As omni-channel customer experience solutions gain traction, organisations need to think carefully about how voice communication fits into their pre- and post-sale customer engagement plans. A report entitled “State of Customer Experience 2017” from West (now Intrado) stated that “88% of organisations are expecting digital customer interactions to overtake voice by 2020”. The study drew on qualitative and quantitative research with over 200 professionals involved in delivering customer experience.
With 2020 just around the corner, we asked Tony Martino, CEO of Tollring, a software development company specialising in analytics, call recording and telecoms fraud prevention, whether he is seeing this shift in the market.
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Tony Martino[/caption]
Whilst Tony couldn’t say if the statistic was accurate, his initial view was that the 88% figure was exceptionally high for next year. Our initial discussion focused on how voice communications have changed since 2017. Tony referenced the fact that when the study was conducted there were far more on-premises systems being purchased. “Over the last two to three years, there’s been a steady increase in the digitisation of voice over IP and the cloud. So rather than people moving away and replacing voice, our partners and customers are now looking for enhancements to their voice propositions.”
As Tony points out, a key element of voice communications compared to digital channels is that it delivers far more information such as tone and inclination. "For us, this means voice communications are here to stay and will become even more important in the future, as we move into the territory of speech intelligence and sophisticated analytics.”
Market requirements
Looking at the 88% statistic, Tony emphasises that different markets have different needs and the methods of communication depend on the complexity of the product or service.
“At the top end of the scale are the larger enterprises where digital interactions and omni-channel are definitely expanding,”
“This applies specifically to organisations with a simple sales model and repetitive transactions. For example, many FMCG retailers have managed to cut their calls dramatically by streamlining online purchasing. So, for these types of transactional activities, the 88% figure becomes far more credible.”
However, he sees voice communication as dominant for business-to-business and business-to-consumer interactions within smaller and medium sized enterprises, where the relationship is important and the product or service has multiple conditions against a purchase.
“In these SME-level organisations, I don’t see the percentage of digital interactions overtaking voice anytime soon,” affirms Tony. “These organisations tend to have limited funds and are unlikely to invest precious budget in unknown and complex processes. Our partners serving these organisations are focused on helping them to improve staff productivity around the phone. They are asking us for features typically reserved for formal contact centres and interaction analytics around voice as the primary focus.”
Another area developing fast is internal communications. In this area, Tony thinks that the 88% figure is also more feasible.
