For the first time ever, mobile voice calls have seen a decline in use. Mobile phones, of course, are as popular as ever. But they’re not being used for voice calls any longer. More emphasis is being put on web use, and data plans are growing while minutes are cast aside.
This call decline bodes uncertainty for businesses. Today, most companies use phone calls as a core method of customer support. The telephone remains the integral aspect of the contact centre; the time-tested bastion of customer contact. As customers stray away more and more from voice calls, however, the place of the telephone as the customer service go-to is called into question.
Howard Williams, marketing director at software house Parker Software, investigates the fall of the call — and what it means for businesses and their contact channels going forward.
The decline in voice calls
Voice call volumes are in a state of decay. Fixed-line phone calls have been steadily declining for years, while mobile voice calls tried to fill the gap. Yet according to Ofcom, the volume of calls overall has also been in decline for years.
And now, for the first time ever since data collection started, total outgoing mobile call volumes have dropped as well. Phone calls just aren’t resonating with us anymore, as the volume of outgoing mobile calls dropped by 2.5 billion last year.
There are many possible reasons for the fall of the telephone call, from privacy and anxiety to convenience and efficiency. Because phone calls allow us to hear the vocal tones and inflections during service interactions, they often feel more intimate. They don’t allow us to multitask, and they demand the call participants’ undivided attention.
Because of this, phone calls have grown to feel intrusive. Calls are now more commonly reserved for urgent matters. For example, a missed text or two from ‘mum’ generally issues much less gut-wrenching horror than 4 missed calls.
The rise in mobile web use
The decline in mobile voice calls doesn’t mean mobile use is going down. In fact, a staggering 78% of all adults (16+) own a smartphone, and 92% of them cite web-browsing as a crucial function of our mobile devices. So, calls might be on the decline, but our web browsing is as healthy as ever.
Customers are accessing businesses online at all times of the day via their mobile device. In fact, people are spending more than twice the amount of time browsing the web on mobile devices than they are on desktop computers. This growth in mobile web use provides some insight into how the fall of the call is changing the customer service landscape. Customers, seemingly, are happy to type and to tap; not so happy to talk.
This shift in consumer habits means there also needs to be a shift in the way that businesses interact with their customers. Specifically, the fall of the call means that there’s an increased need for web-based customer service options. Brands need to start directing their focus on optimising their online support.
Real-time support options
The decline of the phone call doesn’t mark a decline in the need for real-time support. In fact, 64% of customers expect real-time assistance — regardless of the customer service channel they use. So, brands need to consider real-time support options beyond the telephone.
Online, real-time support is achievable through web chat and instant messaging options. Indeed, demand for live chat grew by 8.29% in 2017, and the channel is rising at a 7.3% compound annual growth rate. As voice calls continue to decline, chat is rising up to take its mantle as the customer service channel of choice.
Piggy-backing onto the success of live chat software is the ever more prevalent chatbot technology. Chatbots are already overlapping more with traditional customer service roles, answering easy questions, helping customers navigate websites, and providing a self-service gateway. Though still relatively new on the business communication scene, 34% of customers would already prefer to have quick questions answered via chatbot.
Social media will also continue to be an asset for businesses as calls fall out of fashion. An estimated 67% of consumers use social media networks to seek resolution for issues, and there is every reason to assume that this will continue as customers seek non-voice support. So, companies may benefit from having a dedicated support profile or page for customers to reach out on.
Telephone calls will still be in use for a while yet — but they’ll be increasingly reserved for the most urgent or complex support requests. This means that customer service teams taking these calls need to be empowered to offer not only solutions and fixes, but efficiency and speed.
Shifting the balance
For now, customers may still rely on phone calls for their service interactions. But we’re at a turning point for customer service. The fall of the call means that we could soon be seeing traditional voice calls used less and less as a support channel.
Businesses will need to shift the balance between their online and their phone call support. Now is the time to optimise websites for mobile browsing, and channels such as messaging and live chat stand to grow in popularity.
So, keep the telephone — but don’t force reluctant customers to call. Instead, follow the path consumers are laying out with their evolving preferences and make real-time help available both through a call and through a keyboard.
