“The US Customer Experience Decision-Makers’ Guide (2024-25)” is based on a survey of hundreds of US organizations and 1,000+ US customers. This is the 7th annual edition of the report.
This article looks at two major findings from the report – which is free to download – what do customers really value from a contact center interaction, and how do they prefer to contact an organization?
What Does a Good Customer Experience Look Like?
It is difficult for an organization to be confident about which of the many elements that go towards a great customer experience are actually the most important, and consequently should receive the greatest investment and resource.
Our research looked at the importance of key elements forming the customer’s experience when they contact an organization, from the perspective of the business and also from the customers themselves.
Organizations were asked to rank eight factors that impact customer experience (SEE FIGURE 1).
As with many past ContactBabel surveys, first-time resolution was clearly seen as being the most important factor impacting customer experience, with 45% of business respondents ranking it in first place, and a further 42% placing it within the top three.
A short queue time or wait time for a response was also seen as being important, being ranked in the top 3 by 62% of respondents, with polite and friendly employees being ranked in the top 3 by 47% of organizations surveyed.
Having the issue handled by a single employee was placed in the top 3 by 39% of respondents, with a choice of channels making the top 3 for only 25% of respondents.
Our research looked at the importance of key elements forming the customer’s experience when they contact an organization...
Long opening hours (6%) and US-based agents (7%) were seen by very few organizations as impacting significantly on customer experience.
We also asked the same question to the customers themselves, and there are some significant differences of opinion.
Survey respondents were provided with a list of eight factors that affect CX and asked to rank them in order. Figure 2 shows the proportion of survey respondents (both from organizations and customers) placing them in their top three (SEE FIGURE 2).
This consumer research has some interesting findings when comparing consumer attitudes to businesses’ beliefs:
- Both businesses and consumers agree that first-contact resolution, short wait times, and polite and friendly agents are the most important factors impacting customer experience when contacting a business.
- Long opening hours are judged more important by customers than businesses, especially for younger customers.
- Having US-based employees is seen as far more important to customers than businesses believe, particularly for the older generation.
Figure 3 shows the importance of various customer experience factors as an aggregated bar chart, segmented by age so as to show the factors that were of most importance to customers in each age range (SEE FIGURE 3).
Aggregating the results allows an understanding of which factors were placed in the top three overall, while also providing insight on age-related opinion.
For example, 54% of the youngest age group (18 to 34 years old) stated that having a question answered the first time was one of their top three most important factors, whereas 75% of the oldest age group (over 65 years old) placed this in their top three.
When considering these findings from the perspective of the various age ranges, younger respondents place a greater emphasis on their time than older people, being more likely to rate short call/chat times and long opening hours as being more valuable.
Younger people also value having polite and friendly agents just as much as any other age group, being as important to them as a short queue time or first-contact resolution. This may be because the youngest age group has the least experience in dealing with businesses and contact centers, perhaps lacking some of the confidence that comes with years of speaking with businesses, and having a friendly and approachable agent is valued very highly.
Younger age groups are also much more likely to value a choice of channels and long opening hours, the latter of which can be achieved through effective self-service options which younger customers are generally willing to try out.
There was a strong pattern based on the age of the survey respondent and their preferred channel: the older demographics were the most likely to pick up the phone.
One of the most noticeable differences between age groups is the requirement for US-based employees, which is very important for older customers, but much less so for younger people.
Older customers are also very focused on first-contact resolution – they do not wish to have to call back – and also want their issue handled by a single employee.
Again, it must be emphasized that unless a business deals almost entirely with older or younger customers, that all of these factors are valued highly by a substantial part of their customer base, and need to be addressed.
Channels of Choice
Our research also studied which channels customers prefer to use – and when.
Customers were asked to consider how they would prefer to contact an organization in three hypothetical scenarios, whether with high levels of emotion, urgency, or complexity.
High emotion
The most popular option was to phone the organization, with half of respondents choosing this method. Email (12%) and a physical visit to the store (13%) were the next most popular.
There was a strong pattern based on the age of the survey respondent and their preferred channel: the older demographics were the most likely to pick up the phone.
...telephony has risen from 28% in 2018 to 47% in 2024.
Web chat was a popular option with the 25-54 age group (10-13%), and email is most popular with the younger cohort (16%).
9% of the sub-34 year-old age group would choose social media, which is a major finding for businesses serving these customers.
High urgency
The most popular channel was again telephony (49%), with older age groups more likely to choose this as their No. 1 option.
This is quite a change from pre-pandemic findings, which put web self-service as clearly the most popular channel of choice, and may be a reflection of customers’ greater requirement for the reassurance and confidence that the phone channel provides.
Email, social media, and web chat were more likely to be preferred by younger demographics, but not exclusively by any means.
High complexity
For highly complex interactions, the most popular contact choice pre-pandemic had been making a physical visit to an office or branch, which was much used by the older demographic.
However, this option is now less popular (20%), probably due to the customers getting out of the habit of making unnecessary visits during the pandemic, particularly as the experience would likely be different than what they are used to.
As a result of this, telephony has risen from 28% in 2018 to 47% in 2024.
Web chat was also seen as an appropriate primary channel for complex interactions by a significant minority of under-55 year-olds (c. 10%).
Email (9%) is less popular, possibly due to the probable requirement for back-and-forth communication. It is also worth noting that 8% of 18-34 year-olds choose social media.
Changes since 2018
As this research has been running annually for seven years, it now has enough history to look at how channel preferences are changing.
The pandemic has clearly made a significant (and seemingly lasting change) to how customers prefer to interact with businesses, particularly for urgent and complex interactions.
The conclusion to be drawn from these findings is that although customers may be happy in the main to use self-service for mundane interactions, when it comes to something that is important to them, they increasingly pick up the phone.
For urgent interactions, the effects of the pandemic can be seen clearly: live telephony has replaced web self-service as the preferred channel for urgent interactions, despite the massive investments put in place by many businesses to achieve the opposite effect.
It is not possible to state with complete confidence why this should be, but it may be that many customers have experienced very poor levels of customer experience from some companies that struggled in the pandemic and afterwards, and that they have reverted to the channel that they associate with confidence, flexibility, and resolution: telephony (SEE FIGURE 4).
As with urgent requests, the preference for telephony jumped hugely during the pandemic and grown even more since then, with 28% of customers preferring telephony in 2018 compared to 47% in 2024.
All other channels have seen something of a drop in popularity, with physical visits to a store and self-service seeing the greatest declines.
It seems as though customers – possibly through their own unsatisfactory experiences – have formed an opinion that they simply want to be talked through their complex issue in real-time without the trouble of actually visiting a business premises.
The pandemic has clearly made a significant (and seemingly lasting change) to how customers prefer to interact with businesses, particularly for urgent and complex interactions.
The conclusion to be drawn from these findings is that although customers may be happy in the main to use self-service for mundane interactions, when it comes to something that is important to them, they increasingly pick up the phone.
“The US Customer Experience Decision-Makers’ Guide” is available free of charge.