4 stats that prove your contact center is now a digital priority.

From chatbots to call centers, brands have rolled out more support channels than ever. But instead of feeling empowered, 52% of consumers say they feel disconnected or powerless when they need help. This disconnect isn’t just inconvenient—it’s expensive. Especially now, when 55% of consumers are cutting back on non-essential spending, and loyalty hangs by a thread.

Support may be everywhere, but effective support is still hard to find. So we went hunting for the why.

In our latest benchmark, The Support Struggle: Bridging the Digital Divide, we surveyed 1,600 consumers across the US and UK and combined that with aggregated anonymized platform data from Quantum Metric. The result? A clearer view into the real reasons customers feel unsupported, and why your contact center, more than ever, must be a digital-first priority.

Here are four critical stats that underscore this urgent shift:

1. Mobile support is the new frontline.

Customers today instinctively reach for their phones when they need help long before they approach your staff. In fact, of the consumers we surveyed, only 1 in 3 consumers will ask for help in-store. Everyone else goes straight to mobile, even when they’re standing in your aisle or lobby.

• 34% will use a brand’s mobile site or app to answer questions about a product, service, or pricing—while still standing in the aisle.
• 54% will use those same channels to check on a recent order without ever talking to a staff member.

And this isn’t just a Gen Z thing. Boomers and Gen X are nearly as likely to seek help from a brand’s mobile site before asking an employee, proving mobile support isn’t a trend—it’s table stakes.

Why this matters: If your mobile experience treats support as an afterthought—think slow-loading FAQs, buried help links, or frustrating chatbots—you're missing a critical opportunity. Brands that win here—like Radisson Hotels—treat mobile not just as a sales channel, but a full-service concierge. Because if support isn’t seamless on mobile, it might as well not exist.

2. Your self-service gap that’s costing you sales.

Consumers expect to solve problems on their own, but only if the experience actually works. When self-service works, everyone wins. When it doesn’t? It drives up call volume and kills conversions. 61% of consumers have walked away from a purchase because support options were too frustrating or ineffective.

While travel and retail are seeing lower conversion rates year over year, cart abandonment is actually down. This means that customers are ready to buy, but they need reassurance, not roadblocks.

Why this matters: Investing in smart, data-driven self-service is no longer an optional add-on; it's essential for conversion. The right fix isn’t just better support content. It’s using data to identify exactly where people get stuck and building smarter, frictionless experiences from there.

3. Contact center frustration is still a very real issue.

Despite all the new tech, contact centers are still the most trusted channel. However, 1 in 3 consumers say their biggest frustration is repeating themselves, and over half only get resolution when they talk to a live agent.

Meanwhile, 36% admit to being rude to chatbots out of pure frustration. (We’d bet the other 64% were thinking it.)

Why this matters: Smart automation has its place, real progress means integrating your digital and live channels. It's about giving agents the full picture, like what the customer tried online, so they don’t have to start from zero. This seamless digital handoff reduces frustration, improves first-contact resolution, and validates the customer's time, making your live agents a powerful digital asset, not a disconnected last resort.

4. Customer surveys can be a support resource.

While consumers want to be heard, they do not want to be interrupted. 84% have completed a survey after a standout experience (good or bad). But be aware. Trigger one mid-task, and you’ve lost them: 42% say they’ll abandon a survey if it pops up while they’re still navigating.

And when it comes to long surveys? Forget it. Over half won’t even start.

Why this matters: It’s not about collecting more feedback; it’s about asking smarter. Customers want to give feedback and insight that support teams can use to better meet their needs. Those survey asks just need to be deployed at natural stopping points and be easily analyzed into real action. Especially in industries like retail and telco, where attention is already slipping, a badly timed pop-up or seemingly useless survey is just another reason to bounce.

Dig deeper into the data.

If any of the above sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many brands think they’re doing enough, while customers still feel stuck, ignored, or pushed into support loops they can’t escape.

Read the full report: The Support Struggle: Bridging the Digital Divide.

You’ll get the data, the context, and examples from companies who cracked the code—like United Airlines, a global financial firm, and a major healthcare provider.