99% of Customer Service Executives Recognize Using Chat with Customers Strengthens Customer Experience

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Mar 30, 2022, 10:06 ET

Clickatell's new Chat Commerce Trends Report finds 88% of CX leaders agree that using chat channels for payments will help meet revenue goals

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Clickatell, CPaaS innovator and Chat Commerce leader, launches its latest Chat Commerce Trends Report, revealing 99% of customer service executives recognize benefits to using chat with customers to bolster customer experience and drive revenue and growth for their businesses.

Customer service executives recognize benefits to using chat with customers to bolster customer experience and drive revenue and growth for their businesses.

Customer service teams are increasingly responsible for revenue with 81% saying they are compensated based on performance and sales within their teams. These executives are facing challenges in achieving results with 95% saying there are technology or process challenges in their departments hindering success. Notably, 43% said their customers find their payment technology hard to use, and 41% said reporting and analysis is disjointed.

"Revenue-generating responsibilities of customer service departments have significantly increased, while many of their technical capabilities have remained the same," said Pieter de Villiers, Co-Founder and CEO at Clickatell. "With rising revenue expectations should also come the tools and investments that help customer service departments meet them. Chat Commerce providing seamless and secure engagement and transactions that allows representatives to support customers along their entire path to purchase, while also encouraging the opportunity for increased sales."

Customer service executives trust chat for sales and payments

Overwhelmingly, (96%) of customer service teams in these revenue producing departments are responsible for taking payments from their customers, and yet, more than half still use antiquated processes, such as sending a bill or invoice (60%) or taking credit cards (53%). 97% of leaders agree customer service teams would benefit by using chat-to-pay technology and nearly half (48%) of organizations that don't currently accept chat payments plan to do so in the future. Additionally, 88% of leaders agree that using chat channels for payments will help meet revenue goals; 97% said that chat payment investments pay for themselves.

WhatsApp, Google Chat and Facebook Messenger are the chat apps most used by customer service teams:

WhatsApp (47%)
Google Chat (40%)
Facebook Messenger (31%)
Instagram Chat (30%)
Apple Messages (23%)
WeChat (23%)
Telegram (21%)
Discord (15%)
Snapchat (15%)
Line (6%)
Viber (5%)
Signal (5%)

99% surveyed find a significant number of benefits when using chat with customers including the following:

Faster response times
Simple and easy for customers
Improved customer satisfaction
Increased customer engagement
Convenience for customers
Reduced call center costs
Stronger customer relationships
Improved agent efficiency
Continuation from existing or saved chat history
Lower risk of fraud

The survey findings also noted that email (30%) and chat apps (27%) are the most preferred channels for customer service agents, while phone calls (19%) are least preferred.

Clickatell's Chat Commerce Trends Report, which is based on a survey of 340+ senior customer service leaders in the U.S., can be viewed here. To learn more about how to implement chat payments, see Clickatell's Chat 2 Pay product page and read how it enables businesses to securely accept payments in chat messaging by sending consumers a payment link.

About Clickatell

Clickatell is the global Chat Commerce leader powering businesses to connect, interact, and transact with consumers anytime, anywhere in chat. The low / no-code, feature-rich Chat Commerce Platform sits at the intersection of communications (CPaaS, CCaaS) and commerce (digital payments). Clickatell serves over 10,000 customers, many of which are Fortune 500 companies and leading global brands activating their own digital commerce transformations. Clickatell is headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA, and has offices in Canada, South Africa and Nigeria. Learn more at www.clickatell.com.

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