Why Are Phones Essential for Customer Support?

Why do the majority of clients still prefer phone-based contact even in our digital era? And how choosing the phone as a primary channel of communication with clients helps you maintain an excellent level of service due to the advantages it encompasses. Read on to find the benefits of phone-based customer care.

Customer service plays a key role in providing a better user experience. If you are looking for a way to improve your customer support, then it is time to consider the benefits of phone-based contact. There are multiple channels that businesses can use for customer support, but phones have several benefits making them a preferable tool in many situations. 

In the article below, we discuss why phone customer service is one of the best ways to increase the productivity and efficiency of your team. Why do the majority of clients still prefer phone-based contact even in our digital era? And how choosing the phone as a primary channel of communication with clients helps you maintain an excellent level of service due to the advantages it encompasses.

Read on to learn the benefits of phone-based customer support and how you can utilize / leverage phones to streamline your customer care.

Types of customer support channels

There are many customer support channels that companies of all sizes can implement to get closer to their clients. Organizations usually combine several solutions to meet and exceed their customers’ expectations and serve their needs best. 

To provide better customer support, you should be aware of the preferred ways that your clients choose to get in touch with you.

Once you are aware of their favorite communication channel, you can focus on mastering it. Thus your clients will enjoy excellent customer support provided by you via their favored communication tool. So, what customer support channels are available?

Phone – phones are a direct and immediate way to connect with the company. You can provide better support via a phone as it allows you to communicate in real-time, which is more convenient for customers than sending e-mails or messages on social media platforms. With the help of phone-based support, companies retain their clients as it allows them to quickly resolve any issues that may arise after purchasing a product or a service.

E-mail – unlike phones, it is a delayed channel of communication. An e-mail is considered a rather impersonal form of support that cannot always offer a personalized user experience. Some customers still prefer this contact form because they can think thoroughly about their questions and how to structure them better. It is a handy solution if you need to attach documents or images to illustrate your problem.

Social media platform – keeping an eye on your social media inbox is important if you maintain a social media account and expect clients to contact you there. The younger generations are used to communicating with brands over their social network profiles, so you should always pay attention to this support channel. It is good for quick Q&A sessions.

Website chat – a rather new form of contact, the live chat offers a real-time conversation with your customers. Modern phones enable you to add the live chat option to your website, and it can be a separate web app or an integrated part of your business phone system. The live chat is great for quick questions when customers need instant answers about how long does shipping take, when they should receive their order, etc.

Knowledge base or FAQ – if you have gathered enough information on which topics are interesting to your clients, you can cluster it carefully and create a knowledge base or FAQ section of your website. This way, customers can learn about the product they are interested in before even contacting you.

Still, when it comes to choosing a primary support solution for many businesses, phones are the go-to option. Phones are preferable tools because they offer many benefits for your company and allow you to provide a better customer service experience. Let us explain why.

Benefits of phones for customer support

Provides a more personal experience for customers

Customers can get a better customer experience because phones allow the support agent to provide high-quality service. A phone call provides customers with an opportunity to talk directly with a representative from your company and share their concerns or questions. The conversation enables companies to get immediate feedback on what is going well or where they need improvement. 

Phones allow you a more personal approach than any other channel of communication, allowing you to connect directly with each client in real-time.

That makes it easier for agents to establish rapport and trust quickly while solving complicated problems even faster! Additionally, phones enable businesses to communicate offline so that customers don’t have to wait until they’re available online again. The phone call brings emotions like understanding and empathy and makes the conversation sound more human. Phone support allows your agents to read customer moods and use the appropriate voice tone for helping them solve the issue.

Replies are faster and easier

Naturally, most of us do not like waiting, especially if we have a problem to be solved. As phones have the best first response time compared to other support channels (stats), they provide the means for instant customer service. That is especially important in urgent cases when customers need to resolve their issues as soon as possible.

Being able to contact your support agent within a few minutes already has a positive impact on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, if you use a cloud phone system for your business, you can benefit from advanced features like smart call routing. With its help, you can set rules for your inbound calls to be redirected, according to the real-time status of your call agents, and to be dispatched to the most qualified ones available to take the call.

Allows you to minimize the waiting time for clients

Some surveys show that average clients wait around 11 minutes to reach the right support agent via phone. It sounds like it is too long but is faster compared to another widely used communication channel like email (for which you usually have to wait 24 hours). To be as helpful as possible to your clients, you’ll need a handy phone solution. Implementing a cloud phone system in your company gives you a solution to boost the phones’ capabilities, making them suitable for inbound and outbound calls. 

If you are limited on the number of call agents, the IVR (interactive voice response) feature of your business phone system can be really helpful. It navigates callers through multiple menus so that they reach that customer service representative, whom they need. That way, their waiting time is “used” wisely, the whole calling experience is more interactive, and they succeed in contacting the person who can help them.

A feature like callback allows you to automatically return an unanswered call as soon as the call agent is available. So you won’t leave any missed calls from your customers unattended.

Phone calls can be recorded

Non-phone support is not as easy to quantify. If you are using phones for business, it is easier to measure the results of your customer service initiatives and determine which one works best with your company’s goals. 

Call recording allows you to monitor and improve your team’s calls. It’s a way to enhance the customer experience, cut down on staff turnover, and make your employees more accountable. You know your clients better and adjust your support to come up to their expectations

It is not just the idea to have a record of the conversation as with written forms of support like email and instant messages you also have proof of the communication style of your employees. Utilizing your phone system and its call recording feature helps you gain business insight into your clients’ thinking and needs. 

People use phones, and they are well-known by all

We do live in unprecedented times of full-speed digitalization of our lives. But phones are still widely used and preferred by people, even young ones. Phones are the most popular communication device. Many of our users consider phones to be the best way to interact with your company. According to a recent survey, almost 70% of the customers choose to contact the company’s support via the phone. Even if someone has access to other devices like a computer or tablet – phones are still in their hands when it comes to calling another person or getting in touch with an organization.

Another key point is that phones are always with people. People keep phones in their pockets or bags and take them everywhere – if they go to work, travel abroad, or run an errand. That means that there is always a possibility of contacting your company via phone for help or support. Moreover, if you do not give them the option to reach you on the help center phone numbers, many clients will be disappointed that you may lose them as customers.

One of the top benefits of phones is that they are popular with all age groups. Regardless of your target audience – baby boomers, gen X, Millennials, or Gen Z – each of them has and uses a phone, and it seems like the fastest channel to reach out to your business.

Offers 24/7 support in case of emergency without involving the chatbots

In case of an emergency, you want to be able to be reached immediately. Depending on your company’s communications needs, you may set an emergency support line available 24/7. 

Some companies choose to automate the process and offer 24/7 support via chat bots, which is also a helpful support solution. But, if you want to go the extra mile for your clients, you should provide human call agents. They will be able to provide personalized help to customers with urgent requests. That increases the chances of the support agents to resolve the issue and calm down the client. The end effect will be happy and loyal clients.

The best thing is that the on-call agents have complete flexibility with your advanced phone system, so they are not chained to the desk 24 hours but can still provide high-quality service.

Phones enable you to multitask effectively and solve complex problems

Using phones has multiple benefits that make it preferable for companies that want to improve their customer experience and solve more complex issues quickly and effectively. They allow your business to engage with clients better, providing them with all the information they need in an easy-to-digest format. 

You can take notes and record the conversation to avoid any misunderstandings or miscommunications in the future. Phones give you more control over your workday, allowing you to focus on prioritizing tasks while still providing excellent customer support. It is not just that phones allow your business to get back to their customers quickly, but phone-based support is the ideal solution for solving complicated clients’ issues.

Often users prefer that communication channel instead of writing long emails or talking to AI-based chat bots. Some problems require the call agents to ask specific follow-up questions and phones are the right tool for this purpose. To offer the best customer experience, companies usually embrace omnichannel support. After the initial phone conversation, you may ask your clients to send documents to your email if their problem requires it. Another possibility is to continue communicating via instant message to clear some details, for example.

There is no other channel like phones available, which makes this tool irreplaceable for many businesses!

Can be done from anywhere, anytime

If you are running a global business, providing your clients from different countries with a support agent who speaks their native language is a big advantage. Offering a support representative who can fully understand their needs and communicate with them in their mother language makes them more confident and satisfied with your service.

Your advanced cloud phone system is the right solution as it allows you to hire globally call agents who speak the local language without the need to open an office in different locations. Furthermore, some cloud telephony providers offer international numbers’ features. With its help, you can acquire local phone numbers from more than 100 countries. For your clients from abroad, this means that they will be able to contact your support agents on their local number and their local tariffs or even for free.  

Phones allow you to gain instant feedback from customers

Feedback is very important for companies of all sizes. It helps them grow and encourages them to improve customer service, which has a long-term positive impact. Phone support is the right tool to obtain instant feedback from your clients. At the end of the phone conversation, the support agent can ask the callers to rate the service, share if the phone call was helpful, or any other recommendations. Thanks to acquiring first-hand feedback, you can understand the core reasons why customers have complaints.

For sure, customer surveys can be conducted by email. Although, they are more appropriate if you try to research topics like new product launches or changes in the services. Phone conversations provide you with instant, real-time feedback from your clients. That is why phones are considered to be more efficient than any other channels for customer support.

Whether you are an established company or a new startup, the modern business phone system has many advanced features that enable you to provide excellent customer support. There are many customer support channels, but phones have multiple benefits that still make them a preferable tool for contacting companies and gaining information quickly and easily. 

Using phones as your primary support channel helps you to be more effective and efficient. The reasons why phones make an ideal customer care solution include: the ability to offer more personalized interactions, to use your mobile device as an extension of your office so you can multitask while on call, to be reachable from anywhere and at any time (if necessary), as well as being able to forward calls without running back into the office or taking time away from other tasks. 

We hope that we’ve given you enough information and reasons why businesses should consider adding voice communication into their customer service channels. To help you choose the best cloud phone system for your company, contact us today!

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