Post-Pandemic, Digital Customer Interactions Will Continue to Grow

For many of us, longing for the global COVID-19 pandemic to be over included a wish to go back to life as it was. While there’s evidence that’s the case – people are traveling again, and returning to concerts and restaurants and events – some of the habits we picked up during the pandemic are here to stay, particularly when it comes to the way we shop and seek customer support.

Intelligence firm Precisely recently worked in collaboration with Corinium Global Intelligence to conduct a survey that revealed that the explosion of online customer interactions during the pandemic are expected to continue growing at a rapid pace, post-pandemic.

During the height of the pandemic from late 2019 to 2021, e-commerce sales grew by 50.5 percent. Many organizations responded by closing in-person locations, including 28 percent of survey participants. Another 42 percent expect to do the same in the coming 12 months. As a result, companies were required to conduct more business online and invest in digital touchpoints that created a positive CX. In fact, 65 percent of leaders surveyed say they have already created digital touchpoints to serve as an alternative to in-person touchpoints, and 34 percent expect to follow their lead over the next year.

As more consumers conform to the ease and comfort of conducting business online, companies must optimize online consumer expectations, and walk a fine line between what services should be offered in-person or online. Of those online services, some should be automated while others require live interactions. For example, individuals may want to self-serve for day-to-day activities but will choose a human agent when they need help. As such, businesses need to expand digital touchpoints to serve myriad customer needs, including mobile apps, remote call centers, customer self-service tools, chatbot capabilities, and interactive voice response phone systems.

The good news is that the process will create valuable intelligence. Consumers will generate volumes of data that can be used for strategic insight. In just the last two years, enterprise data volume has doubled as a result of booming online interactions. Unfortunately, many organizations don’t have the data infrastructure in place to glean valuable insights from that data. Only 37 percent of survey participants believe they have a well-developed enterprise data architecture that enables high-quality, data-driven, and personalized CX. For many, data becomes siloed across the various touchpoints, making it difficult to access the data (48 percent). Of the data that is accessible, 45 percent of survey participants believe it isn’t relevant or current, and they believe an insufficient investment in CX is the problem (41 percent).

“Legacy systems are the most common theme holding organizations back from achieving their CX goals – and 54 percent of survey participants agree,” said Greg Van den Heuvel, EVP and General Manager of EngageOne at Precisely. “If your company is aiming to achieve a consistent and holistic approach to customer engagement, taking advantage of a single, unified platform is significantly more effective than using a disjointed toolset to try and accomplish that objective.”

Edited by Erik Linask