Sixty-seven percent of consumers prefer e-mail as a communications channel over other online vehicles, and 65 percent believe this will continue to be the case in five years.
These were key findings from a 2008 study of consumer attitudes toward e-mail and online interaction with businesses from Habeas, an online reputation management services firm.
The study of North American consumers, which was completed in May 2008 by research firm Ipsos, also found the following:
- Consumer opinion of the future importance of e-mail is far above future expectations for other mediums such as video conferencing (19 percent), instant messaging (17 percent), SMS text messaging (12 percent) and Web meetings (12 percent).
- Sixty-five percent of those between the ages of 18 and 34 -- which is the age demographic most comfortable with IM, SMS and emerging communications methods -- will favor e-mail to communicate with businesses in five years.
- Sixty-nine percent of respondents expressed concern about being victimized by e-mail fraud scams -- a rise from the 62 percent finding in the 2007 Habeas report.
- More than 88 percent of respondents said they would like organizations to give them more choices over the content and frequency of the e-mails they receive, including options on advertisements, special offers, articles, newsletters, whitepapers and other specific content options.
- More than 80 percent of respondents believe a business' reputation is negatively affected if it shares customer e-mail addresses with third parties.
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