Leading cloud contact centre and customer engagement company, Content Guru, recently released data showcasing the massive impact on COVID-19 on customer engagement. The company collected data from more than 44 million customer service calls both before and during lockdown.
The research found variations in customer engagement across 13 industries, including hospitality, transport, and real estate. Although Content Guru reported a reduction in participation across all industries, the drop was most severe in the transport sector. Customer engagement in transportation dropped by 92% between January and May 2020. The hospitality and distribution sectors also saw a fall in engagement of over 90%.
A Significant Change in Customer Engagement
Despite a reduction in customer call volumes of 81% from pre-lockdown levels in April, estate agent calls began to rise again in May, with an increase of over 200% compared to April’s low levels. With government restrictions on activity lifted, customer contact to estate agents continued to increase, reaching new highs for the year in June. Engagement was 63% higher than the levels in January.
Every industry that Content Guru looked out in their research saw customer engagement fall dramatically in April. Lockdown forced many organisations to encourage digital communication channels like social media and webchat, instead of contact centres.
While organisations everywhere anticipated significant increases in contact volumes, the supermarket environment stood out most, with volumes surging by around 115% from January to March. Volumes dropped back to a rate of around 28% below the levels experienced at the beginning of the year in May and June.
The public sector is the only area that saw a growth in engagement during lockdown. Call volumes were 19% higher in June than January. Healthcare, banking, insurance, security, and utilities have also been less severely affected, with engagement in June falling lower than 20% under its January levels.
The Changing Customer Landscape
According to the Co-Founder and Deputy CEO for Content Guru, Martin Taylor, this data demonstrates insight into the severity of COVID-19 lockdown on engagement across some of the most important sectors in the economy. 2020 has been a significant period of change for all companies, and this report highlights some of the pressure on contact centres.
Businesses everywhere have had to change the way that they engage with customers to suit new requirements. This has meant businesses have been implementing new remote working capabilities, integrating digital communication channels, and layering on intelligent technology for automation.
We’re now beginning to see the signs that a recovery is growing in the industry. There’s a lot of activity in industries where customer call volume seems to be returning to almost normal levels or setting new highs for the year. Organisations need to focus on the quality of their customer experiences and ensuring contact centres can support remote teams.
