Drift and SurveyMonkey Release 2019 State of Conversational Marketing Report

BOSTON, MA and SAN MATEO, CA — July 16, 2019 — Drift, the leading conversational marketing platform and SurveyMonkey (Nasdaq: SVMK), a leading global survey software company, today announced the release of the 2019 State of Conversational Marketing Report. Based on a survey of 1,000+ U.S. consumers, the 2019 State of Conversational Marketing is a follow-up to the 2018 State of Chatbots report and highlights key conversational marketing trends and benchmarks. 

Key findings from the 2019 State of Conversational Marketing report include: 

• There’s an opportunity to be more customer-centric: The top three frustrations people are facing online today are: getting answers to simple questions, dealing with websites that are difficult to navigate, and finding basic details about a business (e.g. address, hours of operation, or phone number). This is consistent with last year’s survey; and point to a broader underlying issue that’s been plaguing online experiences for years:  People can’t find the information they’re looking for quickly and easily.
  
• Chatbots have a perception problem: Despite acknowledging the benefits that chatbots can provide—like being able to answer questions and resolve issues quickly, 24/7—buyers are still 2X more likely to say that chatting with a live human (e.g. via online chat) provides a better customer experience.
  
• Email isn’t going anywhere: As new channels emerge and move to the forefront of customer communication, some thought leaders have predicted that older channels — like email — will fall by the wayside. But, the survey shows that email usage has grown more than any other customer communication channel, with a third of survey respondents reporting that they used it more frequently over the past year. The key to increasing engagement is understanding communications preferences and tailoring outreach accordingly. 
  

“If there’s one thing you take away from the 2019 State of Conversational Marketing Report, let it be this: It’s clear that the experiences that many businesses are providing no longer align with customer expectations,” said David Cancel, founder and CEO of Drift. “Today’s buyers expect to find what they’re looking for now, not later. As we prepare for the future, it will be more important than ever for businesses to be available across a broad spectrum of channels, and to make sure you’re communicating the way people prefer to communicate.” 

“Our data reveals that, while consumers are still wary of chatbots, acceptance is growing year-over-year,” said Morgan Molnar, senior product marketing manager at SurveyMonkey. “In 2019, both Boomers and Millennials expect chatbots to provide answers to simple questions (54% and 46%) and to resolve their complaints quickly (40% and 34%), two of the top problems faced by customers. The overall message is that businesses need to take notice on how consumers expect to receive service so they can capitalize on providing a great experience.”

To learn more about how customer communication preferences, get the full 2019 State of Conversational Marketing report for free here. 

About Drift

Drift is the new way businesses buy from businesses. With its quickly evolving set of tools and playbooks, Drift is the world’s leading conversational marketing platform, trusted by top enterprise businesses like Ellie Mae, GrubHub, InVision, Marketo, Okta, Outreach, Eventbrite, Vidyard, and over 50,000+ other businesses. Sales and marketing teams rely on Drift to connect now with the customers who are ready to buy now. Based in Boston, Drift was founded by serial marketing technology entrepreneurs David Cancel and Elias Torres and is backed by leading venture capitalists including CRV, General Catalyst, and Sequoia. Learn more at www.drift.com.

About SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a leading global survey software company on a mission to power the curious. The company’s People Powered Data platform empowers over 17 million active users to measure and understand feedback from employees, customers, website and app users, and the market. SurveyMonkey’s products, enterprise solutions and integrations enable 350,000+ organizations to solve daily challenges, from delivering better customer experiences to increasing employee retention. With SurveyMonkey, organizations around the world can transform feedback into business intelligence that drives growth and innovation.