Multi-Channel Adoption Trends
eChannel Volume Overtakes Phone in 2006
Author: John Ragsdale, Vice President of Research, SSPA

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Executive Overview

The technology services and support industry reached a critical step in customer interaction channel evolution this year, with the monthly average of electronic channel (email, chat, web self-service) volume catching up to phone volume for the first time.  The SSPA expects this shift toward electronic channels, or eChannels (email, chat, web self-service) to continue, with eChannel volume bypassing phone by the end of the year.  Total interaction volume, however, has increased dramatically in the last 3 years, and though phone calls represent a smaller percentage of total interactions, phone volume increases persist.  Companies must continue to invest in eservice technologies to meet the evolving needs of customers, as well as step up marketing efforts to encourage further adoption of unassisted channels.

eChannel Adoption Continues to Rise

Within the last decade, new service channels have been created, and for the first time, are beginning to overtake phone calls as the preferred communication medium for technology customers.  A comparison of SSPA benchmark data shows that in 2001 phone calls comprised the majority, 64%, of total interactions.  The gap closed slightly in 2003, with phone calls representing 60% of total interaction volume.  Our current benchmark data shows that eChannels constitute 49% of total interactions, with email incidents representing 24%, and web self-service and web chat interactions representing 25% of total interaction volume (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: eChannel Volume Catches up to Phone in 2006

The SSPA expects this trend to continue, with eChannels bypassing phone by the end of 2006, and by 2010, representing as high as 56% of total interaction volume.  With recent studies showing a decline in email usage by teens (1), we expect email volume to grow only slightly to 26% by 2010, with Web self-service, chat and new channels (perhaps SMS text) growing to be 30% or more of total volume, meaning phone calls will represent no more than 44%.

Channel Usage Consistent Across Technology Segments

Analyzing the 2006 benchmark data more closely shows that channel usage is fairly consistent across the various technology segments represented by SSPA members.  In Figure 2, we see that phone, email and web channel percentages do not vary greatly between consumer facing companies, enterprise hardware and software firms, and small and medium sized enterprises.  The greatest variance is for enterprise software companies, which averaged both the lowest percentage of email incidents (16%) and highest percentage of web incidents (29%).  The consistency of channel usage seems to indicate that the trend of migrating toward eChannels is driven more by overall customer behavior, not the supportability of a single segment of technology.

Figure 2: Interactions by Channel and Industry

Exploding Growth of Interaction Volume

Although Figure 1 shows that the percentage of phone interactions is on the decline, the rise in total interaction volume means that phone volume is still on the rise. As seen in Table 1 below, the 111% increase in average total interactions from 2003 to 2006, assuming the channel percentages used in Figure 1, meant explosive growth for email and web interactions, and the industry average for phone volume still increased 87%.

Table 1 Monthly Average Incident Volume by Channel Breakdown

When comparing average incident volume by technology segment, consumer facing technology companies have by far the largest volume, with an average of 55,804 incidents per month, and enterprise software companies have the least volume, with a monthly average of 13,060 incidents (see Figure 4). Consumer companies typically have larger interactions volume due to their exponentially larger customer bases, with volumes even higher in some non-technology industries. As an example, a major European mobile communications provider with 22 million active subscribers averages 5.8 million interactions per month.

Figure 4 Monthly Average Incidents by Technology Segment

Though some interaction volume increases can be attributed to the rapidly growing customer ranks of technology companies, there are other elements at work here as well, including:

Increased reliance on technology. Your cell phone is also a camera. You have 500 channels at home on your high definition television via a digital cable box, though you may never flip through channels because Tivo has pre-recorded all of your favorite shows. In the work place, wireless connections and home DSL mean the workday rarely stops at 5pm, and you may be interrupted at any time by chats, emails and text messages from coworkers, friends and family. Every aspect of our lives is filled with technology, and though we may complain, we rely on that technology to accomplish more in shorter periods. But all of this interconnected technology means technical problems arise more frequently, and may be more difficult to troubleshoot without assistance.

New channels and higher channel adoption. At the time of the 2003 benchmark, web chat was a relatively new channel, mostly used to address questions by consumers while shopping online. Chat is now a common interaction channel for technology support after the sale, particularly appealing to younger customers. Web 2.0 features such as customer forums and blogs continue to bring more people to the web in search of information and diagnostic tools.

Ease of information access. Being able to access a contact center agent or self-service website at any hour of the day or night has created an era of information junkies, wanting instant access to solutions. And when information is quick and easy to obtain, we tend to ask more questions. New search and problem resolution technologies have enabled accurate self-service for a wider array of customers and problems.

THE SSPA RECOMMENDS

Total interaction volume will continue to grow across all channels, even phone. To maximize effectiveness and encourage use of self-service channels, companies should:

Speed up the content publishing process. When a customer has a problem or question not addressed in the knowledgebase, adding this content as quickly as possible is critical should other customers encounter the same issue. One enterprise hardware company found their publishing process for new content took as long as 90 days. Reoccurrences of the same problem will force agents to ‘reinvent the wheel’ each time to diagnose and solve the issue until the new content is live. Take a close look at the current process and participants, and streamline steps and allocate resources where possible to cut the time from content submission to go-live.

Leverage analytics to identify content gaps. eService products with strong search technology can proactively identify content gaps based on questions asked by customers performing self-service for which there was no clear matching content. While some eService products will only provide you with a list of questions the customers ask, products with advanced search technology, such as InQuira, identify content gaps at the concept level by understanding the intent of customer questions.

Ask your eService vendor for a tune-up. RightNow Technologies, a CRM vendor with eService roots, offers free tuning sessions for customers to evaluate the effectiveness of their Web self-service implementation and make recommendations on how to improve effectiveness. Check with your vendor to see if similar programs are offered, as successful implementations lead to positive customer references and vendors should be willing to partner with customers to ensure success.

Investigate voice self-service. While more common in high volume consumer industries such as telecommunications (check your remaining cell phone minutes), consumer banking (account balances and activity) and travel (flight times, upgrade status), voice recognition technology is enabling a wider range of customer issues to be automated. While complex diagnostics for technical support may yet be unrealistic for voice self-service, speak with vendors like Tellme Networks or Genesys about which of your common problems may be easily addressed via voice self-service.

Create ongoing marketing campaigns to encourage eChannel adoption. It is pointless to spend a lot of money to build a ground breaking web self service site, and then never tell customers it is there. If you want to migrate customers to channels other than phone, involve your marketing department. Have a launch to entice customers to try new service options. Place reminders about self-service in every customer newsletter, print campaign, and bill. And don’t forget to add a recording to remind customers of the self-service options while they are holding for an agent.

Endnotes
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1 According to comScore Media Metrix, total email users increased 6% in April 2006 over April 2005, but teen email use declined 8% in the same period, from 12.8 million users in 2005 to 11.8 millions users in 2006.

If you have any questions about this article, please contact Shawn Santos at ssantos@thesspa.com or 858.674.5491.