ABOUT 83% of South African consumers prefer to speak to an agent when contacting a brand or business, despite the rise in digital channels. This finding was contained in a second-quarter consumer survey conducted by business process outsourcing (BPO) provider Merchants.
This is a 16% increase compared to the results of the 2020 survey, which seeks to gain insights into the customer experience (CX) preferences of local consumers.
Merchants is a customer management company specialising in BPO that delivers CX and customer interactions.
Merchants conducts the research annually through an independent provider, surveying a sample of more than 2 000 South African consumers. The respondents are from all nine provinces, have varying household incomes, are aged between 18 and 50+, and are racially diverse.
According to the survey, more than half of the respondents said they were dealing with contact centres more since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and 58% of respondents had dealt directly with a contact centre in the past month.
Merchants group chief revenue officer Mathew Conn said this trend was set to continue, because scientists have predicted the virus will be around for many years.
“The last year has been a difficult time for consumers, as the way we live and work has been drastically altered in a short time. When reaching out to brands and businesses through the contact centre, consumers are most often looking for solutions and problem solving, which is the main reason they’d be looking to deal with a human being rather than a bot. This is set to continue as the world continues to navigate the long-lasting effects of the virus.”
The report stated that consumers identified problem-solving as the most important trait for a contact centre agent to possess.
“Consumers also prioritised knowledge of products and services, urgency and efficiency in the 2021 survey – with traits like personality and empathy moving further down the list,” it said.
Conn said the findings were further proof of the change in the way consumers were dealing with brands and businesses through contact centres.
“They see the contact centre as the fastest and most effective way of gaining information, dealing with queries or solving problems. While human traits like empathy and personality remain important, the consumer is looking for a keen problem-solver first, and this is a trait that bots, for example, are not able to deliver on,” Conn said.
The survey stated that email remained the most popular form of communication for consumers when they wanted to make contact with a brand when it was not urgent.
“Having their thoughts or questions expressed in writing is important to many consumers, and is often used for general queries, complaints or even compliments,” according to Conn.
“The 2021 survey results demonstrate the importance of human connection in the contact centre, despite an obvious investment by many businesses into digital CX channels. While these remain important for brand relevance in the digital age, human connection remains king for the contact centre,” he said.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE