Chatterbox Nation: Why Your Business Needs to Care About Video Chat in 2019

They tune into how—and where—their customers interact and meet them on those channels. Because they know that soon enough customers will expect to engage with businesses on those channels, too. And if they don’t, customers will simply look elsewhere.

Is Your Business Ready for the Next Big Customer Communication Channel?

In our consumer report—Video Chatterbox Nation—TokBox (now a part of Nexmo, the Vonage API platform) examines one of the fastest-growing communication trends: consumer-to-business video chat.

Our data team has analyzed six years of consumer research into live video usage, together with video calling data from hundreds of business customers, to uncover the state of live video communications yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

What we found will help you better understand consumer demand for live video in your industry, so you don’t miss an opportunity to engage your customers on this rising channel.

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Every second across the world, millions of people spend billions of minutes video chatting with friends and family. What started as a way to wish grandma a happy birthday has evolved into an everyday method of communication inside everyone’s pocket.

Today 1 in 3 people video chat once a week

People use video chat to plan family vacations, share moments from afar, be there for special occasions when we can’t be there in person, or get things done by using video to show someone what we’re looking at.

Millennials and Gen Z, who are more comfortable in front of the camera than any other generation, are using video chat to simply hang out with friends on-screen face-to-face. For these two enormously powerful demographics, video chat is the norm.

Today 1 in 4 millennials video chat every day

With video calling now available in every major social and messaging app, plus huge improvements in the speed and quality of connections, video chat is fast becoming an equal channel to the phone call. The findings in Video Chatterbox Nation tell the same story.

What Does This Mean for Business?

What began as a popular way to connect socially, has naturally spread into the business world. Now consumers want to video chat, not just with friends and family, but businesses and brands too.

Nearly 1 in 3 Americans video chat with a business, brand or service provider— a 3x leap in 3 years.

The steady growth of consumer-to-business live video throughout the years suggests video chat will be a lasting phenomenon. Is your customer communication strategy ready?

Why Do Your Customers Want to Video Chat?

Our research shows that people choose to video chat because it creates a more personal experience compared to other channels.

In a world where businesses are continually looking for ways to differentiate themselves, this presents a huge opportunity to create highly personalized customer experiences (and reimagine entirely new ones) with live video.

How Can You Innovate with Live Video in Your Industry?

Whether to enable more intimate connections with customers, empower remote learners to interact with teachers, or to connect patients with doctors, the number of applications for live video is virtually unlimited.

Here is a look at just some of the ways consumers are already using live video chat with businesses, and what future demand looks like:

• 1 in 4 people already use live video to chat with a doctor about a non-emergency condition
• 1 in 3 people say they want to use live video to speak with a tutor remotely, such as through a language learning app
• 1 in 3 people say they would like to use live video to chat with a banking advisor about a financial product such as a personal loan or mortgage

Is Your Industry Meeting Consumer Demand for Live Video Chat?

As video communications mature, it is inevitable that consumer appetites evolve at different rates for different types of services.

This can make it difficult for companies to decide if and when to invest in video communications services, to ensure they are not investing in solutions consumers don’t want whilst also not falling behind competitors.

To help guide businesses’ approach to adopting live video, Video Chatterbox Nation provides an interactive map that highlights the relationship between consumer demand and industry delivery across 10 key verticals.

Start Building with Live Video

It’s now easier than ever to build with live video. Whether you want to add video chat to your existing customer engagement channels, or build a new service from the ground up, you can embed interactive video into your web and mobile apps with our live video APIs.

Chatterbox Nation is a series of posts where Nexmo will explore how consumers are using live video chat across several key industries including healthcare, financial services, and education.