Why is voice still the preferred channel for customer relations?
And yes... In the midst of the digital revolution, one might have expected digital channels to dethrone voice. But emails, apps, SMS, and other chats better be on their toes: voice remains the preferred interaction for customer service users, and even though companies strive to minimize its use, it still has bright days ahead. And this is for very simple reasons: let’s discover which ones...
Voice, a vector of quality...
While many channels today substitute for voice in customer relations, what about the "customer experience"? The notions of excellence and quality are certainly not the ones that predominately shine, even if the problem raised by the customer has been resolved. According to a study conducted by the Customer Service Observatory in 2019, the telephone is the most used communication channel, ahead of email and instant messaging tools. As a historical and still favored communication channel, phone exchanges remain the most utilized in customer relations (61% in 2017!) even though it continues to decline for cost reasons. And if it is thus favored, it is because it is considered to be more qualitative: the immediacy of speech allows the customer to escape the delay of an email or the approximation of a chatbot. The voice channel provides a quick response and channels a customer who expresses themselves "in the moment", thereby enhancing and improving customer knowledge.
Voice, a vector of emotions...
Beyond an exchange tinged with immediacy, reactivity, and quality, voice is also a vector of emotions: modulations, intonations, inflections, and tone mean that we deliver words... But not only that!
Voice also conveys prosody, a melody, even a harmony (!) that can be decisive at certain stages of the relationship with the customer: when, for example, the customer needs to be particularly reassured, when it comes to "closing" a file, or when a crisis situation needs to be defused... In short, at all the “key” moments of the customer journey.
The emotions conveyed by voice are implicit information elements that can either confirm, contradict, or nuance the words spoken or heard. Thus, a worthy advisor will be able to perceive by listening to their customer how tense or angry the latter is. They will then adapt their discourse by using their emotional intelligence to best manage the exchange... Voice is indeed the channel that best allows for this reactivity and adaptability!
And to better understand the utility of voice in customer relations, find our detailed white paper on conversational assistants. Welcome to the era of royal voice!
Article update: November 03, 2021
