Opportunity is Calling

We all love it when an opportunity calls. Whether it’s a new business partnership opportunity, a career opportunity, or a new customer opportunity.?

How we answer these opportunities can happen over a multitude of ways, but do you know what is the uncontested method for businesses and individuals to connect and make opportunities truly happen??

The answer is a phone call.

To find out why the phone is still the most preferred mode of business communications, we commissioned a survey through Ipsos of more than 350 communication-technology decision-makers from the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom about how they currently use phones and their plans for the future. Here are seven key findings from the survey:

1. Phone is king

What makes phones so powerful and virtually unrivaled among communications devices? Well, everyone knows how to use a phone—and with the right provider—it just works!

Customer trust is an enormous factor, and having a phone conversation builds trust and engagement with customers. The study shows that 98% of respondents believe phone is critically important to customer engagement and revenue generation. The phone remains the lead work communication tool, with 92% considering it their main communication channel. And, it’s not just an American preference—this same sentiment was expressed in Canada and the UK.

2. SMS is a huge opportunity for businesses

Texting is a mission-critical customer channel for many businesses. Ninety-five percent of businesses are using SMS in some capacity. From the outset of the pandemic, it’s become the go-to way for savvy retailers, shippers, and restaurateurs to provide real-time product or service status updates. In the study, 71% said business SMS is extremely important to their communications strategy, and 64% said they expect their business SMS usage to grow in the next few years. There’s both an immediacy to SMS and an inherent scalability that would cost more to duplicate in other channels.?

3. Business phone use is expected to rise?

There are many ways to communicate, but voice isn’t going out of style. In fact, 63% percent of survey respondents expect their phone use to increase in the next several years, while only 6% believe their use will decline. Either way, flexibility is key. Organizations don’t want to be locked into inflexible contracts and prefer services that can scale up or down as needed.

4. Phone calls dominate for internal and external use cases

Employees still like to talk things out with co-workers and customers. Eighty-two percent of employees prefer the phone over other means of conducting external client calls. Nearly 74% prefer the phone for internal calls, and 59% prefer it for internal meetings. More than half of the respondents say they still prefer the phone for conducting group calls or meetings with teammates, and 82% use it for external client calls and 63% for outbound customer calls.

5. The adoption opportunity

Most businesses still use traditional phone systems, but 31% of firms use cloud phone solutions according to the survey. Businesses know that cloud-based phones have a lot more capabilities than legacy landlines—and are inherently mobile-first. Cloud phones also can connect to other work applications, like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Teams—simplifying workflows, improving the employee experience, and even helping to drive more revenue.

6. Businesses want flexible, multi-device phone solutions

Think about what we do most often on our phones—we talk and we text. Not surprisingly, those are the features businesses want most. The interest in feature-rich, flexible phone systems shows that voice communication is here to stay.?

But there are other features of interest, too. Nearly 28% of decision-makers say they want the ability to record calls on-demand and store those recordings in the cloud. Another 26% want high-volume SMS for marketing and customer care. More than one-in-five want local, international, and toll-free numbers on-demand for customer-facing use. And, believe it or not, 16% still want to send and receive faxes.

7. Big and little companies still prefer phones

Company size does not matter when it comes to phone preferences. Everybody sees their value. Small companies are the most likely to say a phone is their primary communication tool (58%), but the largest enterprises (10,000+) rely on phones (55%), too.

Staying connected to the future

Businesses today have more choices than ever for connecting with others—they can choose to send emails, make calls, send messages, or use video. Although there are so many compelling choices, business decision-makers still prefer phones over everything else, especially for business-to-customer (or B2C) engagement. Many customers simply want to get on a phone call or reply with a text to make a reservation, confirm an appointment, or have a question answered. For that reason, when it comes to phones—just remember, opportunity is calling.