But SMS is becoming an increasingly popular channel because of its immediacy and will soon pull ahead of web chat, says Dave Paulding, regional sales director for UK, Middle East and Africa at Interactive Intelligence.
As more mobile phones get internet capabilities, innovative ways of using SMS are being developed. Companies can send an SMS to customers with a website address embedded in it that they can click on, for example to view a new product or choose an option to be sent an alert when there is a special offer on a product, says Paulding.
He says many businesses today still communicate with customers by fax, especially when their signature is required on documents.
Industry statistics show that web-based customer self-service can reduce calls to the call centre by 12% to 14% with no additional communication aids, but if email communication is added to the website, calls are reduced by a total of 16% to 18%, and if web chat is added this figure increases to 25%.
“This frees agents, and they are the most expensive overhead in the call centre.”
In addition, agents can only handle one call at a time, whereas with email and chat they can have a number of conversations on the go at the same time as they wait for responses.
“We have seen skilled agents handling up to five web chats at a time competently.”
Once companies have implemented email as a second channel to voice calls they will usually add web chat within 12 to 18 months.
He says the next evolution in multi-channel customer interaction is social networking, especially with younger customers, for example using Facebook and Twitter.
Companies that identify themselves through their brands such as cool drink, alcohol and car manufactures, high-end watch suppliers and fashion concerns, use Facebook and Twitter as a more immediate way of communicating with young social networking-savvy people.
For example, British Airways posts tweets on Twitter to announce special offers on flights, such as a one-day discount on business-class tickets, and includes a website address to click on for the booking. Other companies are using Twitter for live two-way customer interaction, although this needs to be approached with caution, he says.
Source: Business Day
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