Calling, Sure: But Customers Prefer Web Chat, Study Shows
April 14, 2014
By TMCnet Staff
Call centers in America are getting more popular all the time. This is a direct reversal of what people thought of when it came to call centers in the 1980s and 1990s. Reshoring has become a trend both in the United States and the U.K. and one trend that is making call centers that much more popular is the ability for consumers to use text messaging in order to solve customer service issues.
Call centers aren’t the only companies that are moving to this kind of customer service feature. The more companies that are moving to this feature, the more companies are finding their customers that much happier. eWeek online points to a new study by HeyWire Business that said more than 52 percent of respondents said they would be likely to text with a customer service agent.
A number of those who talked on the survey also said they would actually prefer to text with a customer service agent, over their current preferred method of communication. Only 31 percent of respondents say it is important for the companies they do business with to be able to text back and forth, as opposed to emails and phone calls.
"In today's world, consumers increasingly prefer texting in both their personal and business lives, and they are clearly seeking text conversations as a fast, efficient customer support option," Meredith Flynn-Ripley (News - Alert), founder and CEO of HeyWire Business, said in a statement.
Younger customers are largely driving the move toward text messaging. The study shows that a majority of customers, between ages 18 and 34, said they would prefer using electronic means of communication such as texts, email and Web chat instead of phone calls.
The company believes this particular trend is only going to increase as that age group gets older and is already used to using technological advances.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson