How Americans Contact Customer Services

Customer satisfaction is the key to long-term success in any retail business. High-quality products and a comfortable shopping environment are one aspect, but to attend to requests, questions and complaints is equally important in order to retain customers. A good customer service creates loyal clients that are happy, tell others about your brand and keep coming back. In order to find out which channels U.S. customers preferably use to get in contact with an online store’s customer service, check out the following results of a survey carried out by Statista among U.S. customers in 2019:

The phone is still the most widely used way to approach an online store’s customer service with a question or a complaint: 34% of U.S. customers prefer this channel, closely followed by e-mails with 31%. The live chat is also strong, with 24% declaring it their favorite way of contact. Especially women seem to like the possibility to approach a customer service agent via live chat: 27% of them consider it their favorite way, as compared to only 20% of men. Other contacting possibilities like text messages, contact sheets or Facebook are far off with low one-digit percentages.

The same Statista survey also includes a question on online shopping channels and whether respondents plan to use them more or less frequently in the future. The results might be surprising:

Most Americans still use a browser on their desktop PC or laptop to shop online (79%) and 62% seem to be happy with it. 12% even plan to use their PC or laptop more frequently for online shopping in the next year. When it comes to mobile shopping, browsers are also more popular than apps, with 47% using a browser and only 41% using apps to shop on their phone. Smart speakers are still unpopular. 82% state that they never use them for online shopping and only 4% plan to use them more often in the future. The revolution “voice is the new touch” has yet to happen – at least in online shopping.