Over 90% of customers demand multichannel experience

New research has revealed 91% of customers expect to receive consistent information over multiple contact channels.

Additionally, Synthetix’s survey of 500 US and UK consumers found that 65% have received inconsistent information when contacting brands using more than one channel.

And the effects are damaging. Nearly three quarters (74%) ranked poor multichannel experience as a major annoyance, the figures showed.

In terms of preferred service channels, the survey showed a quarter of consumers preferred to use live chat to contact customer service representatives if they cannot self-serve, whilst three-quarters of people want to use smartphones for self-service;  and more than half of consumers now expect companies to provide customer service via social media such as Facebook. 

The survey also revealed that whilst after-sales customer service is now an important factor for nine out of 10 of consumers, only one in 10 consumers are completely happy with the customer service they currently receive.

Additionally, nine out of 10 people would move to a competitor due to poor customer service, the figures showed.

Peter McKean, MD of Synthetix said: “One of the positive findings from this survey is that nine out of ten people feel loyal towards a company when customer service is done well. The vast majority of consumers prefer to self-serve answers to their questions online over calling or e-mailing, and all they ask is that you pay this area due attention and keep their multi-channel experience consistent. If you do, the view from consumers is that this kind of service delivery will become the new status quo for the years and decades to come.”