129 state and government professionals.
Download the report: http://bit.ly/2eiTkJq*
Key findings included:
- While 72% of government leaders recognize that digital communication is the fastest-growing form of citizen-to-government communication, many of today’s contact centers don’t support popular digital communication channels.
- The majority of respondents leverage their websites (61%) to engage citizens, but fewer use social media (36%), mobile (22%), text or online messaging (5% and 7%, respectively).
Many government agencies have had a longtime struggle with woefully outdated technology and inefficient processes. While the study results show that agencies understand their current challenges and are willing to address them, they need the right resources and roadmap to do so.
Report recommendation: The report points to contact center modernization—which includes comprehensive self-service tools, a digital engagement strategy and enhanced knowledge management solutions—as the key. Additionally, resources such as improved interactive voice response (IVR), system automation, data sharing, integrated case management, self-service tools, online messaging and social media can enhance citizen engagement, while streamlining government operations and saving money.