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2017 Global EditionCustomer Service Trend Report

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Last year we were telling brands to keep an eye out for trends in messaging. This year, they’re coming to us in droves asking, “Can you help us?” As the market leader in messaging for customer service, we’re happy to be forging the future of business to consumer communication. This report is the culmination of research, anecdotal experience, and interviews with customer service leaders from top global brands.

Text you soon,

Matt Tumbleson Founder & CEO, Teckst

Can you help me?Letter from the CEO


OverviewMessaging Today

There are more than 7 billion people on Earth, and more than 6 billion smartphones. Text messaging is default installed on every single one of them. Let’s compare texting to platforms like Facebook and WeChat. 1 Billion

2 Billion

3 Billion

4 Billion

5 Billion

6 Billion

7 Billion

Population of E

arth

Text M

essag

ing (SMS)

Messen

ger

WhatsApp

WeChat

Twitte

rKik

Viber

Active Daily Users by Platform


Global Trends in Mobile


Single Devices Take OverGlobal Trends

OVERVIEW Rest in peace, tablets. Although they still serve a great number of customers, the phone sizes in today’s market are so large they are becoming the single device consumers use for internet. That means they aren’t switching between a ton of devices, just using that one giant smartphone.

TAKEAWAY Spend less time designing for mobile+tablet+desktop and more time just on mobile. Mobile first was a buzzword in 2016, but it’s an essential in 2017.


Less Social Posting, More ReadingGlobal Trends

OVERVIEW Social is not dead. Those millions of followers that brands pay to engage with are still valuable. However, their individual engagement is down. A Fortune article points out that sharing is down 21%–a massive drop from the year before. Reading, however, went up by 65%.

TAKEAWAY Stop counting engagement like it matters. Likes and comments are relics of times past. Today, the important metric is views, plays, and conversations–two metrics from video, and one from 1:1 audience engagement on Messenger.


OVERVIEW Messaging is officially here. In 2015, the number of consumers messaging on a daily basis surpassed 3 billion. That number continues increasing every day, and messaging will have twice the audience size of social media by the end of 2018.

Messaging is Bigger than SocialTAKEAWAY If you don’t have a messaging strategy to talk human to human with customers, you are missing an opportunity to be ahead of the curve and create a lasting bond with customers.

Global Trends


OVERVIEW In April 2016 Facebook announced the ability to create bots for their messenger platform. Less than one year and millions of terrible bot experiences and they are officially pulling back their push for humans to talk to computers.

Bots Are DeadTAKEAWAY Bots can be helpful in the right context. However, this novelty proved to be more harmful than helpful. It hurt brand affinity, increased inbound tickets to customer service, and proved that brands can still fall for gimmicks.

Global Trends


OVERVIEW Consumption of video continues to skyrocket. Viewing habits have shifted from cable/TV to video clips on mobile devices. A new era of celebrities from streaming services are emerging, and brands are taking full advantage of these more-affordable, more-authentic personalities.

Video Takes the CakeTAKEAWAY If you don’t have a creator studio to make entertaining clips, it’s time to invest in some lights and a good camera. Video, like messaging, is here to stay and it’s up to brands to catch up to the consumer trend.

Global Trends


Regional Trends in Messaging


North AmericaRegional Trends in Messaging

ESSENTIAL PLATFORMS Text messaging remains the number one messaging platform in North America. Every day billions of texts are sent, and today millions of those are from Teckst customers texting with customer service. Snapchat may not be as big, but it’s coming, and we bet it will be bigger than Messenger. You need to be on it.

UP AND COMING PLATFORMS Messenger isn’t exactly a new platform. However, Facebook’s big miss in 2016 with bots caused brands to pause before eliminating humans and trusting machines. Keep an eye on Messenger for human-to-human, though, because it’s incredibly fast and efficient for customer service.

579 million

TOTAL POPULATION

8%

PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EARTH

$25,000

INDIVIDUAL BUYING POWER


Latin AmericaRegional Trends in Messaging

ESSENTIAL PLATFORMS WhatsApp rules LatAm. However, using it for business is nearly impossible. The platform continues to be locked due to prevent SPAM. We’re working on a solution that should be available in mid-2017. The best workaround today, however, is Messenger. In LatAm, texting is expensive, but WiFi is free and everywhere. This makes apps like WhatsApp and Messenger so prevalent.

UP AND COMING PLATFORMS Viber has a huge presence in LatAm, but is not nearly as widespread as the big two if you have resources, add it. Text Messaging is getting cheaper, so keep an eye on it for 2018.

626 million

TOTAL POPULATION

11%


$17,625*


*Average of all countries


Western EuropeRegional Trends in Messaging

ESSENTIAL PLATFORMS Text Messaging and Messenger are non-negotiable in Europe. There’s not even a clear leader. They are more or less interchangeable and segmentation is random with friends, family, and work. WhatsApp is a major opportunity, but being closed off from brands is a roadblock to utilizing the full potential.

UP AND COMING PLATFORMS Telegram is an incredible platform with high usage and brands embracing it for direct to consumer communication. It’s competing with brands that have incredible amounts of money to grow, but give it time and keep it on your radar. It will grow.

397 million

TOTAL POPULATION

5%


$40,000*




Eastern Europe & RussiaRegional Trends in Messaging

ESSENTIAL PLATFORMS Vkontakte is the dominant platform in Russia by a landslide. Even WhatsApp can’t compare, although in the rest of Eastern Europe it’s nearly head-to-head.

UP AND COMING PLATFORMS Text Messaging is used for more formal conversations in this region, and texting for customer service would definitely fit within this region.

740 million

TOTAL POPULATION

11%


$25,500*




Middle EastRegional Trends in Messaging

ESSENTIAL PLATFORMS Text Messaging is the dominant way people communicate in the Middle East across all generations and device types. WhatsApp and Telegram are the biggest apps here, though. Brands should be on all three to cover the most ground, but just text messaging can suffice if adding new channels is a difficulty.

UP AND COMING PLATFORMS There aren’t really any up and coming apps here. Messenger could potentially make the list, but the penetration is incredibly low, so our view is to just stick with the essential platforms this year.

218 million

TOTAL POPULATION

3%


$30,000*




AfricaRegional Trends in Messaging

ESSENTIAL PLATFORMS Text Messaging in Africa is the only way people communicate on mobile devices. It’s the cheapest way to communicate, and spotty wifi and mobile internet rates that cost a small fortune make texting the only solution for brands to communicate 1:1 with their consumers on mobile messaging.

UP AND COMING PLATFORMS Similar to Middle East, there are no up and coming platforms to be aware of. Stick with text messaging and come back in a year to reassess if there’s a need to join another network.

1.2 billion

TOTAL POPULATION

17%


$3,380*




AsiaRegional Trends in Messaging

ESSENTIAL PLATFORMS With more than 700 million users, WeChat is the dominant player in China. LINE has similar numbers in Japan, and in South Korea, KakaoTalk is the leader. The entire Asian market is segmented by country and chat app, almost like if the app is only available within the borders of the country it came from. If you want to reach someone in China, for example, your only option is WeChat.

UP AND COMING PLATFORMS Due to the fragmentation across Asia, WhatsApp and Messenger are becoming more prevalent. Markets like India are exponentially growing their user bases.

4.4 billion

TOTAL POPULATION

63%


$28,000*




Tips for 2017


Be Your Own CustomerTips for 2017

Get out of the office and go be your own customer. If you work for CPG, go to a store and ask customers what their day looks like, what apps they use, and how they communicate with their friends and family. Then, mimic their behavior to better understand not just what their day looks like, but why it looks that way.


Buy Post-ItsTips for 2017

Write out exactly what your customer journey looks like, using Post-Its for each step of the journey. Then, review with your team the different pain points your customers have today. For a global brand, narrow it down to a region before diving into global patterns. Wherever you determine a pain points needs help, think about where the customer is already at digitally, then meet them there. Rearrange the post its in random order and see if your solutions still help.


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