WhatsApp is the favorite channel of 48% of Brazilians. The omnichannel journey with AI that doesn't lose the customer
Brazilians prefer WhatsApp, but they don’t stay only there. In the CX Brain 2024 survey, 48% named WhatsApp as their favorite channel, and each respondent talked, on average, to 5 companies in three months, by phone, chat, email and social. The omnichannel journey works when the customer’s history follows the conversation from one channel to the next.
What the survey measured
The survey How Brazilians see AI in customer service was created by CX Brain, the data unit of Grupo Padrão, and run by AntennasBI. It heard 1,003 Brazilians from every region, social class and age group, and analyzed more than 2,000 videos they recorded on their phones. The results were presented at CONAREC 2024.
Channels used and favorite channels
| Channel | Used in the last 3 months | Favorite channel |
|---|---|---|
| 31% | 48% | |
| Phone | 31% | 20% |
| Online chat | 29% | 20% |
| 12% | not reported | |
| Social media | 11% | not reported |
| Apps | 10% | not reported |
WhatsApp has the biggest gap between use and preference: 17 points more people prefer it (48%) than used it (31%). With the phone it’s the opposite, 31% use and 20% preference.
One caveat: the article doesn’t explain whether the two questions allowed more than one answer. Compare the numbers as direction, not as an exact difference.
Where the context gets lost
No survey we cite measures this, so this part is our reading. The customer starts on WhatsApp, calls the next day because they got no answer and lands with an agent who can’t see the previous conversation. They tell everything again. The company treats the call and the message as two contacts, and the customer treats them as one.
The survey hints at the pressure: each respondent contacted, on average, 5 companies in three months. With that many contacts, patience to repeat information is short. One hypothesis the survey doesn’t test: part of the phone and chat use happens because the favorite channel didn’t resolve.
How AI helps keep the thread
AI doesn’t solve the journey alone, but it does two things well when the data is unified. It summarizes the previous conversation for the agent and continues the conversation on another channel without starting over. For that, four pieces need to exist:
- A single history per customer, linking WhatsApp, chat, phone and email to the same record.
- An automatic summary of the previous conversation, visible to the agent before they reply.
- A handoff rule that carries the context when the conversation moves from AI to a person.
- A customer identification that works across channels, by phone, email or record.
Without the first piece, the other three don’t work. In many companies, the work starts there, connecting systems that already exist.
Journey indicators
Four numbers tell whether the context is getting through:
- How many times the customer repeats the same information.
- How long resolution takes when the conversation switches channels.
- The satisfaction score by channel, separating AI from human.
- The share of conversations that change channel before resolving.
If the last number is high, the customer’s favorite channel isn’t resolving. That’s the starting point of the redesign.
For the precautions of automating the most-used channel, read AI on WhatsApp: 10 precautions before automating. To understand what Brazilians accept from AI in service, see 74% accept, 79% want to choose. If you want to design this journey with us, start on the sales and service with AI page.
Frequently asked
What is an omnichannel service journey?
It’s service in which the customer switches channels without losing the history. If they start on WhatsApp and continue by phone, the agent already knows what was said.
Which channel do Brazilians prefer for service?
In the CX Brain survey (2024, 1,003 people), WhatsApp was the favorite of 48%. Online chat and phone came in at 20% each.
Do I need to be on every channel?
In our reading, no. Start with the channels your customer is already on and connect the history between them. Opening a new channel without integrating the data only multiplies loose conversations.
How does AI keep the context across channels?
It depends on a single customer history. With that, AI summarizes the previous conversation for the agent and resumes service on another channel without starting over.
Sources
- Consumidor Moderno, on the survey How Brazilians see AI in customer service (CX Brain / Grupo Padrão and AntennasBI), Sep/2024. consumidormoderno.com.br
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