Vonage Survey Reveals Communications and Consumer Behavior Shifts amid COVID

Vonage has released a new report entitled “COVID-19 Reshapes the Global Customer Engagement Landscape.” The document details changing consumer preferences and behaviors and how businesses and service providers need to transform their customer engagement strategies to become more agile in the COVID era.

Key findings demonstrate that the pandemic accelerated the adoption of newer communications channels while increasing fragmentation in channel preferences, especially in the ways that consumers interact with businesses and service providers.

“COVID-19 has upended how businesses operate and how consumers interact with those businesses,” said Joy Corso, Chief Marketing Officer for Vonage. “We are at the beginning of a huge market-wide communications revolution. If there was ever a question that businesses needed to digitally transform not only to survive but thrive, COVID-19 eliminated any doubt. This survey underscores the fact that it is now fundamental for companies to stay connected to employees and customers from anywhere through whatever channel they choose – video, voice, messaging, and chat.”

Since January, globally, there has been 140% growth in the number of people who prefer to connect with businesses via video. Video chat has also become a mainstream addition to people’s everyday lives, and U.S. adoption has experienced four years of growth in just seven months, with 43% of Americans now video chatting with businesses regularly, up from 28% in January.

Across all regions, 55% of consumers have used video to connect with businesses and service providers, up from 44% in January. In Latin America, seven out of every 10 consumers have video chatted with a business, up from six out of 10 in January.

In August, a majority (54%) of respondents in EMEA reported using video chat, up from 42% in January.

Due to the advent of widespread distance learning, 42% of respondents report they prefer to engage with other students and teachers in a virtual classroom in August, up from 35% in January. This trend will likely continue as more students participate in virtual learning environments, according to the report.

SMS preference dropped 23% between January and August, as other preferred methods of communicating with businesses came out on top. With 30% of the vote, mobile phone calls are still consumers’ favorite way to connect with businesses. But the remaining 70% of consumers prefer a variety of other options.

Channel Impact^®
Organizations must always be agile and ready to adapt to changes in the market, but 2020 has made the call for agility even more important. With lockdowns and social distancing likely to continue for the foreseeable future, organizations across all industries can successfully adapt to the new normal through the ability to seamlessly deliver goods and services remotely.