August 01, 2025
More Than Half of Customers Now Start Support Journeys Outside Company Channels
A new Gartner survey has revealed that 51% of service journeys now begin on third-party platforms such as Google, YouTube, and generative AI tools like ChatGPT, often without customers ever visiting a brand’s official channels.
This trend is particularly strong among younger consumers, with 74% of Gen Z customers starting their service experience with an external source.
These digital natives are just as likely to turn to GenAI tools as they are to search engines or video platforms, bypassing traditional help centres entirely.
Self-Service and Speed Are Top Preferences
The data points to a growing preference for self-service and speed, with customers reporting a 62% success rate when resolving issues on third-party platforms. In comparison, only 22% say they’re able to start, complete, and resolve their query solely through a company’s owned channels.
Keith McIntosh, Senior Principal, Research, in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice, said: “Third-party platforms have become the new front door for customer service. Organisations must rethink their service strategies to account for the platforms their customers already know and trust.”
CX and service leaders can no longer optimise internal support systems in isolation. Customers are defining their own journeys, and those journeys increasingly begin in someone else’s ecosystem. Gartner recommends that businesses rethink their content strategy, improve visibility in external search and video results, and consider how generative AI tools might present or misrepresent their information.
