List of 12 Most Important Customer Communication Channels and How to Improve Them?

Nowadays businesses are utilising  different channels to convey important strategies,  information, and  ideas.

Whether the communication is for internal team collaboration or for external interactions for  clients and stakeholders, the communication channels play an important role. The selection of channels plays a significant role, because it majorly impacts productivity, collaboration along with overall performance. It is a fact that 69% managers find it challenging to remote employee communications.

The technologies and their strategic approaches help organisations to optimise their communication channels for better overall growth. In this blog, let’s look into the most effective communication channels. The channels, which are effective for businesses to build efficiency with their effectiveness.

What is a Communication Channel?

Businesses can communicate with customers through an effective communication channel. It becomes the primary medium for exchanging information. A communication channel can be digital, physical or can be blended to play a pivotal role in overall customer experience. Therefore effective communication channels are important to make sure customers are reaching out personally. Organisations reach out to customers for support, feedback, inquiries to make businesses to respond timely with efficient manner.

According to a Zendesk source, 70% of customers are more likely to buy additional products. Buy from those brands who provide excellent support over multiple contact channels. Therefore it is very much important for businesses to identify effective communication channels. It works  on the basis of current data, cost, speed implementation etc.

What is Real-time Communication?

Real-time communication is an immediate information exchange that happens without any delay. This immediate exchange of information is very much important to deal with today’s fast-paced digital world. Because customers now expect instant responses with resolutions. The real-time communication’s perfect examples are phone calls, live chat, and instant messaging that enable direct and immediate interactions.

Importance of Real-time Communication for Your Business

Here are several reasons why real-time communication is essential for business success:

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Quick responses to customer inquiries to reduce frustration and at the same time increase satisfaction.
Improved Efficiency: Immediate communication helps businesses to resolve issues with customers by saving time for both the ends.
Building Trust: It helps in building trust and strengthening business relationships with customers by consistently working on prompt responses.
Competitive Edge: Swift, real-time communication separates top performers from the rest, enabling them to deliver unmatched responsiveness. This agility not only delights customers but also solidifies a commanding market presence.

Implementing Real-Time Communication in Business

Let’s check the steps of Implementing real-time communication:

• Choose the Right Tools:First you need to select the platform where you want to give support for your instant communication. For instance messaging apps, live chat and VoIP systems.

• Train Your Team: Make sure your customer support team has trained well to manage real-time inquiries. The team is efficient enough to provide quick solutions in an efficient manner to customers.

• Monitor Performance: You can track response times by using analytics. It helps to check your satisfied customers list.  With the analytics you can also make adjustments as needed to improve efficiency.

• Integrate Across Channels: Make sure your real-time communication is integrated across all customer touch points. Because it helps customers to receive a consistent experience regardless of how  they reach out. 

Statistics That Shows The Importance of Customer Communication Channels

• Response Time Matters: According to the Hubspot report, 90% of customers always consider an “immediate” response as an important/very important factor while asking a question in the customer services.

• The Power of Personalization: According to the Epsilon study conducted, it was found that about 80% of the consumers are likely to make a purchase if brands provide personalised experiences.

• Omnichannel Expectations: The detailed report of the Harvard Business Reveal shows that 73% of the consumers switch between multiple channels when they reach the buyers’ journey stage of shopping, by emphasising the need of consumers to use multiple channels during shopping.

• The Rise of Messaging Apps: A business insider note indicates that the messaging apps’ user base has surpassed 5 billion monthly active users and customers consider it as one of the essential channels for interacting with firms.

• Video Communication Growth: The market of video conferencing at the global level is predicted to reach up to $ 19. by 2030 reaching 73 billion, and as pointed by the Grand view research, emphasis on the use of video communication is rising.

List of 12 Most Important Customer Communication Channels

The best options for your business hinge on your product or service, company size, and target audience. Understanding your customer experience is key to choosing the right support channels.

Email

Email is one of the  important communication channels recognized in global platforms. The most of its users are millennials, Generation X and Boomers. 89% of the B2B marketers use email as their distribution channel for easy business communication.

Why It’s Important: Email remains a staple in customer communication for its formality, traceability, and ability to handle complex issues.

How to Improve It: As per studies personalization click-through rates in an average of 14% and conversions by 10%. You can include phone numbers within your email as one more reaching out option. You can  Implement automated responses to acknowledge receipt in your email to ensure timely follow-ups, and personalise content based on customer data to improve your email customer rate.  If you are using call tracking solutions like Teldrip, then you can find how many call conversions are driving through emails. 

Phone Calls

Phone calls are coming under the most impressive customer satisfaction score of 86%. It is the most preferred choice of 59% of consumers when contacting call centre representatives. It is increasing its popularity because it is one of those communication channels that provide  real-time, direct and immediate responses. 

Why It’s Important: Phone calls offer direct, personal interaction and are essential for resolving urgent or complex issues.

How to Improve It: It reduces hold times, you need to train your staff for active listening. You can  integrate CRM systems to provide context during calls like with Teldrip tools.

Live Chat

Live chat is an online feature  that enables customers to reach out with questions or for their concerns regarding a service or product. According to resources up to 72% of customers love to choose online chat to connect with a brand. It is the second highest customer satisfaction rating with 85% after the phone calls with 91% according to the survey.

Why It’s Important: Live chat offers real-time assistance directly on your website, reducing friction in the customer journey.
How to Improve It: Ensure availability during peak hours, use chatbots for initial inquiries, and train agents to handle multiple chats efficiently.

Social Media

About 5 billion people in the world use social networks and an average user has time in seven social networks per month. Though more people are joining social media platforms at a slower pace currently, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube, plus others are still considered gigantic with audiences.

Why It’s Important: Hence, social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are imperative in brand interaction and satisfaction.

How to Improve It: Engage with the audience, answer to messages and comments, keep the brand identity and use such tools as Teldrip’s for monitoring.

SMS

Apart from Internet communication, the Short Message Service or SMS stands as one of the primary forms through which customers can communicate with the company due to the speed of the communications channel. SMS stands out for having an open rate above 98%, thus guaranteeing that the messages are viewed almost immediately, it is relevant for urgent information like appointments, confirmed orders, and offers. As a matter of fact, SMS also has the appearance of being more personal, thus offering businesses avenues through which they can reach the clients in the most effective manner. The ease of use, capacitive to any type of mobile devices, and the nearly-instantaneous response rate makes SMS a perfect way of improving customer relations and achieving business performance objectives.

Why It’s Important: instant messaging like SMS provides a direct and immediate way to communicate, with high open rates and quick response times. It is the most cost-effective channel among all. 

How to Improve It: Personalise messages, use SMS for time-sensitive information, and integrate with CRM systems  like at Teldrip for targeted messaging.

Messaging Apps

As per 2021, 3 billion mobile phone users accessed messaging apps and the number will increase to 3.5 in the next two years. It is also a popular communication channel because it is one of the direct and immediate ways to offer customer service. This channel can be established by using messaging applications like Whatsapp,Viber, Facebook Messenger, Telegrams and many other similar solutions like this.

Why It’s Important: Apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger offer convenient and instant communication, often preferred by younger demographics.For instance, whatsapp has 1.2 billion users who use messaging as their primary source of business communication.

How to Improve It: Utilise chatbots for 24/7 availability, offer multimedia support (images, videos), and ensure data security.

Video Calls

How valuable video conferencing is , it is very much seen during the pandemic period.  Video platforms have grown 265% after the pandemic, which includes  video and chat functions.  

Why It’s Important: Video calls provide a more personal touch, ideal for consultations, demonstrations, or high-value transactions.

How to Improve It: Ensure high-quality video and sound, train staff in video etiquette, and use screen sharing for detailed explanations.

Customer Portals

Customer Portals are a consolidation of online spaces for customers; customer portals improve overall customer satisfaction by enabling them to access relevant information on their accounts, orders, and support, therefore, becoming essentials for efficient and customer-centric services.

Why It’s Important: Self-service resources help customers view their account information, check order status and click for support.

How to Improve It: Organise the website in a clear way, update frequently visited pages often, and offer help or information through a portal to avoid customers getting in direct contact.

Surveys and Feedback Forms

Critical for acquiring decision-making knowledge that may help companies improve products and services’ quality and satisfaction rates, making a significant contribution to perfection and customer-oriented approaches, those tools are indispensable.

Why It’s Important: These tools offer important information concerning the Customers, thus helping business organisations to enhance existing products, as well as services.

How to Improve It: The tips highlighted included; always ensure that the surveys are shorter and easy to complete, always provide an incentive for the users to complete the surveys, and always use the feedback received to make changes.

Community Forums

These reflect their ability to allow customers to engage in relevant discussions hence making them a key to the formation of strong interactive communities around and with your brand.

Why It’s Important: Forums build a sense of community, allowing customers to interact with each other and the business.

How to Improve It: Moderate discussions to maintain a positive environment, provide expert participation, and regularly update topics.

Help Desks

Operational help desks incorporate working methods across various media so as to present customers with well-organised and efficient aid. This is especially important since it preserves the trust of a client in your enterprise.

Why It’s Important: Help desks centralise customer support, providing a structured way to manage and resolve issues.

How to Improve It: Offer multi-channel support (email, chat, phone), use ticketing systems for tracking, and provide comprehensive FAQs.

In-Person Communication

Personal communications, where the two parties are meeting each other’s eye, are necessary for individual approaches and effective client relations, which is why these types of communication cannot be dismissed in industries that rely heavily on human interaction with the buyer.

Why It’s Important: While digital channels dominate, face-to-face communication remains crucial for certain industries and complex transactions.

How to Improve It: Train staff in customer service, maintain a welcoming environment, and use digital tools to enhance in-person interactions.

Using Teldrip in Customer Communication Channels

Teldrip is an advanced communication platform that offers a suite of tools designed to enhance customer interaction. Here’s how Teldrip can improve your communication channels:

• Automated Workflows: Teldrip helps you set up an automatic process through which all the communication follows the workflows that have been set in place.

• Omnichannel Integration: You can use Teldrip as an integrated system of notifications, for example, it is possible to send an email, an SMS, work with social networks all from one place and provide the customer with a coherent image.

• Real-Time Analytics: With Teldrip, there are real-time analytical capabilities that help in tracking the performance as well as customer interactions and aid in the planning of the best communication approach.

• Personalization at Scale: The segmentation and targeting options in the platform are sophisticated, which enables you to create messages based on customers’ behaviour.

• Enhanced Customer Support: Through the implementation of Live Chat and Messaging features from Teldrip, your clients are always assured of efficient help at their time of need.

Final Thought 

Importance of communication in customer relations is greatly significant for any business company that is seeking to be successful in the contemporary business world. If one is to pay attention to the above-discussed types of channels, incorporating real-time communication, and enhancing the strategies, then one can increase the satisfaction level of the customer, boost the trust, and, in turn, achieve business success. The use of platforms like Teldrip can extend the administration of your correspondence, guaranteeing that all your correspondence effectively addresses your customers’ necessities.