My call is important to you, but I don’t want to hold the line!

The phone used to be our standard go to for communicating, after all it was our only way of communicating quickly, with the only alternative being the good old Royal Mail. As children we would call our friends after school (and I personally remember getting into a lot of trouble for calling chat lines as a kid). As adults, we’d frequently use it to communicate with friends, but also as consumers and in business. It was normal, the home phone would ring, our desk phones would ring and we would talk.

Over a third of customers will pick up the phone as a preferred first method of getting in contact

Data from the Sussex Innovation Centre Survey, on behalf of Natterbox Sept 2018

Now in 2019, it amazes me that phone anxiety has become such a big thing – and yet, when I consider it, it’s actually not amazing at all.

My children text their friends (mainly with emojis, not even words) and with so many channels of communication open to us, we tend to choose the most convenient (non-verbal) method available to us. In fact, next time you’re at a restaurant look at how many people are sat looking at their phones rather than talking to each other. Is the next big thing, virtual dining, so we don’t even have to meet anyone personally or God forbid speak to anyone anymore?

You press one for this you, press two for that…

Are we victims of our own success? Has technology removed all need for verbal communication? Or is it purely because when it comes to making a phone call, certainly as a consumer or in business, it can be extremely painful attempting to resolve something by phone.

If I want to quickly cancel a subscription, change a delivery date or just ask why my internet isn’t working, the majority of the time I have to go through so many options and dread the thought of pressing the wrong number and then sitting there, wasting valuable time listening to a recorded message telling me “your call is important to us, please continue to hold”…

NO! I don’t want to hold, I don’t want to wait and I don’t want to have to call you back later because you’re incredibly busy and clearly I’m not!

Only 14% of customers are willing to spend more than 10 minutes on hold, with 36% of callers hanging up within with just 3 minutes of waiting.

Data from the Sussex Innovation Centre Survey, on behalf of Natterbox Sept 2018

At Natterbox, we have described this as a dance. A dance we all have to perform at some point, whether we want to or not. The customer is always right, we value our customers, your call is important to us, but as people, we’re clearly not valued, we are clearly just a number.

I am not a call, I am not a number, except number 3 in the queue!

We have no choice, but it’s time to find a new song and a different beat. It’s time to look for a better way. With Natterbox, you’re no longer dancing, you’re no longer just a call or a number. With Natterbox, you can finally really answer.

Discover how using Natterbox to connect your Salesforce CRM with your telephony system can both improve staff productivity in sales or service centres and also improve customer service by booking a demo with us today, or view other Natterbox reviews and case studies on our Customers page.

Video Transcription

There’s this dance. A dance no one likes, you or your partner. The passion is there but the steps are not. We all know the beat but still no one enjoys it. You press one for this you, press two for that, press two-one-seven if you’ve been here before. Whatever your number, your call is important to us. My call is, maybe, but I am NOT. I’m not a call, I’m not a number, except number three in the queue. See, we all listen to the hold music. We do the dance, we spend seconds, minutes, hours of our lives dancing. And even if you can’t dance you do it anyway, you know why? Because you have no choice, that’s why! Not unless someone changes the song, changes the beat or finds a better way. Now someone has. So I’m no longer dancing. I am no longer just a call. I am no longer just a number. I’ve got your number, phone and otherwise. Now I’m calling and finally you can really answer.