Retail’s Wake-Up Call: Why Customer Service Is Still Stuck in the Landline Era—and What Must Change

Smartphones have fundamentally reshaped how people live, shop, and interact—but somehow, retail customer service missed the memo.

Today’s consumers order groceries via app, track deliveries in real time, and message brands on social media. Yet when they need support, they’re often met with disconnected channels, long wait times, and clunky phone trees that feel like relics from a past era.

UJET’s latest survey of nearly 200 retail customer experience (CX) and technology leaders reveals a stark truth: while most executives understand the importance of mobile-first service, few have acted on it. This disconnect is more than just inconvenient—it’s driving customer frustration, lost revenue, and a widening gap between brand promise and brand reality.

Let’s dig into what we uncovered—and why now is the moment for retail to break free from legacy thinking.

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Customers Live on Mobile. Your CX Strategy Should Too.

Mobile phones are no longer accessories—they are lifelines. They serve as wallets, shopping carts, customer service lines, and personal assistants. So it should come as no surprise that nearly half (46%) of CX leaders say mobile-optimized experiences will have the greatest impact on consumer buying decisions in 2025—outranking AI integration, faster service, and even empathetic agent interactions.

But here’s the disconnect: 67% of retailers still haven’t modernized their customer service for the mobile era.

Instead, traditional channels like email (offered by 96% of retailers) and phone calls (94%) continue to dominate—despite being used far less in everyday life. Meanwhile, real-time mobile channels like text, iMessage, and WhatsApp—favorites among consumers—are underutilized and often missing entirely from the support experience.

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Retail’s Digital Divide: When Your Customers Are Mobile-First but Your CX Isn’t

Even more puzzling is the fact that retail leaders themselves live mobile-first lives. They communicate with friends and family via texting, video calling, and rich messaging. But when it comes to customer service strategy, they’re defaulting to outdated norms that don’t reflect their own habits—let alone their customers'.

This misalignment is costing brands more than just customer satisfaction. It’s creating fragmented, frustrating experiences that send shoppers elsewhere. In fact, 53% of leaders acknowledge that poor channel integration and fragmented support are major pain points. And one in three admit that simply getting an answer often requires days and multiple channels.

So why does this gap persist?

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The Overconfidence Trap: Why Retailers Think They’re Doing Better Than They Are

Strikingly, 78% of CX leaders say they’d be satisfied contacting their own support teams—even though many admit their systems are outdated and riddled with inefficiencies.

This overconfidence reveals a dangerous blind spot. Internally, companies may feel their incremental investments in AI and digitization are “good enough.” But externally, customers are still jumping through hoops, repeating information, and dealing with agents who lack the context to help them effectively.

That misalignment is not just frustrating—it’s a growth inhibitor.

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The Real CX Crisis: Underpowered Agents and Outdated Tools

While much of the conversation around modern CX focuses on customer expectations, the agent experience is often overlooked—and it's suffering.

Retailers admit their agents lack the tools to perform in a mobile-first world. Many can’t:

• Use biometric authentication to validate identity
  
  

• Access generative AI tools to streamline workflows
  
  

• Leverage modern communication channels like video, texting, or messaging
  
  

This tech gap is holding agents back—and customers feel it.

When asked what mobile features would most empower agents, leaders cited:

• Multi-modality (90%)
  
  

• Generative AI assistants (51%)
  
  

• Video calling (34%)
  
  

• Text messaging capabilities (34%)
  
  

The takeaway? Empowering agents with familiar, modern tools isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s mission-critical.

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Modern CX Drives Revenue—Not Just Resolution

There’s a persistent myth in retail that CX is a cost center. But the data tells a different story: modern, mobile-first customer service is a revenue engine.

Retail leaders identified the following as the top customer service scenarios tied to revenue growth:

• Shopping with a personal AI assistant who knows your preferences (53%)
  
  

• Using mobile search metadata to personalize offers (45%)
  
  

• Escalating emotional interactions to a live agent when AI falls short (42%)
  
  

• Seamless use of Face ID for checkout and verification (42%)
  
  

• Providing hyper-personalized follow-up, like reminding you of items left in a cart (38%)
  
  

These aren’t futuristic fantasies—they’re already being deployed by forward-thinking retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Tractor Supply, whose mobile apps offer “store mode” functionality with real-time, location-aware support.

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So What’s Holding Retailers Back?

Despite the clear need and benefits, many brands are still slow to modernize. Why?

• 37% say their tech stack can’t handle it
  
  

• 27% say they can’t prove ROI fast enough
  
  

• 25% say they’re overwhelmed by fast-changing consumer behavior
  
  

• 22% are reducing headcount to justify AI spend, delaying true transformation
  
  

This resistance to change is short-sighted. The brands that will win in the future aren’t those who fear disruption—they’re the ones who embrace it, build for it, and lead with it.

 

Final Thoughts: Retail’s CX Future Lives on the Smartphone

The next generation of customer loyalty won’t be won by price or product alone. It will be won by brands that meet customers where they are—on their phones, with fast, contextual, and intelligent support that feels seamless and personal.

Consumers have already made the shift. It’s time retailers did too.

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👉 Want to dig deeper?
Read the full report: The Digital Divide in Retail Customer Service: Pain Points, Risks & Opportunities for Modern CX