Consumer Study Reveals Phone Reigns in Customer Service

During the 2024 holiday season, US online spending rose 9%, influenced in part by the ubiquity of smartphones and how easy it is to make a purchase on them.

PolyAI, a global provider of voice AI solutions for customer experience and service, revealed that 65% of Americans prefer a phone call as their primary method of contacting customer service for retail and travel brands. Perhaps more surprising, 86% of GenZ and younger Millennial participants prefer the voice channel for support, breaking the stereotype that young people don’t like to talk on the phone.

A recent survey of 1,000 US consumers, commissioned by PolyAI and conducted by Dynata,  indicated a general openness to engage conversational AI, as long as it offers accurate and efficient support, especially during high-demand periods.

While 55% of respondents are likely to immediately ask for a representative if they hear a robotic IVR (interactive voice response), 71% of consumers are willing to speak to an intelligent voice assistant if it could accurately fulfill their customer service needs (process a return, perform a price match, answer questions, etc).

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“The survey’s findings echo what we’re hearing from brands we work with: their customers don’t like being on hold nor do they trust the ability of old school IVRs to solve their issue. This sentiment was born from decades of stagnation in contact center technology, which has historically been about operational efficiency over the customer experience,” said Nikola Mrkšić, Co-Founder and CEO of PolyAI.

“Now, people are not only embracing capable AI solutions, they’re demanding those solutions be available wherever they decide to contact a business. Two big findings from this survey: customers of all ages prefer the phone, and that accuracy, speed and convenience are the keys to winning loyalty.”

The results confirm Mrkšić’s observations, as 52% of consumers feel “very comfortable” or “somewhat comfortable” using voice assistants to interact with customer service, specifically within retail and travel verticals. Surprisingly, 86% of GenZ and younger millennials surveyed named the phone as their preferred support channel, bucking the notion that nobody under 30 places calls anymore.

During the 2024 holiday season, US online spending rose 9%, influenced in part by the ubiquity of smartphones and how easy it is to make a purchase on them — with just a few taps, users can buy basically anything, even bypassing the need to input credit card info because of digital wallets.

Shopping on a smartphone is quick, and when someone reaches out to customer service, they want response times to be quick, too. In fact, 58% of consumers would like to see faster response rates from retail and travel brands during the holiday season, and those retailers using voice AI solutions will be at an advantage over those that do not. Voice AI can efficiently and effectively handle inquiry surges by slashing hold times and exceeding customer expectations, even during record-breaking shopping periods.

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