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In the mid-1990s, a television ad campaign reminded people: “It’s good to talk.” Twenty-five years on, in an age of instant messaging, picking up the phone to make a call seems almost anachronistic – unless you’re in business or buying from businesses, where the telephone still has a big role to play.
All companies, regardless of size or sector, are in the business of communication. Without effective communication, they cannot function productively or reach customers. Digitisation offers multiple channels – email, text, social media, video calls – but while these all have their place, talking remains a powerful tool. It’s just that we often overlook it.
“There’s a tendency to default to the easiest method, but when we train people in impactful communication, we remind them to focus on their audience,” says Jenni Field, business communications strategist and founder of consultancy Redefining Communications. “It’s not about you, it’s about them.
“Malcolm Gladwell said in a recent interview, ‘People have confused the efficiency of digital communication with emotional and psychological efficiency.’ It doesn't actually help someone get to know you more, trust you or appreciate nuance and complexity.”
It’s not about you, it’s about them.
Jenni Field, founder of
Redefining Communications
Good communication is vital for any company and, in an age of countless digital chat channels, voice-to-voice still plays an important part in how we connect with colleagues and customers
In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan declared “the medium is the message”, and today the method we use to connect can have as much of an impact as its content. Texts and emails are a rapid and effective option but they can be one-sided and open to misunderstanding or repeated exchanges punctuated by long waits. Video emerged as a key player during the pandemic but everyone is now familiar with “Zoom fatigue”. But a one-to-one call can make a real difference.
The shift to hybrid and remote working means enterprises who have long utilised the growing number of communications options available can now see the real benefits of pulling those disjointed channels into one interface. Unified communications are easy to use and so much easier to manage.
77%
of workers believe
people who use voice communication will be more connected to one another
Why the telephone is still
essential in business
London-based Your Golf Travel facilitates the holiday requirements of over 175,000 golfers a year. Mark Thompson, chief information officer of the Palatinate Group, which owns Your Golf Travel, says it’s important for the brand’s customers to know that their trips are handled by knowledgeable market-leading professionals who understand the industry, resorts, events and courses available on a particular trip.
“Our customers get that reassurance from talking to our sales team, rather than a chatbot, or trying to determine online which operator to choose,” says Thompson.
That’s why Your Golf Travel looked to RingCentral to deliver a robust telephony solution that would facilitate the best customer experience (through call prioritisation and customer management), provide customer insights and mitigate any existing platform risks. “Internally, we also needed a system that provided the sales managers with the necessary functionality to run a customer-centric contact centre and assist the sales team further.”
A phone provides employees with a vital tool that shouldn’t be overlooked in the race for functionality. Verbal communication is irreplaceable for its versatility. It provides less room for misunderstanding, allows for a fuller exchange of ideas and offers the potential for debate and persuasion. But most importantly it is human.
“We don’t use the term relationships in work but that’s what we are in. We are social animals, we rely on each other, and using our voice is our primary method of communication, so our tone, our pace, all of those things are signals to another human being,” says Field. “We were forced to focus on tasks during the pandemic but work is more than that. It’s about relationships and fulfilment.”
“‘Seek to understand’ is a mantra I like,” says Newbury-Smith. “And you can do that much more efficiently on a phone call than you can with a series of messages. You can build relationships by talking to people, which is important when you’re not together physically all the time. Conversations can overcome all sorts of issues but they don’t always have to be functional, and often aren’t, which is important in creating empathy.”
88%
of people prefer speaking to a live customer service agent instead of navigating a phone menu
“From a customer-service perspective this boils down to trust. If you automate everything you can undermine that,” says Field. “The ability to escalate to a conversation is often more efficient, more effective and more rewarding. It’s about feeling valued as a customer and as a person and showing respect.”
Interactive voice responses, FAQs on websites and chatbots have their place but ultimately people want to know there’s someone at the end of the line who cares.
“Customers still want to have the option of hearing a human voice for reassurance or to resolve confusion, but voice is not a standalone thing, it has to work as part of a collaboration environment,” explains Newbury-Smith.
“When customer-service staff escalate to a call, it’s important they can see the history of communication across all channels to be able to understand what’s happened. We offer that at a touch of a button and we integrate with other management systems, ticketing systems or CRM systems. We can improve our customers’ operations but it’s important they have a clear use case.”
For Your Golf Travel, video conferencing is more widely used across the organisation for internal communications and this was accelerated by the shift to remote/hybrid working. “But voice calls remain a solid alternative if video is unavailable,” says Thompson. “Externally, dealing with an increasingly digitally savvy customer base, there has always been the temptation to think that voice-to-voice communication is dead.
“In the 1990s I worked for a money broker that was pure voice-to-voice. With the introduction of the internet, and online trading platforms, the industry had to evolve to ensure that the value of a voice-broking service was complemented, not replaced, by the accessibility of digital information.
“Voice-to-voice communication will always be required – it’s how a company, or indeed our industry, ensures the best added value it can deliver. For us, that means personal interaction, service and expertise our customers receive at Your Golf Travel.”
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The ability to connect us when we can’t be in the same room will ensure the longevity of the phone call but it’s easy to overlook its other great advantage. Knowing someone is on the other end.
“We shouldn’t focus solely on speaking,” says Field. “I have to listen to you in order to respond, and listening to someone is vital – hearing them out, letting them express or explain themselves or vent is just as valuable, often more.”
A survey from cloud communication platform RingCentral has discovered three quarters of workers (77 per cent) believe people who use voice communication will be more connected to one another, while 63 per cent believe that connecting online through voice or video calls is as good as in person for work-related tasks.
“Businesses coming to us for phone technology is still a primary request because the reliability and the criticality of phone has not gone away nor do we think it’s likely to from our research,” says Louise Newbury-Smith, country manager at RingCentral for UK and Ireland. “But what’s most important is providing staff with options. Giving them the ability to choose their preferred method at the touch of a button helps keep them happy and engaged and that’s vital for job satisfaction.”
Let’s talk: workers are looking for personal interactions
At the table: employees want communication platforms that suit their needs
Face the facts: video calls help teams to work dynamically
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Why the telephone is still
essential in business