2020 Small Business Digital Resilience Report by Moxtra Reveals Consumers Crave More Digital Engagement But Bad Experiences Drive Them Away

CUPERTINO, Calif., Dec. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a drastic evolution in the ways that small businesses interact with their customers. In fact, nearly all small business personnel surveyed (92%) in a new study from Moxtra said their organizations adopted new technologies during the pandemic. While digital and mobile solutions have been an important driver of companies' success for years, the challenges faced by business owners and executives this year have revealed just how vital consumers consider these options - and exposed just how prepared and digitally resilient businesses were heading into the future.

In order to better understand the impact that the pandemic had on consumer sentiment around digital offerings and inform decision-making heading into the New Year, the 2020 Small Business Digital Resilience Report by Moxtra surveyed 1,500 small business personnel and 1,500 small business customers across three key sectors: financial services, legal and real estate — all high-touch industries that must carefully manage secure client communications.

"This year, businesses learned that digital resilience was critical to surviving the pandemic — however, digital resilience is also critical to surviving in today's digital age, period," said Leena Iyar, Chief Brand Officer for Moxtra. "However, the findings of this report indicate that consumers are demanding that businesses provide a simpler, more streamlined and more effective digital experience, or else they'll move on to a competitor who will."

Key findings from the report include:

• According to the report, in 2020, there was a 30% increase in consumers who said digital capabilities are a primary requirement when searching for a small service provider.
• Also, 66% of respondents said the pandemic has made them more likely to use small businesses in the future.
• Additionally, 84% of small business customers said they would consider seeking an alternative provider if digital capabilities were lacking.
• However, 63% of overall respondents said that the number of digital tools and technologies their company uses makes some tasks more complex.

"Small businesses are making headway with new technology. But just like the consumers they engage with, these businesses are also struggling to streamline interactions with the prevalence of disparate, disconnected technologies," noted Iyar. "By leveraging a high-touch, comprehensive portal, businesses will be able to provide holistic virtual experiences that mirror customers' natural behavior."

Additional key findings from the 2020 Small Business Digital Resilience Report include:

• 89% of small business customers agreed that it was important to be able to reach out digitally to a small business instead of scheduling an appointment or phone call
• 40% of consumers said digital capabilities were a primary requirement when searching for a small-sized service provider before COVID-19.
• Now, 52% of consumers say digital capabilities are a primary requirement when searching for a small service provider — a 30% increase during the pandemic.

To download the Small Business Digital Resilience Report and learn more about the state of customer engagement for small businesses, visit here.

To learn more about how Moxtra is helping support businesses with OneStop portal solutions, visit https://moxtra.com/ and see examples of partnerships at https://moxtra.com/Examples.

About Moxtra
Moxtra powers digital branches for customer engagement. In today's world, businesses need a private digital channel to deliver premiere service to customers, remotely. Moxtra's OneStop Customer Portal platform features a suite of secure collaborative capabilities such as text, voice and video messaging, document collaboration, video meetings, digital signature, digital storage, and more. By creating branded digital channels of engagement that build relationships, digital branches help businesses retain and grow customers, manage their distributed organization, and lower costs for doing business.

With deep roots in business collaboration and engagement, Moxtra was co-founded in 2012 by Subrah Iyar, WebEx founder and former CEO, and Stanley Huang, former WebEx Senior Director of Engineering. Moxtra is headquartered in Cupertino, California, with offices in London, New York, Amsterdam, Bengaluru, Shanghai and Singapore. To learn more about enabling a digital branch for your business, visit moxtra.com and follow the company on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

MEDIA CONTACT
Brian Jaeger
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(352) 682-7636

SOURCE Moxtra