SAN BRUNO, Calif., Sept. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Adoption of digital channels continues to increase in U.S. contact centers. According to Canam Research, 83% of contact centers in the U.S. report using one or more channels in addition to their voice channel. But only 22% of contact centers offer seamless omnichannel conversations that allow customers to switch channels with ease and provide agents with a single unified agent desktop for all channels.
These insights stem from a survey sponsored by Bright Pattern, the leading provider of omnichannel cloud contact center software for innovative enterprises. The survey examined the current state of U.S contact centers’ omnichannel conversations and omnichannel quality management. Bright Pattern surveyed companies of all sizes and industries in the 2019 Omnichannel Customer Experience (CX) Benchmark Trend Report.
The omnichannel adoption statistic of 22% closely aligns with the findings of other contact center reports and industry analyst research. Contact center analysts including IQPC, Dimension Data, and Gartner believe only 5–20% of companies offer omnichannel conversations.
Of those surveyed, 62% of the trend report respondents identified their contact center as a multichannel contact center—a contact center that offers more than one communication channel to its customers but offers the channels in silos. Multichannel silos prohibit customers from moving easily between channels without losing important customer data, requiring them to repeat themselves to a new agent.
Bright Pattern found that the industries with the highest omnichannel adoption included Consumer Services at 40%, Manufacturing at 30%, Business Services and Technology at 25%, and Finance at 22%. Omnichannel was originally a term from retail customer experience that has now been adopted by all industries. Ironically, the study found that only 17% of retailers identified themselves as able to offer omnichannel customer experiences.
“Customers have been wanting seamless omnichannel conversations across all channels for years, yet only 22% of companies are able to offer this effortless customer experience to their customers today,” said Ted Hunting, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Bright Pattern. “Silos continue to be the norm and our research reveals that companies are finding it difficult to add emerging digital channels like bots or messengers into their contact centers without creating new silos. The good news is the percentage of companies offering omnichannel customer experiences has more than doubled, largely driven by the adoption of innovative cloud contact center technology.”
Omnichannel Customer Experience Key Findings
- Voice, email, and web chat are the most commonly support channels, but out of the companies surveyed, 42% support social media, 32% support SMS, over 25% support messengers, and nearly 10% support video.
- Only 22% of respondents are omnichannel. Despite serving customers in more channels, the management of these interactions is not unified because 62% of respondents indicated they are multichannel (note 17% of respondents are voice-only).
- Companies have clearly adopted more channels to serve customers, but many are not integrating the management and support of these channels. This indicates that companies have added channels in an ad-hoc manner as stand-alone solutions.
- 68% of respondents use two or more systems to manage channels in their contact center.
Find out more about the current state of omnichannel and omnichannel quality management by downloading the 2019 Bright Pattern Omnichannel Customer Experience (CX) Benchmark Trend Report.
Survey Methodology
Bright Pattern commissioned third-party research consultancy Canam to conduct an online survey of over 200 U.S. contact center executives from a total pool of 14 industry categories.
Bright Pattern announced initial customer experience survey findings in September and will continue to release additional insights in the coming months. For more details about the survey methodology or to receive a free copy of the report, contact the Bright Pattern media relations team at marketing@brightpattern.com.
About Bright Pattern
Bright Pattern provides the simplest and most powerful contact center software for midsize and enterprise companies. With the purpose of making customer service brighter, easier, and faster than ever before, Bright Pattern offers the only true omnichannel cloud platform that can be deployed quickly and nimbly by business users. Bright Pattern allows companies to offer an effortless, personal, and seamless customer experience across channels like voice, text, chat, email, video, messengers, and bots. The company was founded by a team of industry veterans who pioneered the leading contact center solutions and today are delivering an architecture for the future with an advanced cloud-firstapproach. Bright Pattern’s cloud contact center solution is used globally in over 26 countries and 12 languages.