Customer communication preferences vary widely in today’s digital landscape. Some might go to a company’s destination page, start a conversation with a chatbot or even pick up the phone to learn more about a service or product.
In my experience of leading marketing teams, it is important to understand how your customers prefer to interact with your brand, to create unique customer experiences that drive loyalty and retention.
Read on to discover HubSpot blog insights and research on customer communication preferences with their favorite businesses.
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Statistics for Customer Communication Preference
For starters, I recognize that it is a marketing tendency to focus on campaigns and measurements. However, some of the most valuable intelligences for your marketing strategy come directly from your customer service teams. So let’s start with some insights from our state of customer service report.
According to our research, consumers are more demanding than ever when it comes to customer experience. Managers report that the number of tickets their business receives is higher than ever before (75%) and customers expect problems to be resolved immediately (82%).
In addition, customers expect a higher level of personalization than ever before (78%). So we ran a hubspot blog examination and asked the respondents how they prefer to interact with companies when looking for information about a product or service. Let’s dive into it.
How customers prefer to learn about products
According to customer response, 46% said they prefer to review its content (videos, advertisements, blog posts, pictures, etc.), 15% follow or visit its social media accounts, and 9% go to the company’s physical store and read reviews at reviews or social media sites.
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1. Reviewing content
When customers want to learn more about a product, they turn overwhelmingly turned directly into your content. Research consistently shows that potential buyers are actively looking for videos, blog posts, social media content and other materials published by companies before making purchase decisions. This natural customer behavior must be the cornerstone of your marketing strategy.
To maximize this option, create content that meets your audience where they are already spending their time. E.g. Spends Gen Z most of their time on YouTube, followed by Instagram, Snapchat and then Tiktok. By understanding these platform preferences, you can ensure that your content reaches potential customers on their terms.
Your content should also adapt to customer search. The AI ​​insights for marketers report that 55% of marketers are now using AI to create text-based content (blogs, e-books, marketing emails, press releases, product descriptions and social submissions)-a direct response to the growing customer needs according to informative, useful content.
This strategic focus on AI-enhanced content creation delivers double benefits: Marketers can spend more time on creative work (66% agree) while reducing time spent on repeated tasks (78%). The result? Companies can consistently produce the personal content of high quality that today’s research -oriented customers are actively looking for.
Pro Tip: HubSpot’s email marketing tools help you utilize AI-Assisted content creation while maintaining the authentic personal touch that customers expect during their research process.
2. Social media
When it comes to social media, 56% of consumers are affected by positions shared by friends and family to buy ideas. In addition, 54% of Gen Z shoppers and 58% of Millennials agree that social platforms are better than online searches to find new products.
In addition to this survey data, the 2025 social media report also indicates that social media is still a crucial channel for customer communication. 69% of marketers agree that more shopping will happen on social media than on brand sites or third -party marketplaces this year. This signals a significant shift in consumer behavior that companies need to prepare for, and Social Media Management becomes more important to reach customers.
Pro Tip: Leverage HubSpots SMS Marketing Tools to supplement your social media strategy with direct, personalized messages that meet clients on their favorite channels.
3rd Reading Reviews
When it comes to reading reviews, National Review Day Data shows that 54%of consumers first put their confidence in online reviews, outweigh the statements of friends and family (24%), business requirements (18%), influence social media (2%) and media reviews (2%).
Review management is not only a reputation of concern, but a necessary business function that directly affects your bottom line. I think forward-thinking companies integrate review generation into their core customer experience strategy rather than treating it as a reflection.
How customers prefer to communicate with a company
When reaching a company online, the respondents preferred to send a human representative from your business (45%).
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This is a crucial statistic to be aware of considering the emergence of chatbots. While the AI-powered tool is undoubtedly useful, customers let us know that they do not want you to move your entire messaging strategy to be an automated tool.
However, the second highest preference for a mixture of chatbots and human representatives is. So even if customers want to talk to someone, you can combine both tools in your strategy. When utilizing a mixture of the two, aim to get bots supplement to the human experience. For example, a bot can initiate a conversation and collect information to transfer the customer to an agent most equipped to provide a solution.
Customers are also okay with simply using chatbots for routine and simple tasks, such as ordering, control status or balance or change of an order.
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How I think companies can better meet customer’s expectations this year
As we move through the year, the companies that thrive will adapt their communication strategies to develop customer preferences. The data is clear: Customers expect immediate, personal service across all channels, with both self -service options and human support available when needed.
I think we are at a bending point in customer communication. Through my marketing career, I have observed many technological shifts, but get as transformative as what we are now experiencing with AI-enhanced communication. Businesses that resist this development risk are left behind, while those who thought -provoking it will forge deeper relations with their customers.
By utilizing the insights of Hubspot’s research and implementing the right tools, you can create a customer communication strategy that not only meets these expectations but exceeds them, drives loyalty and growth in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
The editor’s note: This article was originally published in July 2017 and has since been updated for understanding.