twilio studio, “Relationship Economics: Customer Interaction in the Digital Age”, confirmed that customers are still looking to receive efficient service, for 25% of those surveyed this continues to be a fundamental aspect. “The success of fast delivery and one-click shopping is proof that convenience comes first. However, to achieve true satisfaction, closeness should not be the only goal of the company. In the context of a difficult economic situation, the data make it clear that building long-term trusting relationships with clients and their loyalty goes beyond the speed of interacting with them,” the company said in a statement.

The digitalization of society has made it easier to access information, but consumers have difficulty accessing the solutions they need from companies. This can be a serious problem. In this regard, this report reveals that knowledge-based tasks are consistently the most difficult to perform.

Following this line, Eduardo Martínez, Sales Director of Twilio Southern Europe has said that “efficiency and client knowledge are key when building a relationship of trust between consumers and companies. For clients, it is important for the company to pay attention to their needs and solve their possible problems effectively and quickly. But it’s the emotion, the human touch, that really makes the difference. Technology enables us to put all the information, tools and knowledge to serve these purposes.”

Based on this, Sam Richardson, Twilio’s Customer Relations Consultant has stated that “recent economic challenges have revealed how important customer inquiries are, and why companies have a responsibility to respond wisely, as well as quickly. However, customer service agents are overworked, they often get bogged down in answering simple questions that can handled better in other ways, and they are often at a disadvantage because their systems do not help them deliver the information or assurance customers need.First-party data can help ease this burden, for example by providing agents with context as to why someone is reaching out, or how they would prefer give and receive information.”

Combine human and digital

At the same time, increased efficiency continues to be a reference point to be taken into account in more conventional relationships with customers, and “service efficiency” is a common reason to trust the company again or recommend the brand to customers. . But in the case of more complex or long-term interactions, such as “connect with the community” one of “request support for a product or service”, consumers express a desire to have human empathy. When asked whether they preferred digital or human interaction for this activity, 74% and 69%, respectively, expressed a desire for human connection.

For this part, Andrew Stephen, L’Oréal Vice Dean and Lecturer in Marketing at Oxford University’s Saïd Business Schoolexplains that “perhaps counterintuitively, the more digital a business is, the more important it is to take a human-centered approach to acquiring and retaining customers. Even in digital channels, it is critical to ensure that all customer interactions are as “humane” as possible, especially in the future. hard times when people need to feel heard Personalization using first-hand data is the way to do it right, even with limited human resources, showing that you understand who each person is and where they’re coming from. marketing to customer service.”

As far as Spain is concerned, 49% of Spanish respondents want to talk to someone face-to-face over the phone, compared to 32% in the UK, 36% in France and 27% in Germany. In turn, these figures were matched against equally high scores for ‘what makes me more likely to use the company again’, with 36% compared to 29% in the UK, 29% in France and 29% in Germany.