State of the Connected Customer Appendix 47 Companies Face a New Connected Mandate Percentage of Customers Who Use and Prefer the Following Channels When Communicating with Companies, by Customer Type All Customers Consumers Business Buyers Prefer to use Total use Prefer to use Total use Prefer to use Total use 73% 98% 73% 98% 73% 97% Email 64% 94% 63% 94% 67% 96% In person Phone 60% 93% 58% 92% 64% 95% (e.g., landline phone) Online portals 44% 84% 41% 82% 48% 87% (e.g., self-service account information) 37% 83% 34% % 43% % 81 86 Online forms 48% 82% 44% 80% 54% 87% Mobile app Online knowledge bases (e.g., self-service 39% 82% 36% 80% 45% 86% FAQ, searchable libraries of info, etc.) Online chat/live support (e.g., pop-up 81 79 86 41% % 38% % 46% % support window on a company’s website) 40% 78% 37% % 45% % 76 84 Text/SMS 72 68 79 40% % 37% % 46% % Messenger apps 34% 71% 30% 66% 44% 81% Social media Online communities (i.e., forums to 63 79 30% 68% 26% % 40% % interact with other customers) Voice-activated personal assistants 23% 54% 18% 48% 32% 67% (e.g., Siri, Alexa) Salesforce Research