Customer Are Happier When Communications Happen at a Personal Level

How do you make meaningful connections with customers? While there are a few ways to ensure that interactions feel more personal to customers, one of the best ways is to keep communications informal. We’re all used to messaging with friends and family, and increasingly, we expect communications with companies to feel like personal conversations.

Vonage's 11th Global Customer Engagement Report confirms this, based on feedback from nearly 5,000 consumers and their preferences for using technology to connect with their favorite brands. It’s probably not surprising that 60 percent of customers are “very satisfied” with friends and family communications, while only 45 percent rate business/service provider communications as high.

What’s missing in the business communications? For one thing, businesses are not providing consumers with the same familiar experience they are used to in their personal lives when it comes to communications technology. To effectively communicate with customers at a personal level, businesses need to truly drive omnichannel customer engagement forward (voice calls, video, chat, messaging apps, and more). They also need to embrace emerging technologies like AI, to eliminate common customer frustrations and technology gaps.

Artificial intelligence-driven tools such as virtual assistants can address common requests and eliminate long wait times for customers. Virtual assistants can also provide the initial triage to route customers to the right person, which is helpful during peak or seasonal periods.

“The ubiquity of mobile phones delivers the kind of vehicle to businesses that allows them to speak to and engage with their customers directly — right from the palms of their hands,” noted Joy Corso, Chief Marketing Officer for Vonage (News - Alert).

Brands know the technology that’s available to their customers. They know what consumer preferences are. They also have access to solutions to accommodate those preferences. But, based on recurring feedback from customers, many business have thus far failed to truly embrace omnichannel engagement and, more importantly, putting the control over engagement channels in customers’ hands.

“Businesses are missing out on opportunities to make real connections with customers and drive customer engagement,” added Corso. “This is where AI tools can help and surface as underused technology.”

Edited by Erik Linask