The Top 6 Business Communications Trends for 2022
It’s easy to understand past business communications trends. Just look back over the last couple years at your own communications use. You’re probably video chatting way more and emailing way less than you were in 2019. But what about current trends that are driving business communications? What did 2021 tell us about 2022?
To hear 5,000 respondents from 14 countries tell it? This:
1. Video will be huge. Not that it’s not already big. Three-fourths use it, 20% use it daily, 300% more choose it as the channel to chat up businesses, and 60% now use it with companies more than in 2020. Huge? It’ll be bigger than huge.
2. Messaging is what’s up. Consumers prefer WhatsApp over other messaging channels. It’s not just 160% more popular now than SMS — half of all consumers use it to connect with businesses. Nothing connects with consumers quite like messaging. And it looks like few apps suit customers quite like WhatsApp.
3. They’re live-ing it up. Daily — that’s how often 20% of consumers use live chat or in-app chat. While queued callbacks suit many callers just fine, you can expect live chat to keep boosting customer experience, satisfaction, and retention, as well as conversion rates.
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4. Email, we hardly knew ye. But it looks like we’re making the adjustment: The preference for what was once a peerless communications tool for consumers dropped 14% — among the top three channels — since just before the pandemic began. And what’s drinking email’s milkshake? Messaging.
5. Challengers await. Business communications trends indicate that those classics of mobile — voice and SMS — are conceding a little ground to messaging apps, embedded voice calling, and video chat. Those last three contributed to a 21% dip in the daily consumer-to-business use of SMS since January 2020.
6. Droids, we’re looking for. Chatbots sustained growth over the past two years, and it’s no surprise why. They use conversation data to understand question types, analyze answers, and learn context, so if or when the conversation escalates to a live agent, they’ll have the facts at their fingertips.
The theme of business communications trends is unmistakable: In 2022, you can expect employees and customers alike to want — more and more — contextual, omnichannel conversations that transform their experiences with messaging, video, and more.
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