V K Sanjeed 
57 percent of Singapore consumers prefer SMS reminders for appointment reminders, delivery statuses and payment updates; chatbots were the least popular communications channel.
SINGAPORE – 22 September 2022 – Toku, Asia Pacific’s dedicated cloud communications company, today announced the launch of results from its Toku Singapore Consumer Engagement Report 2022.
The pandemic both reshaped the ways brands interacted with their consumers and catalysed an evolution of consumer demands. Having shifted communications online during the pandemic, brands are now facing challenges with consumer interaction and retention as life in Singapore returns to normal. The buyer’s journey has dramatically changed, and so have communication channel preferences. Therefore, brands today need to be data-driven, consumer-centric and omnichannel when engaging with their discerning consumers across the entire customer journey. Brands also have to take into consideration dynamic market conditions, and an expanding cyberthreat landscape. This warrants a hard look at what consumers really expect when they communicate with brands in 2022.
Toku’s report revealed insights into how consumers’ preferences in their interactions with brands have shifted this year, and beyond. These insights will help brands that are seeking new ways to deepen their engagement with customers and increase satisfaction ratings throughout customers’ journeys, across multiple offline and online touchpoints.
81.5 percent of the respondents expect no more than 2 touchpoints for any interaction with a brand – such as being diverted to a customer service agent from a chatbot enquiry. Consumers also expect customer service calls to be answered within 5 minutes, and not exceeding 8 minutes. Other stats include:
- 40 percent of respondents prefer in-app communications as it is more time-efficient. However, 45 percent say that they don’t communicate in-app because the functions are unavailable.
- 14 percent of respondents indicated that phone calls remain an important channel for addressing payment-related issues, as the medium facilitated immediate clarifications and quick resolutions.
- 71 percent of consumers revealed that they would be frustrated with a brand if it lacked a local number for customer support.
- 13 percent indicated a willingness to disengage with the brand completely if there is no local customer support hotline.
- Short Message Service (SMS) was the channel of choice when it came to appointment reminders (48 percent), payment status updates (41 percent) and product delivery updates (40 percent).
“Toku’s consumer study has provided us with a better understanding of customers’ wants at various touchpoints in their online and offline interactions with brands,” said Thomas Laboulle, CEO, Toku. “As we keep an eye on these emerging trends, we are continuously improving our contact centre solutions to meet evolving enterprise needs for better and more engaged customer journeys. These efforts will also be beneficial to support our customers with their customer retention and loyalty.”
According to a 2022 mid-year crime report by the Singapore Police Force, a total of $227.8 million was lost to 13,181 scam cases in the first half of this year. The most popular scams were job, phishing, e-commerce and investment scams, and the most popular mediums used to scam victims included phone calls, SMSes, social media and in-app messaging platforms.
Against such a backdrop, trust has become a key tenet in brand communications as consumers become savvier of such threats. Toku’s report reflected similar sentiments, with 67 percent of Singapore consumers revealing that they would not respond to an unknown number because of the fear of being scammed. This was even more pertinent for numbers with country codes displayed – 73 percent of respondents indicated they would not pick up an international number and 59 percent would not pick up a local number with country codes. Such behaviour has been conditioned by lessons learnt from past experiences – 75 percent of respondents have responded to prior scam calls, and 15 percent had responded to scam SMSes.
Toku works with some of the most cutting-edge super apps and food delivery platforms who are leveraging Toku’s contact centre solution to enhance customer engagement in Singapore and the wider Asia Pacific region.
Additional Resources
Report Microsite: toku.co/blog/sg-consumer-report
Press Kit: toku.co/press-kit
About the Report
Toku’s Singapore Consumer Engagement Report 2022 is a study that looks at how consumers’ preferences in interacting with brands have shifted this year and beyond. The study also elicited insights into consumer behaviour and preferences of how brands could deepen consumer engagement and increase satisfaction ratings across omnichannel touchpoints.
The study, undertaken in early 2022, surveyed a random sample of 1,000 Singapore consumers, including Singapore citizens, permanent residents, and foreigners in Singapore, who are well represented in the overall population split. The study’s margin of error is +/- 3% at the 95% confidence level.
About Toku
Headquartered in Singapore, Toku creates bespoke cloud communications and customer engagement solutions to reimagine customer experiences for enterprises.
Toku combines local expertise, regional in-country infrastructure and global reach to help businesses overcome the complexity of digital transformation in APAC markets and enhance their CX with mission-critical cloud communications solutions.
Toku works with organisations as diverse as Gojek, foodpanda, JCDecaux, Decathlon and various government agencies to move their communications to the cloud and create new ways to engage with their customers.
With Toku, moving to the cloud has never been easier. Learn more at toku.co and LinkedIn.
