How Many Consumers Want Remote Services From Retailers?

With 82% of consumers fully eliminating or heavily reducing non-essential trips to stores, many want access to remote service via phone or video.

An online survey of 2,028 consumers by retail SaaS provider, Qudini, which took place across the US between March 23-30, 2020, found a large proportion of consumers want access to virtual service by phone or video from all types of retailers (including those considered essential and non-essential) during the coronavirus outbreak. 

For “essential” retail types (pharmacies, banks, doctors clinics and grocery stores), more than half (53%) of respondents want service by phone and a fifth (18%) want service by video.

A large proportion of respondents also want virtual service by phone (18%) or video (11%) from non-essential retailers.

Across all retail types, younger generations (GenZ, Millennial and GenX) are 26% more likely to want phone service and more than twice (117%) as likely to want video service from brands than their Baby Boomer counterparts.

This demand for remote service derives from the high proportion of consumers avoiding trips to stores. The survey found 30% of respondents have fully eliminated non-essential trips to stores and other public places as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, while an additional 52% have heavily reduced trips. 

When looking at the different types of retailers consumers are avoiding visits to, 30% are avoiding pharmacies, 52% said they are avoiding banks, 56% are avoiding doctors clinics, 73% are avoiding therapists/counsellors and 76% are avoiding dental clinics.

Qudini’s CEO and Co-founder, Imogen Wethered, says:

“To service customers during this difficult time, retailers and healthcare organizations should be offering virtual service to their customers and patients by phone and video.” 

“Our findings indicate that consumer interest in virtual services at the times and places that suit them may extend beyond coronavirus due to younger demographics showing an avid interest in video and phone service.”

“We could see Covid-19 act as a catalyst to a new future of customer service, where consumers can seamlessly access virtual service online by scheduling appointments or joining digital queues for the next available advisor.” 

Download the report here.

About the survey

In March 23-30, 2020, we surveyed 2,028 consumers between the ages of 16 and 90+ years old from across 21 different cities and regions in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest and West of the United States of America about their relationships with retail banks. We classified Generation Z as being between 16 and 22 years old, Millennials as being between 23 and 38 years old, Generation X as being between 39 and 54 years old and Baby Boomers as being between 55 and older.