Why Voice is Still an Important Customer Service Channel

Why Voice is Still an Important Customer Service Channel

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Why Voice is Still an Important Customer Service Channel

Voice channel

I have stressed the benefits of multi-channel customer service several times in my previous blog posts. The growing number of channels that customers can use to interact with a brand has made companies switch their focus from the voice channel to others like website chat, social media, and email. Does this mean that voice is no longer an important channel for providing good customer service? The answer is NO.

Voice has been the primary channel of communication between a company and its customers ever since the advent of the telephone. Through this medium, customers can truly express their grievances to the company and explain certain issues in detail. But that was then. Now with so many different channels available, where exactly does voice stand?

The Personal Touch

One of the top reasons why customers still choose to call a company is because they want to interact with a real-life human being. On website chats, many brands have used bots that are good enough for providing basic answers to customer queries. For more complicated issues, customers have to talk to someone and explain to them what the matter is.

Quick Resolution of Issues

Most customers still believe that the quickest way to get their issues resolved is by speaking to someone over the phone. As stated before, you can clearly describe the issues you are facing and are able to get a real-time response from a human being at the other end. The empathy factor plays a big role here. When you feel that the other person understands your frustration, it gives you a psychological comfort as well. This too can only be provided via a voice call.

Accuracy of Information

Another reason why voice channel is preferred by customers and even by companies is that you can communicate accurate information over this channel. There is no room for someone taking information in the wrong context or have any confusion. All details are thoroughly discussed over the phone.

Calls are not what they used to be

According to a study, the number of customer support calls has dropped by 17% over the last three years. The reason for that is the growing effectiveness of self-service options that brands are offering. Those options have helped customers with mundane issues like order tracking, account balance confirmations, and even minor troubleshooting.

As for complicated matters that customers cannot find the solution to, they call to talk to a customer support representative.  This has made the jobs of customer support agents tougher as they now only get calls where the issues are critical and the customer has already tried all other methods of getting help. This makes your support team the final resort, putting more pressure on you to fulfill customer expectations.

Conclusion

What we can take away from all this is that voice support is going to remain an essential element of customer support. The type of calls and type of issues received may change but this channel is not going anywhere. That is why it is absolutely critical that brands provide the best quality customer support services to their customers or hire call center services provider like Octopus Tech that can handle your customer support needs.