An Oldie but a Goodie: are Telephony and Email Still King?

In recent years, no one can deny that digital channels, like social media, are steadily rising in popularity. This time last year, there were 3.028 billion users of social media, a figure which has steadily risen since. And it’s safe to say that these channels are the future of customer service. But does that mean that the traditional channels are on the way out? Well, we recently conducted our own survey and the results weren’t exactly what you’d expect.

As digital technology becomes more advanced, more and more companies are making the move to shift over. And it means sense. We’ve seen that customers generally want faster responses, faster resolutions, and faster handle times; that’s all possible when you move to more digitally-focused channels. With agents working on social media and webchat — rather than telephony — they can handle multiple interactions at once, significantly lowering your wait times. On top of that, they’re able to benefit from automation tools that make their job easier. These tools help make your resolution times and your wrap up times lower as well. Overall, the customer is happy and the business is saving a large amount of money. Win-win.

With this shift, you’d think that traditional channels were on the way out. But we actually found that customers are slower to change then businesses might think. So much so that channels like telephony and email came out on top every time, regardless of age group or gender. Overall, 42% of customers preferred email and 29% preferred to use the phone. And, maybe surprisingly, the highest preference for email was in the 18–24 age bracket (61%). So, what does this mean for businesses?

It’s all about balance. Our research shows that traditional channels are still as popular as ever. So, when making the shift to more digital channels, don’t leave email and telephony in the dust. It can be tempting to put less emphasis on those channels or assign less operators to them simply because they’re not as lucrative. That’s especially true if you have high volumes of contacts on webchat or social. But it’s important to be where your customers want you — which is sort of everywhere.

Although email and telephony ranked highly, other channels were popular too. Facebook ranked highly among all age groups, with Twitter a little way behind. Social, then, is a strong contender. And I’m certain that these numbers will only continue to rise in the next few years. For businesses, the emphasis should be less on “which channel matters most” and more on achieving a truly omnichannel operation. By cross-training all your staff and using automation tools to make sure no contact goes unanswered, the problem begins to take care of itself.

So why aren’t customers switching to digital as quickly as we want them to? A lot of it is down to convenience. Email, for example, allows the customer to contact you — and respond to you — whenever is good for them. Digital channels tend to be faster paced so they’re harder to engage with if the customer doesn’t have the time. And email is just as convenient on-the-go as social thanks to smartphones.

But for telephony, this isn’t the case. It takes time and attention to engage in a telephony interaction. But customers still flock to it because of the misconception that it’s the only way talk to a human being. Talking is, after all, what humans are naturally used to, making it the easiest method of communication when you’re finding it difficult to explain your issue.

There’s a disconnect in customers’ minds between channels like webchat and social media and the ability to talk to someone; that’s making customers stick to their traditional channels. It’s up to us as companies to convince the customer that digital channels are just as friendly and actually much more effective. We have to make these channels convenient, responsive, and intuitive. And we can see from our survey that we’re doing an alright job so far. Platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp are steadily rising in popularity, a trend that doesn’t seem likely to reverse. So, are traditional channels still important? Definitely. But digital channels are just as important and will likely only become more important in the next few years.