Page 14 - Optus Future of Business Report 2013

13
Consumer expectations
in the multi-channel
world
Digital is useful but
consumers still value
traditional channels
Looking at channel use from consumers’
point of view, although they are using
digital channels they are not embracing
them as quickly as organisations expect.
Consumers report the greatest use of
traditional channels and prefer that
organisations keep providing these for
the foreseeable future. For instance,
51% of customers interacted with
organisations via their bricks and
mortar premises and contact centres
respectively over a three month period.
When it comes to digital channels,
consumers are most comfortable
interacting with organisations online
via their website. Forty-two percent
of consumers surveyed used online
to interact with organisations in the
last three months, with education and
training customers reporting the highest
use (71%), followed by finance and
insurance customers (60%).
Consumers appear less clear on the
value of using emerging digital channels
to fulfil their needs. Nowhere is this
more evident than with social media,
where just 4% of consumers used this
channel to interact with organisations,
compared to 62% of businesses.
In mobile, 12% of consumers used this
channel to interact with organisations,
with customers of the information
media and telecoms sector reporting
the highest usage (21%), followed by
construction (20%), education and
training (17%), rental, hiring and real
estate (17%) and financial services and
insurance (16%).
However, consumer preferences to
interact with organisations varied
greatly depending on their sector. For
instance, while 15% of financial services
customers prefer mobile now, in three
to five years they will rank among the
top users of the channel with 23%
saying they will prefer it in three to five
years. Education and training customers
are expected to be among those most
likely to prefer to use social media
in three to five years, doubling their
preferred use of this channel.
CHANNELS CURRENTLY USED
BY CONSUMERS VS BUSINESS
(%)
BUSINESS CONSUMER
42
ONLINE
91
CONSUMER BUSINESS
MOBILE
12 46
CONSUMER BUSINESS
CONTACT CENTRE
51 56
CONSUMER BUSINESS
SOCIAL MEDIA
4 62
CONSUMER BUSINESS
BRICKS AND MORTAR
51 73
of customers interacted with
organisations via their bricks
and mortar premises and contact
centres in last three months
51%