Survey: Customer experience initiatives should not end with COVID-19

Consumers appreciate the increased digital engagement from brands during the pandemic, and want it to continue beyond COVID-19.

Omnichannel communications solutions provider Mitto surveyed consumers in the U.S., U.K., Israel, India, and Brazil about their views and hopes for digital engagement with brands in a post-pandemic world. Overall, the results indicate consumers found digital communications during the pandemic to be fast and convenient, and most don't want brands to scale back their digital customer experience initiatives post-pandemic. 

On average, 56% of global respondents are concerned that brands may not try so hard at improving digital customer experience once the pandemic has ended, and 59% said their expectations for how brands interact and communicate with them will continue to rise post-pandemic.

On average, 78% of global respondents said their expectations for how companies interact and communicate with them rose during the pandemic, with India (92%) and Brazil (89%) leading the pack. For the most part they felt that brands made the effort to deliver seamless and relevant contactless interactions.

In both the U.S. and Israel, consumers said the most successful digital engagement effort they have seen from brands during the pandemic is providing people the option to engage with brands using the consumers' preferred channel (i.e. SMS, chat app).

When asked the top reasons why they have enjoyed digital interactions with brands over in-person interactions during the past year, consumers in the U.S., Brazil, and Israel all cited speed as the number one factor.

The survey also uncovered the top four aspects of customer experience from the pandemic that will continue to be important globally:
1.    Message delivery speed (average 92% agreed; top in all markets apart from the U.S.).
2.    Response times (average 89% agreed; top in the U.S.).
3.    Flexibility with customer requests (average 88% agreed).
4.    Brands showing customers they care (average 85% agreed).