Twilio Study finds that Consumers Require Coordinated Communication Across Preferred Channels

New research reveals organizations should engage with customers over a variety of channels to drive customer engagement

MUNICH, March 12, 2020 – Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform, today unveiled new research showing how organizations need to address customer expectations and enhance customer engagement in an era of digital transformation. 

Twilio commissioned a survey of 1,000 German consumers to understand how they engage with organizations and what elements of their engagement create a positive experience. The research found that when contacting an organization, German consumers want their issues both addressed and solved quickly, and almost half (48%) want to be able to switch between communications channels. Organizations are advised to address these expectations and improve customer engagement specifically by building innovative communication channels, such as mobile apps, chat messenger services and virtual voice assistants, into their customer service offering. 

This can be easily achieved by using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and flexible, cloud-based communications platforms to reshape communications, based on the specific needs of the organization and its customers.

Key findings from Twilio’s research are:

• Organizations need to bridge the gap between speed of response and the quality communications to create positive customer engagement.
  • For 79% of German consumers, a quick solution to their request is important when communicating with organizations. At the same time, 69% expect a high-quality response and a definitive solution to their problem.
  • However, speed should not compromise levels of service: a genuine service mentality and a friendly communication style are important for 58% of customers.
  • Almost 9 out of 10 consumers (88%) want to be able to respond directly to messages. This underscores how organizations should refrain from one-way communications e.g. from email addresses that only send and can't receive responses.
• Customers want to communicate on multiple, innovative channels – and they want to switch between these channels.
  • For 48% of German consumers, it is important to be able to switch between different channels when communicating with organizations.
  • While voice and email are still fundamental parts of customer engagement, other, more innovative channels are also used: 74% of consumers have used voice and 69% e-mail to communicate with organizations in the past 12 months, but 33% have also made use of online customer portals, and 17% have made use of chat services on the company website.

Andreas Wienold, regional director, Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Twilio comments, “Organizations today know that they have to focus on customer engagement, and that’s driving them towards digital transformation. Our research shows that consumers have specific expectations when communicating with organizations: they require swift and high-quality communications, and the ability to switch between channels. Software and the cloud have renewed relevance in relation to this new approach and Twilio empowers organizations with a cloud-based platform. Furthermore, by virtualizing the communications infrastructure through APIs, Twilio enables organizations to create the exact communications solutions they need to meet the specific requirements of their customers.”

Best practices

Based on the findings of the research, Twilio recommends the following best practices for organizations working with consumers in Germany:

• How to bridge the gap between speed and quality:
  • Build digital experiences that deliver great customer service: Organizations should invest in a communications platform that enables them to engage with their customers efficiently and provide them with an effective solution to their issues and build digital experiences in order to deliver great customer experience.
  • Embrace platform solutions: Organizations should embrace platform and cloud solutions. A platform approach provides flexible tools that enable businesses to engage with their customers faster and gain a comprehensive overview of the customer journey.
  • Enhance customer engagement: Contact centers are advised to meet customer expectations by providing high-quality service and quick solutions to their issues.
• How to coordinate communication across the preferred channels of consumers:
  • Engage with customers across multiple channels: Customers want organizations to engage with them across multiple, innovative channels and to deliver high-quality service across these channels. With Twilio, businesses can build virtually any kind of communication into their online experience using simple and powerful APIs for voice, messaging, email and video and enable comprehensive customer engagement across these channels.
  • Leverage various channels for a diverse customer base: Offering communication via email and voice is still a must, but new channels, such as chat services are important, especially for younger customers.
  • Collaborate at all touchpoints throughout the customer journey: Collaboration across customer service, marketing and sales enables targeted and tailored communication across channels and alongside the customer journey.

Survey methodology

Twilio worked with Statista to survey 1,000 consumers in Germany about customer engagement and customer communication between January and February 2020.