Only 12% of Customers Prefer a Phone Call

The latest findings from ContactBabel have revealed that only 12% of customers prefer a phone call, compared to 36% who prefer email.

The UK & US Contact Centre Decision-Makers’ Guides include research on customer contact operations which together directly employ over 6.6 million American and British people.

Having surveyed over 420 US & UK contact centres of all sizes and business sectors, some of this year’s findings include:

In the UK:

• The mean average cost of a webchat is £2.58 – 73% of that of a phone call, and almost the same as an email
• Average annual salaries for new agents are £16,808 (up 5.1% from 2014)
• 36% of customers prefer to use email to communicate with a business, compared to only 12% who prefer a phone call
• 40% of contact centre respondents expect their inbound voice traffic volumes to drop in the next 12 months.

In the US:

• The mean average cost of an email is $4.14 – 62% of that of a phone call, but 14% more expensive than a webchat
• Average annual salaries for contact centre managers are $69,605 (up 3.0% from 2014)
• By mid-2017, 74% of US contact centres will be using some homeworking
• First-call resolution is seen as the single most important factor affecting customer satisfaction.

The UK & US Contact Centre Decision-Makers’ Guides (2015) are available to download now, free of charge, from www.contactbabel.com/reports.cfm