Emerging Trends in Customer Communication Preferences

With the communications landscape continuously evolving, businesses must look to new tools and technologies to meet growing consumer demands without compromising on quality.

The global popularization of the internet has revolutionized the means of communication along with customer communication preferences. Email and chat have become superior to phone calls in the past few years.

It’s a real challenge for businesses to reach out and support every customer with the right information at the right time. A crucial part of mastering this challenge is understanding the communication channels consumers prefer today.

“One of the major challenges is that the consumers aren’t accustomed to using new channels on their phones, and it’s tricky to know the level of trust they injected into the brand,” says Jonathan Shulman, Vice President, Business Development at iConectiv.

Needless to say, there is no business without any form of communication channels in place. Whether it’s mobile Customer communication or a door-to-door approach, businesses need to connect with their audiences and keep communicating with them. The level of communication, the scope of communication, and the richness of that communication all play a fundamental role in the growth and success of every business.

Listen to Podcast by Jonthan Shulman here.

Over the years brands have been continuously striving to keep up with the preferred communication channel of their customers. They have been trying to find the most compelling and impactful way to reach the users.

Communication Channels Consumers Usually Prefer

The success of every business heavily relies on the satisfaction of its consumers. Maintaining that happiness in an ever more intricate marketplace that is being reshaped by digitally-savvy retailers and driven by evolving Customer Communication dynamics, remains a challenge for even the most accomplished companies.

According to Edison Research and Triton, 55% of the American population aged 12 and above listens to podcasts, and 37% listened for an average of six hours per week in the last month. The need for audio content has exploded. As per Statista research, 91% of the US population in 2019 used email, and global email usage is anticipated to grow to 4.48 billion users in 2024, a 580 million increase from 2018.

A report by Buffer says 73% of marketing professionals declared social media marketing to be effective for their business.

These statistics show the significant impact of digital transformation and how new and improved digital solutions are a major focus for customers.

The Future of Social Media

With the massive increase in the number of social media users globally, it has emerged to be the most valuable and powerful tool in supporting customer engagement. Businesses are constantly looking for new ways to reach out to customers and shape consumer behavior including brand loyalty and intention to buy.

According to Statista, 3.6 billion people across the globe were using social media in 2020, and this number will grow to 4.41 billion by 2025.

Therefore, organizations that are proficient at integrating strategic approaches to the use of social network platforms are likely to be the most successful in targeting, engaging, and maintaining a consumer base going forward. Factors that impact brand perception and intention to buy include things like social mechanisms that stimulate consumer perspectives, and the views of others expressed in social media posts.

Also Read: Multi-channel Communication Approach is the Key to Success

Today, there is a significant focus on the usage of user-generated content, content that is created by customers in response to specific brands or brand requests and impacts the perceptions of other customers.  This kind of strategic approach requires top-notch maintenance and businesses that are using this method should be prepared to allocate resources-both financial and manpower – for the efficient management of online customer relationships.