The Cost of Doing Nothing
How Inaction Impacts Your Business
When companies evaluate new customer experience technologies, voice is often ignored because of the perceived energy and resources associated with upgrading a “dying” channel. CX Professionals think it’s easier to take the “do nothing” approach, but voice is not dead! See why doing nothing actually costs a great deal more than you think.
Interactive Voice Response: The Ugly Stepchild
Investing in voice technology for a contact center can pose a lot of up-front costs that need to be evaluated.
Those costs come in the form of both time and money.
Not to mention, what about all those other newer channels? And what about OMNICHANNEL?? Voice isn’t a priority.
But it should be.
There is a High Cost of “doing nothing”.
Making the decision to keep your voice channel as-is (a.k.a. outdated) can end up costing your business more than implementing a new technology.
This decision should be evaluated as closely as selecting a new vendor.
Unfortunately, the impact of doing nothing is not as tangible or easy to measure.
Here’s what you need to consider:
Customers Are Still Picking up the Phone
- 75% of customers have successfully resolved issues on the phone (compared to just 11% on a website and 5% on social media) [Ovum Research, 2015].
- 68% of all contact center communications are still handled on the phones [Ameyo, 2015].
- 45% of consumers switch from online to voice if their questions are not handled quickly [Ameyo, 2015].
Since the phone is still a heavily used channel for resolving service issues it means you cannot ignore it.
“You’re only as good as your weakest channel.” -Nancy Jamison, Frost & Sullivan
The more you ignore the phone experience, the further it devolves into obsolescence.
In other words, you’re incurring long-term costs simply by “doing nothing.”
For Example:
Scenario 1:
Gerry picks up the phone because she couldn’t accomplish her task on your website. She gets stuck in “IVR jail” and then on hold, taking over an hour of her time—all because the voice automation was outdated and frustrating. Gerry vows she’s done dealing with your business.
Scenario 2:
Kyle is a customer service rep at your company. He was really excited to start two months ago, but he’s been buried with the same task-oriented process questions over and over again and he doesn’t feel like he’s helping people solve real problems. Not to mention, most every caller is irritated and impatient after dealing with a terrible IVR. Kyle isn’t very happy and decides to move on.
Now Do You See the High Costs You’re Incurring?
The impact of both of these scenarios ends up hitting hard:
• Revenue and market share lost
• Hiring and training costs shoot up and stay up
Although these scenarios may seem simplistic they are incredibly common. And these are just a few of the more obvious ones. It goes a lot deeper when you start evaluating the cost of an agent and handle times vs. the cost and handle times of an advanced voice automation system.
The Bottom Line:
Don’t do nothing.
With new innovative technology that allows for customized, personalized, and predictive relationships with customers, you can design a seamless and connected customer experience.
As you evaluate next steps in your contact center operation, make sure voice is high on the list of topics!
