90% of Australian business leaders agree that COVID-19 stimulated their organisation to explore new and untested strategies to serve customers. 90% also agree that increased customer engagement during COVID-19 helped gain new customer insights.
Comcast, Delta Air Lines, Norwegian Refugee Council recognised for building innovative ways to stay connected with their customers and communities during COVID-19. Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform, released its second annual State of Customer Engagement Report.
Combining insight from the Twilio platform which powers over one trillion human interactions annually, with results of new global research of 2,500 enterprise decision-makers. The report reveals that digital communications were critical to business survival in 2020, and that the solutions that were built will shape business success in the post-pandemic economy.
“For nearly every organisation dealing with the impacts of the pandemic, increased digital engagement was a core part of their solutions. From remote learning, to work-from-home contact centre agents, to vaccine distribution logistics, digital communications have played a critical role. We expect that to accelerate through the pandemic recovery and become the new normal.” said Glenn Weinstein, Chief Customer Officer at Twilio.
The 2021 State of Customer Engagement Report outlines the major trends in digital engagement that emerged in 2020, and how they are shaping digital adoption across global companies in every industry.
The trends include
- Soaring digital interaction between businesses and customers, and personalisation;
- The rise of the agile workforce;
- How highly regulated industries are leading in digital adoption;
- The next generation of video; and
- How businesses are choosing to build unique experiences.
Key findings from the report include:
2020 catapulted us into a hybrid economy, where nearly every in-person interaction will have a digital element. 90% of Australian business leaders report that COVID-19 accelerated their move to the cloud, equipping companies with the flexibility to serve customers from anywhere.
94% of respondents surveyed plan to increase or maintain their current communications channel offerings after the pandemic and expect to add an average of three new channels this year. Digital engagement will remain essential to business survival and success.
90% of Australian business leaders report that increased customer engagement during the pandemic drove new customer insights. 41% of Australian business leaders report they’ll increase the current level of investment in customer engagement, while 51% intend to maintain the current level of investment.
Companies that adopt a “builder” mindset will survive, those that do not will be outcompeted. 33% of Australian enterprise decision-makers report they will choose to build communications solutions to meet customer demands in the future, rather than buy a pre-configured solution.
90% of C-level executives found developers were crucial to solving business challenges brought on by COVID. The report recognises Twilio Engagement Builders, innovative organisations that built cutting-edge digital solutions to stay connected to their customers and communities in 2020.
Methodology
This report draws insight from Twilio platform data, which reflects digital engagement activity that occurred on Twilio in 2020. Twilio platform data do not represent Twilio’s historical or future financial performance and are presented solely as context for broader market trends.
The report also includes original research from a survey of over 2,500 enterprise decision-makers across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, and Singapore. The research was fielded by a third party to understand how businesses view the role of digital engagement.
Survey respondents are full-time employees of companies with 500 to 25,000+ employees, from the director to executive level.
