What Customers Actually Want in 2026: Support Channel Preferences by the Numbers

## The Conventional Wisdom Is Half-Right

You've heard the narrative: younger customers want chat and messaging, older customers want phone. That's true as a broad trend. But the interesting insights are in the exceptions.

I've compiled data from Salesforce's 2025 State of the Connected Customer report, Zendesk's 2025 CX Trends, Microsoft's 2025 Global State of Customer Service, and survey data from over 15,000 consumers. The picture is more complicated than "young = digital, old = phone."

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