Study: Personal Presence Trumps Digital Decorum for Optimal Customer Experience

In their survey of more than 3,000 consumers, customer experience improvement firm CX Act (formerly TARP Worldwide) found that 71% prefer to make contact with businesses via offline methods.

More specifically, over half (56%) prefer to make complaints to a live agent via telephone compared with just 22% that preferred email. Those that wanted to compliment a business preferred email compared with 22% who would choose to telephone to make such a compliment.

Despite the hype of social media being the contact channel of choice, just 5% of respondents said they used social media, mobile apps or live web chat to make a complaint or ask questions of a business.

“To win on the CX margin, brands must understand the preferred method of contact from their customer base and seek out opportunities to constantly improve those channels,” said Crystal Collier, CEO, CX Act. “This new study provides a first glimpse at analyzing and understanding preferred methods of contact and associated methods of customer satisfaction and loyalty – all critical bottom-line drivers.”