Everyone involved in customer service wants to understand consumer channel preference. Otherwise, how can you allocate resources between phone, email, chat, SMS messaging and social channels?
So, we’re all involved in a little anthropology project. In my best David Attenborough voice: “Let’s observe this 35 year-old male as he wishes to find out why his order is late.”
In fact, it may be harder than anthropology because we are looking forward as well as at the present and the past. We also want to know what the preferences will be next year, and in five years. Otherwise, how can we plan ahead? Technology takes time to deploy.
It’s understandable that there is a craving for data on this topic. Every year, many analyst firms and research groups try to illuminate the future with surveys. And one of the most common ways to present results from those surveys is via the cohort chart. It seems to give us the exact answers we need, but can also be misleading.
Every tech trend has a natural lifespan. It starts on the fringes, builds momentum with early adopters, then moves into the mainstream. Subsequently, you get some start-up successes, then a rush of VC-funded efforts, then an overshoot in expectations, and finally a settling-in to some kind of status quo. Think “P2P”, “big data”, “IoT”, or “blockchain”.
I’m sitting here in Canada, a vast country with an ever-debated culture. Part of that debate is our collective, 
Customer support is currently standing at a crossroads: One road leads to exciting automated technologies, and the other to the ‘human touch’. Recent technological advancements are many, ranging from Artificial Intelligence (AI) (and related automated tools like virtual assistants, chatbots, etc.) to real-time messaging, simulation, self-service and crypto-currency. These technological breakthroughs point toward a future with remarkable changes in the customer service landscape. Despite these advancements, the human element still rules as the best way to deliver efficient customer support. Human agents make informed judgments and offer personability, both highly desired traits in the CS ecology. In fact, the success of new support technologies is ultimately based on how efficiently they are able to assist humans working on the front lines.
He-Man had the right idea when he held aloft his sword and transformed into his mightiest self. “I HAVE THE POWER!” 
You know when you’re listening to a podcast interview and the guest says something and you literally smack your head, pause the podcast, and start tweeting? Happened to me last week.
Last week, Facebook announced that WhatsApp could now be used as a customer service platform. We now have an interesting race between Apple’s “Apple Business Chat”, Facebook’s own “Messenger for Business”, and Twitter. The goal is to grab a vital piece of the eCommerce landscape: The channel for customer service communication.
In case you’ve been living on an island in Tahiti, with no communication to the outside world, you may not know how important mobile apps have become. In that case, let’s recap. Mobile apps are software applications designed to run on 
