Article

Customers Expect Support Across Ever More Channels: New Microsoft Parature Report

by Dann Anthony Maurno
Assistant Editor, MSDW

Fully seven in 10 US consumers have stopped doing business with a brand due to a poor customer service experience. And a poor experience can be, simply, not the experience the consumer would choose. However superior a company's phone support, if the consumer prefers live chat or a knowledge base, they'll gripe about the experience. (In fact, fully 92% expect a brand or organization to offer a self-service customer support portal or FAQ page.)

So found Parature and Microsoft in their 2015 U.S. State of Multichannel Customer Service Report (download required), released in July.

As the report describes, consumers regularly use at least four different channels when interacting with a brand or organization for customer-related questions and issues - any combination of phone, website, mobile apps, social media, live chat and more. On top of that, customers' channel preferences are changing based on the customer's perceived value for time spent. For example, this year's survey found that customers rate live chat (used by 64%) not far behind the telephone (used by 81%) as the most preferred assisted channel, likely owing to live chat's ability to provide prompt, personalized online assistance for complex questions (while allowing the customer to multitask rather than wait on hold).

Changing Channels for Self-Service
Source: 2015 U.S. State of Multichannel Customer Service Report (Microsoft)

Among other findings:

  • Consistently satisfying service is increasingly important. Fully 98% of US consumers say customer service is somewhat or very important in their choice of or loyalty to a brand, and 68% have ...

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About Dann Anthony Maurno

Dann Anthony Maurno is a seasoned business journalist who began his career as International Marketing Manager with Lilly Software, then moved on as a freelancer to write for such prestigious clients as CFO Magazine; Compliance Week;Manufacturing Business Technology; Decision Resources, Inc.; The Economist Intelligence Unit; and corporate clients such as Iron Mountain, Microsoft and SAP. He is the co-author of Thin Air: How Wireless Technology Supports Lean Initiatives(CRC/Productivity Press, 2010).

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