Nautilus
Telephony as the backbone of Business Communications
When I was younger, I always looked at the telephone with much respect. Of course, I grew in the 90s, a time when every call and minute spent on it cost money. So in our household, it was only reserved for the most important of conversations: calls from my aunties and uncles abroad, service calls from vendors, and the occasional sales call from the random telemarketer. I somehow managed to have a phone pal when I got into high school, much to my parents’ disdain.
Of course, the advent of the smartphone and my almost near-dependence on it aside, I’ve looked at it more than just a tool but as a lifeline for many. And as I find myself much older and working for a cloud telephony company, my respect for the humble telephone has yielded to something closer to reverence. I would even go as far as to call it the backbone of business communications, a title it has and continues to hold for as long as anyone can remember.
But with the rise of everything from instant messaging, chatbots, and omnichannel communications, it’s easy to start asking yourself whether this statement still rings true. This article is written to answer that question, and hopefully along the way we can help shed some light on how telephony remains a cornerstone of customer service, and why you should take a deeper look at how your business communicates.
The Benefits of The Phone Call
There’s no doubt that digital tools today have dramatically changed the way businesses and modern enterprises converse with their customers and each other. They do, however, come with limitations that can simply be overcome with a simple phone call! More complex issues like complaints and clarifications are resolved faster when two people actually sit down and talk like the humans that they are.
Let’s look at what telephony provides that chat messaging or an email might often misconstrue, as well as the benefits that it continues to provide.
1. The Human Touch. There’s no denying that modern advancements like AI and process automation can offer appealing benefits, especially for those businesses looking to cut back on costs. But there’s no replacing the connection that comes between two human beings capable of empathy. In a 2023 study conducted by Marketing Charts, they found that 81% of respondents prefer a human interaction as opposed to a digital one. Specifically with regards to complex concerns like refunds, billing inquiries, and purchases.
2. Faster Resolution. Personally, I dislike fumbling with self-service options. I always feel like I’m missing something, and that I’m about to mess things up. There’s a feeling of safety when talking to an actual representative of a brand, someone who’s definitely more knowledgeable than I am about whatever it is I’m confused about. Trust the specialists to help guide us towards resolution!
3. Calls are more intimate. For any brand out there looking to develop deeper relationships with their customers, nothing beats a phone call. Agents have a lot more personality than any bot can muster! So whether you’re a startup or an established brand, your agents are still the best frontliners for your product.
4. Better reliability. Let’s face it, there still is a hesitation to engage with something artificial. A phone call presents a more direct, more personal level of support that helps alleviate worry. Personally, when I’m looking to connect with any business I first look for an option to talk to someone on the phone; I’m often scared that my email or chatbot inquiry would go unnoticed and I’d have to do the whole thing all over again.
What we lose with digitizing Customer Service
There’s this development in customer service called the digital customer experience. This refers to the process when a brand engages with their customers through digital channels, such as their website chatbot, email channels, social media, and other online platforms. Without a doubt, this development has evolved as a way to meet the preferences of the modern shopper!
If you think about it, the conveniences of digitizing certain business processes are too good to look past: chatbots don’t sleep, online order forms make shopping easier, and email tickets offer a low stress (if a little less instant) way to connect with a brand. But are we losing something along the way?
The more we funnel customers through digital channels, are we incidentally creating a divide that separates us from them? Once or twice in the past year alone, I’ve found myself actively frustrated when I couldn’t find an option to call someone from my phone company. “I just want to talk to someone!” I’m sure I’ve said this out loud at some point.
Just give me a number to call.
Providing soulful interactions in the age of Connectivity
For the purpose of objectivity, I have to admit that I do find digital tools like chatbots and AI to be undeniably useful. However, businesses today must continue to find that balance between modernization and human interaction. Because as much as these developments offer conveniences that are too appealing, we have to ask: at what cost?
Where chatbots and other digital communication platforms can definitely minimize call volume and possibly eliminate errors in process handling, they do create an artificial layer that dehumanizes a brand. And for complicated issues, nothing beats the reassurance that we get when we hear an empathetic voice on the other end of the line.
Because let’s face it, telephony is far from obsolete. In fact, it continues to evolve alongside the same digital processes that are taking over the customer service industry. Take Nautilus Talk, for example. This cloud-based calling platform integrates well within Zendesk’s omnichannel platform and works to create a more seamless communication experience for both the agent and the caller on the other end.
For businesses to survive the next chapter of the digital era, they must continue to anchor their customer service operations on the humble telephone. It’s not about replacing it, but embracing it. Leveraging telephony to complement the customer experience means building a more humane journey, and at the end of the day that’s all we want right?
If you need help or want to start a conversation about how to optimise your telephone interactions, feel free to give us a shout!