Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

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Businesses increase investment in digital channels & AI

More are offering chat, text & self-service options

The '2020 Customer Experience Transformation Benchmark' surveyed over 1,000 global contact center decision-makers and found that 43% of businesses prefer to offer self-service channels, a 15percentage point increase from 2019 with a corresponding decrease in those preferring agent-assisted channels for service.

According to the survey, 62% of contact centers reported an increase in digital interaction volumes during the global pandemic. In addition, 66% of survey respondents not using the cloud today indicated that they are planning to accelerate their move as a result of the pandemic.

There is significant growth in contact centers offering online chat (73%) and mobile apps (56%) - up 6 and 8percentage points respectively, since 2019. Text was up 11percentage points to 49%, while chatbots remained flat year over year at 46% of contact centers using them.

Key findings from the survey included:

• Investment in key areas of CX are up in four key areas
  When asked how they plan to improve their CX in the coming year, contact center leaders identified the website (58%), access to new channels (43%), new contact center technology (42%) and improving seamless communication (35%) as their primary focus areas.
• Preference for self-service versus agent-assisted channels is shifting among contact centers
  While contact centers may prefer the efficiency of self-service, there was no change in the overall percent of interactions that were handled with contact centers, estimating that 39% of all interactions are through self-service channels. In 2020, preference for self-service channels, such as website, IVR, chatbots, increased by 15percentage points from 28% in 2019 to 43% in 2020. There was a corresponding decreased preference for agent-assisted channels, such as phone, email, and online chat, down from 72% to 57%.
• Contact centers see more room for opportunity to improve the seamless omnichannel experience
  Compared to 2019, there was a slight increase of 3percentage points (27% vs. 24%) in the number of contact centers which gave themselves an excellent rating in providing a seamless omnichannel experience. Furthermore, 35% plan to add new services to allow channels to work together seamlessly (up from 25% in 2019).
• Continued growth of social media in customer service
  In both public channels and private messaging apps, social media usage has increased significantly between 2019 and 2020. Today, 72% of businesses report using social media for customer service - up from 59% in 2019. When asked which private messaging apps they most closely rely on, the top five were: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter Messenger and WeChat.
• AI is up, as is skepticism about the state of chatbots
  When asked about the role of AI in their channel mix, 66% of contact centers say they use at least one AI channel, up from 50% from 2019. More businesses agree that chatbots make it easier for customers to get issues resolved, 71% in 2020 vs. 63% previously. However, 90% believe that chatbots need to get smarter before customers will be willing to use them regularly (compared to 89% in 2019). As chatbots get smarter, first contact resolution (currently 23% of chatbot interactions) should also improve. In this year's study, 40% of businesses say they will be investing in customer-facing AI for self-service, such as chatbots, voice bots, etc.

"Digital is a fundamental part of customers' lives," said Paul Jarman, NICE inContact's CEO. "If you're not available in those channels and offering effective and efficient service in them, customers will take notice. That said, creating differentiation and value requires more than checking the box, but rather using digital as a launchpad to build exceptionally memorable experiences. This year's CX Transformation Benchmark shows that contact centers aren't willing to be left behind, and they see new opportunities in improving acquisition, retention and growth."

Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Learn the insider's tricks and techniques to turn every customers into a 'super spreader' for your brand. It's better than free advertising. Once you start this ball rolling, your brand can grow rapidly through word-of-mouth, advocacy, influencers, and customer loyalty. Super-charge your company's marketing strategy, build up your market share, and make more sales through repeat business and customer loyalty.

Find out what works - and what doesn't - and who's succeeded, and how they did it. See how the world's top brands keep their competitive edge against all odds.

The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook walks you step-by-step through the techniques, metrics, reporting, analysis, marketing models, technologies, tools and innovations for successful marketing strategies - both traditional and emerging - with expert guidance from thought leaders in every major market. Find out the best ways to gather, analyse, and act on customer data to increase profitability, build your brand, empower your customers, beat the competition, reduce churn, and increase customer profitability. This is a marketing book you simply can't afford to be without.

This book aims to hand you all the facts, figures and research data you need for the best decisions for a more profitable, more engaging marketing strategy. It also highlights all the facts, forecasts and trends identified by our experts from the global Marketing Factbook's vast database of market data, news, studies, research and articles, and presents you with an invaluable library of ideas and practical support you can call upon at will.

With The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook at your side, you'll have instant access to a true goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, research and market data, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid, profitable marketing strategy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)