Have Millennials Killed Telephone Calls?

Are telephone calls for business declining? Or is it just telephone sales calls?

Businesses still make telephone calls to customers, suppliers, and leads every single day.

There is anecdotal evidence that telesales is becoming less effective. Due to the increase in scam/phishing calls, people don’t want to pick up their phones anymore, let alone talk to strangers.

With emerging technologies offering new communication methods, could the traditional phone call be dead?

Already, we’re seeing businesses move away from using normal landlines to picking things like Microsoft Teams telephony.

Could the era of talking to people on the phone be dead forever?

Why Millennial consumers are apprehensive about phone calls

Telephones have always been a hated aspect of customer service for many consumers.

They’re inconvenient. You have to dedicate time out of your day to sit on the phone and talk to someone.

This means you can’t do it when you’re at work, so you must wait until you’re home. You also may be patched into a call centre in a different country, leading to communication issues. 

It’s clear that modern technology allows better customer service through other methods.

Chatbots can solve common problems in minutes, eliminating the need for phone calls that can take half an hour.

Direct messages can also be a better human-to-human interaction for many. Instead of staying on the phone, you can message someone back and forth to find a solution.

Even emails are preferable; yes, the service isn’t instant, but this is still handy in situations when you can wait for help. 

Years of cold calls have also made many consumers hate getting marketing calls from companies. They’re harder to prevent, meaning the customer experience is worse.

With things like emails and social media, it’s easier to get customers to actually buy into the marketing

Millennial consumers like this choice. Unfortunately, there is no choice in cold calls – you are expected to be available at random times. This is one of the reasons telephones are slowly starting to lose their prevalence in the business world. 

Video calls – more personal approach to telephones?

Telephones are going to slowly fizzle out as a way of communicating with customers. Having said that, it should still be an option that businesses use, just in case some customers prefer to speak over the phone. 

Take a look at software reviews and work out what is the best fit for your organisation. This new call handling software specialises in retail, charities, public bodies & construction can boost customer experience & increase efficiency.

What we are also seeing is a modern approach to this communication method. Instead of phone calls, businesses are employing video calls.

Using video calls is how we communicate with clients and customers in many cases already.

So it would only feel natural that we send our customers a calendar invite to have a video call to speak face-to-face. It would also be much more personal. 

Summary

Millennials and Gen Z have killed telephones, especially for telemarketing. However, the older generation still prefers calling businesses to discuss things.

Telephone marketing as a comms channel is dying – almost 90% of customers won’t answer a call from a business number these days.

If you want to make your business more forward-thinking, you should explore other, more modern, ways of communicating with customers or clients.