It is not by any means a measure of how much voice calls have fallen in popularity, but more the rise of the multi-functional smartphone and how we now use our mobile devices, which has ultimately changed the way we communicate. Services on devices such as weather, navigation, music player and camera are all more popular features than voice calls, the very service for which the mobile phone was originally designed.
When looking at what consumers want - bearing in mind that today's consumers have more control over the buying process than the marketer, it becomes increasingly important for businesses to understand what information their customers want, how best to disseminate it and when.
Voice is just one out of thousands of services that can sit on our smartphones. According to the report, "Our smartphones can now monitor our heartbeat, improve the efficiency of our central heating in our homes, or track the distance of a run. However, it remains the simplest service of them all, the humble text message, that continues to be the most popular service on mobile - ubiquitous across smartphones and feature-phones - used by over 90% of mobile users in the UK, yet often overlooked by the majority of businesses."
Tony Smith, CEO at Oxygen8 South Africa, says that engaging with consumers becomes increasingly challenging over time. Voice calls still remain the number one channel that businesses communicate with their customers, yet it is clear that consumers prefer contact through SMS and email. This represents potential disconnect between these businesses and their customers.
"It's essential that brands continue to evolve their multichannel mobile marketing strategy to ensure they are capitalising on mobile opportunities. Businesses that are failing to do this need to transform ineffective communications into compelling engagement if they want to reverse the decline of brand advocates post purchases," adds Smith.
Learnings from the report show that if a business wants to develop a relationship with their customers over mobile, it has to demonstrate first an understanding of not only how people use their mobile device, but their frequency of usage. Not every business is in a position to drive engagement to the levels that the likes of Facebook, Amazon, and eBay can boast. But mobile represents an opportunity of driving a deeper engagement and understanding with customers than all other channels.
Understanding how users consume services and apps on their mobile device is crucial if a business is to succeed on the smaller screen. It is no longer a case of taking content from a website and deploying on a mobile site. The user experience and actual behaviour is fundamentally different between the large screen of a PC and small screen of a mobile device. The businesses that "get mobile" are the ones that are driving repeat usage and setting the bar for the rest.
A consumer has a variety of channels to connect with a business, such as Facebook, Twitter, download an app, providing a mobile phone number or email to join their marketing database. In doing so, the consumer is giving the business permission to open a direct relationship over the channels of their choice, which presents a considerable opportunity for businesses around the globe.
The business research reveals that 75% of businesses in the UK apply multichannel marketing across an average of 3.5 channels when they connect with a user. It could be argued that this is 1.5 channels too many given that the average consumer prefers to connect with a business across two channels. If anything, by looking to connect with users over three or four channels, a business is hedging its bets and providing the user with a variety of touch-points.
The three common pillars of marketing are the website, social engagement and email for 75% of businesses in the UK. For businesses operating a fourth or even fifth channel, they will typically use opt-in messaging or will look to develop an app.
