Nine out of ten consumers in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore welcome outbound contact centre calls, provided they are not from telemarketers, according to new research.

The Genesys survey, released today, found that consumers welcome "proactive outreach", especially when it is meant to build loyalty. It also found that multimedia, text messaging and chat are emerging as new communications channels for one in five consumers, and are increasingly becoming a requirement for contact centres. The vast majority (86%) of those surveyed said they would be happy to communicate with a company via email and 40% said email was their most preferred method of communication.

The research showed that 44% of respondents believe that customer service has the biggest impact on their loyalty towards a company, and 74% would do business with a company based on a great contact centre experience. Conversely, 67% say that they would stop doing business with a company due to poor customer service. "What is increasingly apparent is that the contact centre is now the principal point of engagement between an organisation and its customers," said James Brooks, senior vice president, Asia Pacific, Genesys. "The smart firms such as certain US banks have realised this for some time and are engaging their customers not only via phone but also through emerging channels including SMS and web chat."