New data from the customer support experts at Helpshift reveals 89 percent of Americans would recommend an app with proactive in-app support
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)—Helpshift, the company revolutionizing the customer support industry through enterprise-level, in-app customer experiences, today announced the results of a survey conducted by Radius Global Market Research June 12-13, 2017, among adults ages 18+, that explored Americans’ feelings about email, messaging and proactive customer support.
“The future of in-app customer service is proactive, rather than reactive, so the resolution begins before the customer’s experience has even been interrupted. We’re here to help with that.”
Customer support is critical for app success
More than three-quarters of Americans (81 percent) use mobile apps—to check social media (66 percent), read the news (44 percent), play games (44 percent), order food (35 percent) and handle work-related tasks (22 percent).
However, the vast majority of mobile app users (69 percent) report having problems with apps—27 percent on a daily or weekly basis.
Apps that don’t provide good customer support are more at risk of being deleted or ignored: nearly half (47 percent) of app users say they just delete apps that are frustrating and don’t provide any customer support. Others will:
Give the app a bad review – 24 percent
Trash the app to friends – 19 percent
Complain about the app on social media – 18 percent
Messaging is the new lingua franca
App users do not want to have to exit the app to seek help over email; they want to communicate with customer service agents the way they communicate in their daily lives: over messaging.
More than half (59 percent) of Americans who use mobile apps prefer messaging to email, because they feel it is a more trustworthy form of communication. If an app offered live, in-app customer service, 46 percent would try it, 34 percent would use it, 23 percent would recommend the app to friends, and 16 percent would buy it for having this feature.
“Mobile apps that provide more sophisticated in-app support are more likely to enjoy stronger customer engagement and loyalty,” said Abinash Tripathy, Founder and CEO of Helpshift. “These survey results underscore the point that people want to communicate with customer service agents the way they communicate with everyone else—through messaging and apps. That’s why in-app messaging is the superior form of customer support.”
What’s more, a significant majority of Americans—89 percent—say they recommend an app if they were proactively contacted inside an app by a customer support agent if they were experiencing a problem with an app.
Added Tripathy: “The future of in-app customer service is proactive, rather than reactive, so the resolution begins before the customer’s experience has even been interrupted. We’re here to help with that.”
Methodology
The survey was conducted online within the United States by Radius Global Market Research on behalf of Helpshift June 12-13, 2017, among 2,170 adults 18+. The results were weighted to the U.S. census for age, gender, region and income. For further information, please contact Laura Ruark: laura@bospar.com.
About Helpshift
Helpshift bridges the disconnect between conventional customer service channels like email and phone support and a growing consumer base that lives in a mobile-first world. As consumers do more on their mobile phones and have a strong preference for messaging as their primary mode of communication, Helpshift’s customer service platform provides instant answers and messaging right within the mobile app. The Helpshift SDK also easily integrates with third-party tools and allows for highly-personalized support and user segmentation. Through this streamlined support system, companies can resolve issues more efficiently, boosting customer satisfaction in the process. Companies such as Viacom, Virgin Media, Western Union and WordPress and thousands of other industry-leading brands, startups and developers use the Helpshift platform to provide in-app support. Helpshift is installed on two billion devices worldwide and serves more than 400 million mobile customers monthly. To date, Helpshift has raised more than $38.2 million and is backed by Cisco Investments, Intel Capital, Microsoft Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, True Ventures, and Visionnaire Ventures. To learn more about Helpshift, visit https://www.helpshift.com/ and follow @helpshift on Twitter.
Contacts
for Helpshift
Laura Ruark, 540-599-7886
laura@bospar.com
