Call Center Trends Not Happening #2: Mobile-Friendly Multi-Channel

Why isn’t multi-channel customer care friendlier to mobile phone users? Second in a series about call center trends that aren’t happening and should. (Links to other posts in this series at the bottom.)

According to a recent article by Forbes, 78% of customer care operations are initiated from a cell phone, not a landline. Let’s pause a second to really take that in: roughly 8 out of every 10 people who contact your customer support operation are using their iPhone, Android, or other type of cell phone.

Now think about the channels your customer care operation offers. Are they all equally appealing whether the user is on a desktop, tablet, or a cell phone? I bet not.

You can also read: Call center outsourcing: The complete guide

I think we should be seeing a trend in responsive multi-channel customer care — across all channels including email, chat, video, AR, AI, mobile, social, text and web channels. But it’s not happening.

Here’s an example of chat designed for desktop interface, showing on an iPhone:

When this is rendered in a mobile web browser, you need a magnifying glass and toothpick to click anything, much less type.

Here’s chat on mobile should look:

And now the user interface is clear. You can type using a native keyboard with native functionality:

Recall the statistic about the devices customers are using to contact customer care: 8 in 10 are on mobile devices. Why isn’t there a sense of urgency around making all customer care channels responsive? Are there hidden costs that outweigh the benefits? Do companies really prefer to steer all customers on mobile devices toward calling? Does the chat usability issue seem like not that big a deal? What has to change?

About this series

With all the ink about trends in contact centers and customer care, I got to thinking: what isn’t happening that really should? This series, Call Center Trends Not Happening, is where I post examples. I’m hoping to learn: should this really be a trend (reality check)? What is the holdup?

In this series

• Call Center Trends Not Happening #3: AI and AR in Agent Training
• Call Center Trends NOT Happening #2: Mobile-Friendly Multi-Channel 
• Call Center Trends NOT Happening #1: Eye Contact (Why Not?)

About Ryan Romero

 Ryan Romero is Executive Vice President of Global Sales at Callzilla, an outsourced contact center that ICMI and Customer Magazine rank among the best. He consults with executives in a variety of industries and roles to help determine fit between Callzilla’s proprietary methods, and organizations’ need to improve customer service, sales, and engagement. Before Callzilla, he led several companies in the contact center and BPO space to mergers and aquisition.