Why people still prefer voice conversation over digital technology – and why that’s about to change.

By: Assaf Frenkel, VP of Products & Solutions at CallVU

Without a doubt, technology is shaping almost every aspect of our lives today. From communicating with our family and friends, through the way we work, to how we make our travel plans or consume (and create) information; we rely on technology. And we love technology – just ask any of your friends to describe her or his relationship with their mobile phone and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. So why is it that we don’t always trust technology – especially when it comes to contacting our service providers?

Last month my colleagues and I ran a survey to check how consumers interact with their banks. We gave respondents a wide range of interaction options, from face-to-face meetings at their branch, to phone calls and digital tools such as web, apps and chatbots. What we discovered, (without divulging too much of the survey’s results which will be published in a few weeks), was that human interaction via phone or face-to-face was the overwhelming favorite by respondents – at least when it comes to banking. One interesting finding showed that even those who opted for digital services fell back to human interaction if they were not able to find what they were looking for on the first go. At the first sign of difficulty, 46% said they would call their bank while a surprising 34% said they would visit their local branch.

The Digital Divide: What medium to customers turn to after unsuccessfully resolving their issue using digital technology:

One explanation for the poor trust in digital channels may lie in the fact that they are completely separated from non-digital (voice and face-to-face) channels. Despite multi-million-dollar investments in digital tools, there is still no real continuous customer experience across the various customer engagement platforms. Thus, when consumers encounter even the smallest issue in the digital world, they immediately fall back on old, trusted, and for their service provider, expensive habits.

As an anecdote highlighting the disconnect between the different channels – we found that one of the main searches people run on their bank’s website is not for an explanation on how to open an account or transfer money – but actually to look up their branch’s phone number! If anything, this is poor use of such a great digital resource.

But what if we could guide customers who only access their bank’s website to look for a phone number online through a simple self-service interface? What if we could create a single, seamless customer journey across all communication channels? Wouldn’t it be great if we could teach people to trust technology simply by giving them a technology they can trust? We believe that we can.

Taking advantage of CallVU’s omni-channel experience, our clients around the world improve customer experience and increase the use of value added digital tools. By carrying both the records and context from one channel to the other – digital, voice or face-to-face – we enable a smooth customer journey and quick resolution of both simple and sophisticated issues. Relieving stress from contact centers, CallVU’s digital engagement platform also facilitates self-service resolution of most common requests, leading to shorter resolution cycles and higher customer satisfaction – while invoking trust in digital channels.