“The phone call is dead” said a recent article on the well respected website Tech Crunch. In fact there have been lot of articles appearing recently supporting the idea that the phone call is dead. They seem to have been triggered by the research company Nielsen issuing a report saying telephone usage is falling amongst every one under the age of 55.
As an example the article on the Tech Crunch website called “The Phone Call Is Dead” stressed how many text messages teenagers were sending and that text is a far more convenient way of communicating than a telephone call.
The Nielsen report and Tech Crunch article were even referred to in The Economist which did have some good counter evidence showing that telephone calls, measured in average minutes per month, has risen in the past five years in most European countries. The key change being that a bigger proportion of these minutes now comes from mobile originated calls, no surprise there.
So the phone call is not dead yet, and that particularly applies to small businesses. I used to wok for a telephone system provider I can tell you that small business owners complain loudly if their telephone system is not working. They know that answering telephone calls is critical to their business and a phone system down for two hours gets some serious attention.
It is true that email, Facebook and Twitter have had an impact on business communications BUT, and it’s a big but, there is a lot of evidence that people want to see a telephone number on a website. They may not ring the telephone number but it gives them confidence that it is a professional business behind the website.
So what type of telephone number should be on a website. Well as it a confidence booster a mobile number does n’t really do the job. So either a landline or an 08 number and you need to ensure that calls are answered in a professional manner. If you do not have the resources to answer all your calls yourself consider using a telephone answering service to ensure you always give a professional image to your callers.
Long live the telephone call.
Ian Marshall
Office Answers – virtual office services London and Manchester for small and startup businesses
