96% of enterprises report failing to digitize customer engagement would have negatively impacted their business

95% expect to increase or maintain their investment in digital customer engagement after the pandemic

Comcast, Delta Air Lines, Norwegian Refugee Council recognized for building innovative ways to stay connected with their customers and communities during COVID-19

Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform, today released its second annual State of Customer Engagement Report. Combining insight from the Twilio platform, which powers over 1 trillion human interactions annually, with results of new global research of 2,500 enterprise decision makers, the report reveals that digital communications were critical to business survival in 2020, and that the solutions that were built will shape business success in the post-pandemic economy.

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(Graphic: Business Wire)

“For nearly every organization dealing with the impacts of the pandemic, increased digital engagement was a core part of their solutions,” said Glenn Weinstein, Chief Customer Officer at Twilio. “From remote learning, to work-from-home contact center agents, to vaccine distribution logistics, digital communications have played a critical role. We expect that to accelerate through the pandemic recovery and become the new normal.”

The 2021 State of Customer Engagement Report outlines the major trends in digital engagement that emerged in 2020, and how they are shaping digital adoption across global companies in every industry. The trends include soaring digital interaction between businesses and customers, and what this means for personalization; the rise of the agile workforce; how highly regulated industries are leading in digital adoption; the next generation of video; and how businesses are choosing to build unique experiences. Key findings from the report include:

  • 2020 catapulted us into a hybrid economy, where nearly every in-person interaction will have a digital element. 92% of business leaders report that COVID-19 accelerated their move to the cloud, equipping companies with the flexibility to serve customers from anywhere. 95% plan to increase or maintain their current communications channel offerings after the pandemic, and expect to add an average of four new channels this year.
  • Digital engagement will remain essential to business survival and success. 90% report that increased customer engagement during the pandemic drove new customer insights. 87% report digital customer engagement will be critically or very important to their success going forward.
  • Companies that adopt a “builder” mindset will survive, those that do not will be outcompeted. 91% of enterprise decision makers report they will choose to build communications solutions to meet customer demands in the future, rather than buy a pre-configured solution. 92% of C-level executives found developers were crucial to solving business challenges brought on by COVID.

The report recognizes Twilio Engagement Builders, innovative organizations that built cutting edge digital solutions to stay connected to their customers and communities in 2020. Engagement Builders include Comcast, BGL Group, Delta Air Lines, Norwegian Refugee Council, and LINE Japan. To explore what they built and read the full report, go to http://twilio.com/state-of-customer-engagement.

Methodology

This report draws insight from Twilio platform data, which reflects digital engagement activity that occurred on Twilio in 2020. Twilio platform data do not represent Twilio’s historical or future financial performance and are presented solely as context for broader market trends. The report also includes original research from a survey of over 2,500 enterprise decision-makers across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, and Singapore. The research was fielded by a third party to understand how businesses view the role of digital engagement. Survey respondents are full-time employees of companies with 500 to 25,000+ employees, from the director to executive level.

About Twilio

Millions of developers around the world have used Twilio to unlock the magic of communications to improve any human experience. Twilio has democratized communications channels like voice, text, chat, video, and email by virtualizing the world’s communications infrastructure through APIs that are simple enough for any developer to use, yet robust enough to power the world’s most demanding applications. By making communications a part of every software developer’s toolkit, Twilio is enabling innovators across every industry — from emerging leaders to the world’s largest organizations — to reinvent how companies engage with their customers.

Miya Shitama press@twilio.com