Multichannel service interactions on the rise

New research has revealed contact centres are increasingly integrating email, web chat and social media with traditional service channels.

ContactBabel’s annual survey of over 200 UK contact centres and found over 17% of interactions handled by UK contact centres are through email, web chat or social media. 

According to the report, web chat between customers and agents has risen from 0.7% of all inbound traffic to UK contact centres to 1.3% this year whilst social media appeared on the survey for the first time with 0.7% of interactions.

 Email saw the most significant rise, jumping from 10.4% to 15.4% of interactions in the past 12 months. 

Author of the report Steve Morrell said: “For a number of years, the trend has been for simple interactions to be handled through self-service, although the voice self-service channel has declined as web-based self-service has grown. As mobile, app-based self-service takes off further, this pattern will continue.

“The general move to the website has meant that increasing numbers of customers are choosing to stay with that channel if they need help, rather than use a phone. This has led to the increase in email and web chat, with the improvements in email response times and growing availability of web chat serving to validate these as reliable channels in the eyes of customers.”