This was a headline from an interesting article in The Times last Saturday emphasising how the humble landline, once the much loved communication for friends and family to share intimate conversations, has now become an object of mistrust with many people agreeing the only reason for having one is for broadband access and when it rings it’s for someone to sell you something – what a pity.  Interestingly BT’s high profile campaign for having better conversations through the landline rather than mobile, seems to be falling on deaf ears.  Ironically we’ve just seen the launch of a new phone from BT to screen numbers and block up to 80% of incoming calls.

Whatever our views, it seems our love affair with the landline has ended and instead, our preference for communication on the move is the future.  Contact centres were designed for a consumer who was fixed and sitting at the phone usually with their details beside them.  With the majority of us now owning a mobile phone and more than 60% of us now owning a smart-phone, it presents a huge challenge for organisations to have any chance of controlling customer communications.

One of the most common consumer complaints is they can’t find a number to call when they are having problems with self serve or need clarification.  However the same companies wish to call them about things they don’t want to talk about.  This clear gap of not listening to customers is growing and creating further mistrust at a time when organisations need to rebuild trust.  Our recent research shows, that around 50% of consumers still cite the telephone as their preferred method of communication for customer service.  Similarly, new figures from BT indicate they manage 10 billion minutes per year of inbound voice calls to customers contact centres (source: www.btplc.com)

We’ll be covering some of these issues at our forthcoming session being held at BT Tower on 6 March.  Click here for further information.