The five-year growth outlook for 11 key communication channels in APAC

Across the Asia-Pacific region, contact centers are using a wide range of channels to meet nuanced customer demands.

In July, CX Network teamed up with NICE to research how this impacts workforce management in the contact center. As part of that research, we asked our network members to share their three-to-five-year growth outlook for 11 key customer service communication channels.

In this article, we explore what our network members across the Asia-Pacific region told us, and what it means for the agents tasked with managing an ever-growing number of channels.

Omnichannel Vs multichannel: the basics

Thanks to the rapid development of communication technologies over the last 20 years, modern consumers have a wide array of channels at their fingertips. However, CX Network’s research into the Global State of CX has repeatedly confirmed that the majority of organizations do not operate a connected omnichannel suite.

In fact, our 2024 research confirmed that only 16 percent of practitioners have a fully implemented omnichannel model and strategy, while 35 percent said they have a multi-channel model but the connections between channels remain fragmented.

This is not to say brands and organizations do not offer a wide range of channel choices for customers, however, it does mean the customer’s experience between channels is often fragmented leading to poorer outcomes for both customers and agents.

About the research

The 11 key communication channels we asked about included voice, live chat and email. But we all know the modern contact center offers much more. Therefore, we also asked our network members about their use of social media, including Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google Places, Facebook and X/Twitter.

We asked them if they use messaging services, such as Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, KakaoTalk, Google Business, LINE, KIK, RCS, WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber and SMS.

We also asked about the use of Ticketing Systems, including those provided by ServiceNow, Salesforce, Zendesk and LivePerson.

Finally, we asked about their adoption of, and outlook for, co-browsing, video conferencing, communities/forums, in-app messaging and collaboration tools such as Slack, Teams and Zoom.

In total, the research was completed by 106 practitioners across the Asia-Pacific region over the course of July 2024.

The most popular channels on offer today

When we asked practitioners to select which channels they currently offer to customers, the responses demonstrated a focus on offering a broad choice to customers, with almost all options offered by at least 50 percent of respondent organizations.

It comes as little surprise that as many of 87 percent of respondent organizations currently offer voice or phone support to customers.

However, that does not mean that voice is the most popular channel on offer today. In fact, email emerged as the most popular channel, with 94 percent of respondent organizations currently offering it. Live chat emerged as the third most popular channel currently on offer.

The least offered channel at present is co-browsing, which is currently only offered by 35 percent of respondent organizations.

The two-year outlook for channel adoption and growth

We then asked our practitioner respondents which channels they plan to adopt within the coming two years, and we found there is limited growth potential in several channels.

For example, 87 percent said they currently offer voice and of the 13 percent who do not, six percent said they have no plans to offer this channel in future.

Of the seven percent of respondents who do not currently offer email, two percent plan to adopt it within two years, while four percent have no plans to adopt.

According to the research, the channels with the strongest immediate growth potential over the coming two years are in-app messaging (15 percent of respondents plan to adopt), community forums (15 percent) and live chat (14 percent).

The three- to five-year outlook for channel adoption and growth

Finally, we asked which channels our practitioner respondents plan to adopt within the coming three-to-five years, that is between 2027 and 2029.

Overall, channel growth projections for this period are relatively flat.

The most selected response was ticketing systems such as ServiceNow, Salesforce and Zendesk (selected by 11 percent). This was followed by in-app messaging (10 percent) and community forums (10 percent).

Video conferencing also showed strong promise, with 11 percent of respondents saying they plan to adopt it before the end of the decade, however, this potential is muted by the fact that 23 percent have no plans to offer video conferencing.

Similar trends emerged around co-browsing, which overall had the weakest growth outlook. While 35 percent currently offer co-browsing, 21 percent plan to adopt it within two years, six percent plan to adopt it within five years, but 38 percent have no plans.

This was followed by collaboration channels such as Slack, Teams and Zoom, which five percent of respondents plan to adopt within five years, but 25 percent of respondents have no plans to adopt.

Conclusion: Growth potential may be limited, but agents are working harder than ever

Offering a variety of channels to meet customer needs supports an organization to meet its customers where they are. Furthermore, offering a mix between live and automated self-service channels promotes round-the-clock availability and therefore, greater convenience for customers.

However, channel choice is still only half the battle: the other driver of satisfaction is how well each channel is managed and how effective it is at resolving customer inquiries quickly and accurately.

Nadia Younan, WFO solutions manager for the APAC region at NICE, says: “The rise of multichannel work has significantly impacted agent well-being, and organizations must prioritize better planning to avoid burnout and attrition. Multitasking across various channels can lead to increased stress, decreased quality [of service] and diminished returns.”

On the outlook for technology adoption, it appears the majority of contact center leaders – and their customers – are satisfied with the current channel mix they offer, as relatively significant numbers of respondents reported no plans to expand their channel mix. There was even less appetite for the more niche options, such as co-browsing or collaboration channels.

However, the current channel mixes recorded still place significant impact on contact center agents, who are working harder than ever as they are expected to manage multiple channels in tandem, as standard.

Click here to find out more about how these trends impact workforce management in the contact center.