Global Consumer Communication Preferences
in July 2024, CRM tech company, Twilio surveyed over 3,900 people across the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and Singapore, to better understand their behavior and to learn about their communication channel preferences. The survey address three key areas:
Preferred communication channels: The channels consumers prefer when interacting with brands
Trust: How branded communications influence whether consumers feel they can trust a brand in a fairly digital world
Communication responsiveness: How quickly consumers expect a business to respond to their queries and how this, in turn, impacts their purchasing behavior.
FINDINGS
Preferred Communication Channels and Purchasing Behavior
A key finding of this survey was that whilst 91% of global consumers expected engagement through their preferred communication channels, only 54% of brands consistently met this expectation. Unsurprisingly, 32% of consumers mentioned being willing to spend 32% more on brands that use their preferred channels. This is even more salient in regions like Latin America (45%) and North America (34%)
Impact on Purchasing Behavior
An effective communication strategy is essential to driving revenue, since according to the Twilio report, 40% of consumers said they were more likely to make repeat purchases from brands that used their preferred channels. Likewise, 30% of consumers are more likely to make a first-time purchase when brand use their preferred communication channels.
In fact, 57% of consumers report being sometimes, often, or always frustrated when brands use the wrong channels to communicate with them. and 24% of consumers say they have purchased from a different business because a brand didn’t use their preferred channel.
Generational Differences in Preferred Communication Channels
As expected, email is still the preferred communication channel across all generations; however, older generations like email communication at a higher rate than Millenials and Gen Zers, who are more likely to use social media, messaging apps, and push communications to engage with brands.
Surprisingly, Generation Z consumers are more likely to be open to phone calls from businesses, which is refreshing considering Gen Z has been maligned for being supposedly afraid of the phone! Despite the fact that the United States has yet to jump onboard using WhatsApp for messaging, 2 in 5 Millenials listed the app as their preferred communication channel.
Preferred Communication Channels by Generation
It is just as important to geographically adapt communication strategies. WhatsApp is quite popular in Latin America and Singapore, and thus the preferred communication channel in these markets. However, Japan favors LINE over other messaging apps.
Preferred Communication Channels by Country
The Importance of Verified and Branded Communications
Trust is integral to any corporate communication strategy. According to Twilio’s survey, 56% of consumers received branded text messages in the 12 months before the survey, and of those consumers, 75% said it increases their trust in the communication. Unsurprisingly, this number was even higher in Latin America (88%). Moreover, 88% of global consumers reported being more likely to trust brands whose communication had a verification badge. This figure was much higher in Asia-Pacific (90%) and Latin America (95%).
Branded communications can drive ROI and boost conversion rates. In fact, 42% of consumers made repeat purchases from brands that used trustworthy communication methods. This number increases 53% in Latin America. This comes as no surprise considering the trust issues that plague the region.
Being perceived as a trust-worthy brand is also part of a comprehensive sales strategy, since 1 in 4 consumers mentioned making a first-time purchase from a brand they trust.
Time Sensitivity in Communication
Communication responsiveness was also found to be a key driver in global consumer purchasing behavior. 86% of consumers said that being able to message a brand in real-time increased their likelihood of completing a purchase; however, only 41% of consumers felt that brands often or always met their expectations.
Slow replies from a brand often result in consumers feeling frustrated and annoyed, with 72% of them believing that the brand they are engaging with is simply wasting their time.
According to Twilio’s survey, consumers expect their queries to be addressed within the hour, underscoring how important timely and efficient communication is. In fact, 40% of consumers say they’ve made a repeat purchase from a brand that responded promptly. Even more importantly, 25% of consumers made a first-time purchase from brands that messaged back swiftly.
BRINGING IT ALL IN
We have established that global consumers want to feel closer to the brands they engage with, and consequently, brands must adapt to meet consumers’ own communication needs and wants in a timely manner, and especially across geographies, generations, and communication channel preferences.
Twilio suggests pursuing an omnichannel communication strategy, as well as to integrate key tools to ensure seamless engagement between brands and consumers.
Call deflection is a smart way to guide customers to an automated and self-help system that allows customers to address their queries quickly and effectively, thus bypassing the need to speak with a live customer service representative.
Centralizing customer data in a customer data platform is key to provide CS reps the necessary information to understand a customer’s history with the brand, as well as to get to know better the customer’s profile and purchasing behaviors.
Self-service chatbots are similar to self-service and online resources, and often provide 24/& customer support.
