UK Consumers prefer email customer service to telephone

Hate hanging on the end of a telephone stuck in a queue listening to dodgy musak, or getting lost in an automated voice recognition system? You're not alone.

Nearly half (48%) of the 2,000 UK consumers that participated in Econsultancy's survey said the telephone is the most frustrating customer service channel - 8 times more frustrating than live webchat and 3 times more frustrating than email.

However, over a third (39%) said it was the most effective channel.

The top customer service channel among UK consumers was email with 44% expressing a preference, although it wasn't deemed as effective as the telephone (33%).

Despite the promotion of social media as an ideal customer service channel, and one in 10 respondents having asked a question of a brand via this channel, very few (2%) cited Facebook or Twitter as their preferred channel and only 3.3% said it was the most effective.

Retailers were deemed to offer the best customer service experiences, cited by 47%, way ahead of banks (16%), travel firms (15%), automotive companies (10%), utilities firms (8%) and telecoms companies (4%).

Tags: consumer insight, consumer survey, customer service, email marketing, online retail, social media, telephone, UK