Digital communications were critical to business survival in 2020, and solutions built will shape success in the post-pandemic economy, according to the second annual State of Customer Engagement Report from leading cloud communications platform, Twilio.

For nearly every organisation dealing with the impacts of the pandemic, increased digital engagement was a core part of their solutions, according to Twilio chief customer officer, Glenn Weinstein.

“From remote learning to work-from-home contact centre 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,” he said.

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 personalisation; 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.

2020 catapulted organisations into a hybrid economy, where nearly every in-person interaction had a digital element with nine in 10 (90%) of Australian business leaders reporting that Covid-19 accelerated their move to the cloud to serve customers from anywhere.

Almost all (94%) of Australian respondents surveyed plan to increase or maintain their current communications channel offerings after the pandemic and expect to add an average of three new channels this year. 

Digital engagement will be essential to business survival and success with 90% of Australian business leaders reporting that increased customer engagement during the pandemic drove new customer insights.

More than four in 10 (41%) of Australian business leaders reported they’ll increase the current level of investment in customer engagement, while 51% intend to maintain the current level of investment.