The More Things Change: How Voice Remains Central Despite the UC EvolutionThe More Things Change: How Voice Remains Central Despite the UC Evolution

It is time to rethink how we look at voice, and to re-acquaint ourselves with the old notion that voice is the center-point to effective communications.

Since the mid-1990s, we have seen the unified communications (UC) industry evolve from what we used to call "computer telephony integration" or CTI. Recently, I found myself reading a No Jitter piece titled, "Finding the Missing Lync," and it got me thinking about the journey our industry has been on over the last 20 years.

What stands out for me most, despite the claims of various disruptors, is that voice has never been more important for businesses.

While Cisco's John Chambers' proclamation in the late 90s that voice would be free certainly shook up the telecommunications industry, it was Microsoft's introduction of Microsoft Office Communications Server and the inclusion of desktop licenses in Enterprise Client Access Licenses (ECAL) that profoundly disrupted the communications marketplace.

Arguably, this led to the launch of the Unified Communications industry. On its own, UC profoundly changed the way businesses thought about voice. They moved quickly on a trajectory towards a PC-centric model--only to be disrupted by the introduction of the Apple iPhone in June 2007. Suddenly the entire Internet could be carried in your hand. Today, the PC no longer rules the communications workspace - the smartphone does.

Together these two disruptions altered the enterprise communications landscape in ways that were unexpected just a few years prior. In the late 90s, globalization created the distributed workforce and altered the way people collaborated. Suddenly people could no longer simply walk down the hall to discuss a decision. As people needed to collaborate from more places at more times, there was an increase in conference calls and meetings – both typically performed over some type of phone.

Voice becomes less frequent, but more critical
When organizations deploy instant messaging and presence, enterprise voice traffic drops precipitously. Intra-company voice all but disappears and is replaced by quick instant messages. Extra-company voice moves almost entirely off the corporate network to the mobile phone. Voice mail has become practically a quaint relic of the past.

While the number of voice transactions is decreasing, call length, complexity, and business impact is increasing, at the same time creating substantial business risk. In the new workplace, people struggle to have a seat at the table, and they compete to be heard. A single user in a noisy car or train can derail an entire team of people until a mute button saves the day. Despite the increase in mobility options, we find that more and more, that seat at the table can't be from a seat on the train, plane or automobile. According to Stephanie Watson at MZA, in 2013, 55.9 million workspaces joined this new world. To me, this means that last year, for 55.9 million people, voice has never been so important.

But it didn't stop at communications and collaboration. As high-performance computing moved from the desktop to the pocket, businesses changed their customer service strategies by moving low-value, high-volume transactions to self-service. For example, most airlines now charge for the over-the-phone reservations.

Our research shows that Millennials would prefer any other service channel to-the-phone. Today, a call to the contact center for a low-value interaction is often an escalation of a failed self-service experience; customers have tried every other channel and, in frustration, ultimately turn to the phone. The voice portion of a contact center is more important than ever because it has become the place to salvage an at-risk customer relationship.

Context Makes Voice Valuable
At the same time, and often in the same center, businesses are shifting higher-touch, higher-complexity interactions to the customer service center. Banks routinely sell and service high-value financial products over the phone, usually in conjunction with Web self-service systems. The old metrics of average queue time and average handle time are taking a back seat to new metrics like revenue per interaction and customer retention rate. This specialization is pushing the customer service center even deeper into the organization so that help desks, human resources, operations, and marketing often function as escalation points.

In this new customer service center, business risk is elevated, as each and every interaction becomes a high-stakes opportunity to recover, or deepen a customer relationship.

When I look ahead, I can't help but think that our industry is on the verge of something spectacular. I haven't even touched on how BYOD has moved from being at the fringe of IT strategy to now being closer to the core, or how mobility is increasing as a dominant enterprise use case rather than being the exception. While there is no doubt in my mind that the use of voice is changing, I also can't think of a time where it has been more valuable and more relevant. It is time to rethink how we look at voice, and to re-acquaint ourselves with the old notion that voice is the center-point to effective communications.

Christopher Thompson is Plantronics Vice-President of Enterprise Product Marketing.