Twilio Introduces the 2020 State of Customer Engagement Report

The landscape of communications is fluid. It reflects technological innovation and cultural shifts, and as it changes, the way organizations engage customers and constituents must evolve too.

As a leading cloud communications and customer engagement platform powering nearly 800 billion human interactions, Twilio has a unique, birds eye view of this ever-changing landscape. Every day we help more than 179,000 customers engage, connect and stay top of mind with their own customers. This means unparalleled insight into how businesses and consumers engage, how technology is transforming communication, and the major currents in communication that are emerging across industries. 

Drawing on this insight, the State of Customer Engagement Report is a snapshot of the five most salient trends in communications and customer engagement that surfaced in 2019. The report aims to help us better understand what these changes mean for businesses and how they will evolve in 2020. 

In today’s communications landscape, digital bombardment is real, and overwhelmed consumers are increasingly discerning when it comes to how they choose to interact with their chosen companies and brands.

Chatbots, voice assistants, and conversational AI are everywhere you look. Even so, consumers aren’t clear on what conversational AI can do, and the potential of the technology remains largely untapped.

The trends shaping how companies and organizations interact with customers is also informing politics in a moment when potential engagement—and galvanization—is higher than ever. 

And through it all, the customer experience remains of utmost importance, driving top companies to hire C-level roles focused solely on CX.

Exploring these key trends, the report offers an unparalleled look at how today’s businesses are interacting with their customers and informing communications today. Some report highlights include:

• Trend 1: Consumers want real conversations with businesses. 94% of consumers are annoyed by communications they receive from businesses.
• Trend 2: Conversational AI is everywhere but the full potential is still untapped. The use of virtual and voice assistants continues to rise, with Google’s Assistant deployed across one billion devices, and Amazon reporting sales of 100 million Alexa-enabled devices in 2019.
• Trend 3: Robocalls kill trust in the phone hurting business and consumers. In the United States, more than 58 billion robocalls were placed in 2019, equaling roughly 178 calls per person affected.
• Trend 4: Politics moves beyond the polls to new channels and platforms. More than one billion texts were sent by political organizations between July 2018 and election day 2018 on Twilio’s platform. We expect this number to increase in 2020.
• Trend 5: CX is the differentiator for every business. 76% of executives say improving customer experience is a high or critical priority.

See the report now, and visit the Twilio Hub for deeper insight into how businesses can get ahead of each key trend in the coming weeks.