Results Overview

Firms must take a holistic view of their communications strategies to meet modern consumers’ expectations. We found that firms with advanced communications achieve better business results, including higher NPS, higher CSAT, and greater revenue growth.¹ Communications matters for how customers experience a brand, and robust communications programs can clearly impact business results. Our assessment evaluates participants across three key disciplines:

Choice

Number of communication channels that a firm offers consumers to contact them.

Effectiveness

A firm’s first-contact resolution rate.

Investment

Planned investment in communications technology budget.

Where is your firm today, and what can you do to deliver effective business communications to your clients in the future? Continue to see your personal results and recommendations.

Recommendations

Beginner

Your score means your client communications approach is at the beginning stage.

Choice: Your organization may offer limited channels to consumers to contact you. Channel choice matters to consumers; on a scale of 1 to 5, consumers on average rate “I can contact a business in the method that I prefer” as 4.3 for criticality. When consumers can use the communication channels they prefer, over half are more likely to buy more often or make a first-time purchase from the brand.¹
Effectiveness: Your organization may have a low first-contact resolution (FCR) rate. FCR matters as consumers rank a brand’s ability to resolve their questions or issues quickly as the most important feature when interacting with a business.²
Investment: Your organization may have declining investment in communications technology. Most firms are currently increasing their investment in communications technology; specifically, 60% expect increases in their budgets in the next year. Nine percent anticipate an increase of more than 10% in their budgets.² What firms do with this additional budget is critical.

To develop your client communication tools and program effectiveness:

Identify potential opportunities to add new communication channels based on where your customers are. Before tackling any improvements, you must understand which platforms your customers use regularly and how comfortable they are using them to engage with brands. This process is not without its challenges: Where consumers operate is complicated as they access services across devices, platforms, and channels. Mapping digital service journeys can help you identify any leading use cases for new channels, such as asynchronous messaging (e.g., text, social media, third-party messaging, or chat through a mobile app where consumers have control over the conversation cadence).
Offer messaging that covers brand properties and third-party platforms that consumers already use. The future of customer service will be integrated in the platforms and channels that consumers already use (e.g., social media, maps, apps). Across industries, brands benefit from third-party messaging platforms that work across devices and provide real-time support. Brands with time-sensitive customer needs (e.g., airline customers racing to a flight) especially benefit from messaging.
Start small and iterate as you learn. Start small. For example, you might start with a single use case, like resolving questions around specific promotions, for chat or asynchronous messaging, then iterate and expand as you learn. Use early test cases to identify where a consumer may jump from messaging into another channel, then remove the source of friction to continuously improve.

¹Base:1,027 US consumers who use a smart electronic device at least weekly.
²Base: 441 US customer communication decision-makers at B2C firms.

Intermediate

Your score means your client communications approach is at the intermediate stage.

Choice: Your organization may offer sufficient channels for consumers to contact you. Channel choice matters to consumers; on a scale of 1 to 5, consumers on average rate “I can contact a business in the method that I prefer” as 4.3 for criticality. When consumers can use the communication channels they prefer, over half are more likely to buy more often or make a first-time purchase from the brand.¹
Effectiveness: Your organization may have room for improvement in its first-contact resolution (FCR) rate. FCR matters as consumers rank a brand’s ability to resolve their questions or issues quickly as the most important feature when interacting with a business.²
Investment: Your organization may have flat investment in communications technology. Most firms are currently increasing their investment in communications technology; specifically, 60% expect increases in their budgets in the next year. Nine percent anticipate an increase of more than 10% in their budgets.² What firms do with this additional budget is critical.

To develop your client communication tools and program effectiveness:

Supplement agent capabilities with cross-channel consumer insight. The efficiency of agents handling multiple conversations simultaneously is not without its downsides. Simply passing historical information from a phone call, online purchase, or former issue alone will not do the job. Solutions must synthesize the interactions and customer’s data to provide agents with suggestions that they can easily consume and act upon.
Measure KPIs that align to business objectives and are appropriate for the given channel. Contact centers can still make use of a host of traditional KPIs such as volume handled, first-contact resolution, average wait time, average handle time, and more that drive the cost savings and efficiencies they seek. Customer satisfaction KPIs such as NPS or likelihood to use the channel again are also important.³ However, asynchronous metrics will differ from synchronous engagement such as voice- or web-based chat sessions.
Consider bots to contain service requests where possible. Chatbots or simply bots can handle simple questions or requests for service. Bots can also be used to filter and sort customers into appropriate channels whether they are chatbots, webpages with account information, or humans within a text-based chat interaction mode. Doing so also delivers business benefits from mitigating the tedious tasks agents must do to improving agent efficiency.

¹Base:1,027 US consumers who use a smart electronic device at least weekly.
²Base: 441 US customer communication decision makers at B2C firms.
³Net Promoter and NPS are registered service marks, and Net Promoter Score is a service mark, of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.

Advanced

Your score means your client communications approach is at the advanced stage.

Choice: Your organization may offer a plethora of channels for consumers to contact you. Channel choice matters to consumers; on a scale of 1 to 5, consumers on average rate “I can contact a business in the method that I prefer” as 4.3 for criticality. When consumers can use the communication channels they prefer, over half are more likely to buy more often or make a first-time purchase from the brand.¹
Effectiveness: Your organization may excel at first-contact resolution. FCR matters as consumers rank a brand’s ability to resolve their questions or issues quickly as the most important feature when interacting with a business.²
Investment: Your organization may be increasing investment in communications technology. Most firms are currently increasing their investment in communications technology; specifically, 60% expect increases in their budgets in the next year. Nine percent anticipate an increase of more than 10% in their budgets.² What firms do with this additional budget is critical.

To develop your client communication tools and program effectiveness:

Continue to watch for unique messaging options on social media networks. Major social media apps offer direct messaging between brands and consumers. The natural inclination for consumers to use these channels for direct messaging is lower than on dedicated messaging platforms. However, brands will have unique opportunities to engage consumers at different stages of the customer lifecycle especially during exploration. Enterprises must find ways to route inbound communications from all these platforms seamlessly whether to a marketing department, account services, or a contact center.
Use notifications and chat history to provide a better experience. Notifications may stand alone, giving consumers information they need without further action (e.g., appointment reminders or balance alerts), or they may initiate conversations. For example, a quick-serve restaurant (QSR) might message a customer if she is close to the restaurant after she orders based on her location; if so, the restaurant then prepares her food so it is hot when she arrives. A second key feature is conversation history. Consumers will want to go back and check information provided by agents, such as order status.
Consider extending the use of chatbots. After deciding what services, features, or content to include in messaging, identify what additional use cases might be appropriate for chatbots. You might already use chatbots for customer service requests to handle simple questions or triage customer requests. Look beyond customer service to more forward-looking, conversational uses like the QSR example above.

¹Base:1,027 US consumers who use a smart electronic device at least weekly.
²Base: 441 US customer communication decision makers at B2C firms.

Next steps

Thank you for taking the time to complete this assessment.

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Welcome

How Advanced Are Your Organization’s Consumer Communications?

Questions

Through which of the following channels is a preexisting/prospective customer able to contact your organization? (Select all that apply.)

Questions

Questions

How does your organization plan to change investment in customer communications technology (including contact center solution providers and spend on customer communication channels) in the next fiscal year? Do not include budget for call center agents or other employees. (Select one.)

Results Overview

Results Overview

Results

Recommendations

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

View your detailed results

Next steps

Methodology, Disclaimers and Disclosures

Methodology, Disclaimers and Disclosures

Methodology

Methodology

Disclaimer

Disclosures