Nearly six out of ten (59%) of IT professionals across the UK said their organisation increased its investment into customer service operations over the past two years. That’s according to a new study commissioned by Enghouse Interactive.

The study also revealed that 95% of IT professionals made changes to their customer service channels since the start of the pandemic. And nearly two-thirds of respondents (64%) expect that the budget for customer service channels will increase over the next two years.

While still widely used, traditional communication channels like email and telephone calls are declining in popularity. 71% of organisations used email as a communication channel before the pandemic. That’s expected to fall to 57% by 2024. Moreover, while 64% of organisations used telephone calls as a communication channel before the pandemic, that’s expected to decline to 55% over the next two years.

The beneficiaries are new digital channels such as web chat with a live agent which is already on the rise, and expected to increase from 31% using it before COVID-19 to 55% by 2024. Social media instant messaging is also accelerating with 21% using it at the beginning of 2020 but expected to double in usage to 42% deploying it within the next two years. Video chat with a live agent is also expected to grow strongly from 34% using before COVID to 45% two years from now.

Most IT professionals see the changes their organisations have made to their customer service channels since the pandemic began as sustainable. They are not going back. 70% say all or most changes made will stay.

Judith Schuder, VP of Marketing at Enghouse Interactive, said: “It is all change for customer service since the advent of COVID-19. Customers are increasingly comfortable with digital modes of interaction like web chat with a live agent, which is seeing a surge in popularity. Organisations are looking to invest more and bring on new digital channels as they look for an edge over their rivals. There has been a significant shift and this new model of customer service is here to stay.”

About Enghouse Interactive

Enghouse Interactive (a subsidiary of Enghouse Systems, a Canadian publicly traded company (TSX:ENGH)) is a leading global contact centre and video solutions provider that has been serving thousands of customers for over 35 years. Enghouse Interactive solutions enable customers to deliver winning customer experiences by transforming the contact centre from a cost centre into a powerful growth engine. Enghouse Interactive’s core values – reliability and choice – are key differentiators in the global marketplace. Reliability speaks to Enghouse Interactive’s reputation for always honouring commitments to customers, staff, partners and investors. Choice is reflected in the unparalleled breadth of its CX portfolio, which enables customers to choose from a wide array of solutions and consulting practices, whether deployed on-premise, in the cloud or on a hybrid platform. By providing a broad range of technologies and capabilities based on open standards, Enghouse Interactive simplifies the advanced integrations that customers require.

Further information about Enghouse may be obtained from the company’s website at: https://enghouseinteractive.co.uk/