Cloud communications platform Infobip has revealed the findings of the latest research showing the importance of conversational experiences, as customers vastly prefer to use chat apps such as WhatsApp for communication. The research revealed an increase of 80% in WhatsApp and 62% in rich communication services (RCS) interactions in the first half of 2022, comparing it to the same period of the previous year.
Regardless of the sector, customers want to communicate with brands and businesses on their preferred channels. However, due to the lack of omnichannel communications, businesses may have trouble meeting customers where they are.
To pinpoint the emerging changes, Infobip analyzed over 153 billion communications interactions from its platform, comparing the first half of 2022 and 2021.
The research revealed certain trends, such as an increase of 68% in interactions across all digital channels, pointing to the rise of digital customer communications. In addition, the analysis showed that 99% of customer support and chatbot interactions are now on WhatsApp.
Apart from the newer digital channels, the findings also revealed the continuous rise of traditional channels such as email and SMS. There was an increase of 75% and 91%, respectively, on these channels, with more and more companies using them for timely alerts and two-factor authentication.
"Our data reveals how conversational customer experiences are quickly becoming the new normal. Customers don't want a one-way interaction with a brand. They want a conversation – whether for support, sales, or marketing. But, as our data shows, to meet customer needs, businesses and brands must first embed global real-time omnichannel communications. When omnichannel communications are in place, businesses can create meaningful relationships with their customers on their preferred channel at any point in their journey, helping boost loyalty and ultimately sales," said Ivan Ostojić, Chief Business Officer, Infobip.
More fascinating statistics across sectors compared to last year include:
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134% more WhatsApp interactions in banking and finance
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104% more WhatsApp interactions and 155% more email interactions in retail and eCommerce
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1063% more RCS interactions in telecoms
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428% more Messenger interactions in transport and logistics
The data revealed that, due to the rise of chat apps, newer use cases are also gaining momentum, such as conversational commerce, a merge of messaging, and eCommerce to boost customer experience.
Infobip has also recently integrated with Google Cloud's Dialogflow to deliver advanced messaging capabilities to customers.
