COVID impact on use of digital communication tools| ��ƽ��

In response to COVID-19, what digital communication channels did your organization begin using for the first time or dramatically increase use of?

Characteristic	First time use	Increased use
Live chat	35%	54%
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)	33%	40%
Video	29%	48%
Voice	28%	41%
In-app chat	28%	38%
SMS	26%	41%
Web-based chatbot	24%	34%
Email	24%	50%
SMS-based chatbot	23%	28%
In-app calling	21%	30%
Voice-based chatbot	19%	23%
Remote contact center	18%	25%
Social media	18%	38%
Website	10%	31%
Messaging app	8%	20%

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Source

Release date

July 2020

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

May 8th to 14th, 2021

Number of respondents

2,569 respondents

Special properties

adult employees*

Method of interview

Online survey

Supplementary notes

*Respondents belong to companies with 500+ employees.

Directors and above in: Corporate communications, customer experience, customer or technical support, data analytics or business intelligence, executive leadership or administration, IT or engineering, innovation, marketing, operations, product design/development, sales or business development, strategic planning.

Citation formats

Globally, companies increased their use of various digital communication channels in addition to adopting many channels for the first time as a result of COVID-19. In fact, one in three companies adopted interactive voice response (IVR) and live chat as communication channels for the first time. The average number of new channels implemented by companies is 3.5. Furthermore, it can be noted that live chat, email, and video are the top channels companies increased use of as a response to the pandemic. Implementing a variety of different communication channels allows for companies and employees to stay connected with each other as many of them work from home and need to access information and participate in meetings virtually and from different locations.