Study Find American Companies Are Lagging in Mobile Customer Support

In an omnichannel customer support environment, it makes sense for companies to spend time and money on their mobile apps. After all, most of us have our mobile phones within arm’s reach most of our waking hours. We use them to communicate, listen to music, cruise social media, read the news and work. So it makes sense that when we need customer support, we turn to mobile apps.

Research bears this out. According to the State of Mobile 2022 from Data.ai, two million apps were launched in 2021 alone, and people in the top mobile-first markets now spend an average of 4.8 hours per day on their phones. Mobile ad spending is set to reach $350 billion in 2022.

Unfortunately, many companies still haven’t gotten the message. Helpshift, a provider of solutions for in-app customer service and user support for mobile-first brands, recently announced the results of a new survey that found that many brands are missing the mark on in-app customer service. The study, which was conducted by Researchscape, found a few key warning signs for mobile-first brands and app developers:

• Sixty-seven percent of American consumers use apps on their smartphone multiple times a day, but almost half (49 percent) of respondents said that they feel brands neglect in-app customer support.
• Only 12 percent of respondents stated that in-app customer support they've received has been excellent. Nearly half said in-app customer support has been fair (39 percent) or poor (eight percent).
• A majority (54 percent) of respondents said that the apps they use do not feature built-in customer support.

Clearly, American companies are paying only lip service to mobile customer support: the study also revealed that 71 percent of mobile app users said they would switch to a competing app/product if they have a bad experience or if the mobile app gives them problems.

"With so much consumer activity and online engagement having recently moved to mobile apps, and now with a transformational wave of metaverse apps emerging, it's inevitable that the demand for frictionless in-app support will continue to rise," said Eric Vermillion, CEO of Helpshift. "However, as our survey reveals, too many brands are not yet positioned to deliver excellent in-app support. Many mobile-first customers are struggling with time-consuming, frustrating experiences and unnecessary delays when they try to get support.”

Companies should be ensuring that their apps are not kicking people out when they need help, and brands need to invest in enhancing and updating their in-app support experience to align with their overall mobile user experience design and customer experience.

Edited by Greg Tavarez

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