Recently a much famed journalist, Lucy Kellaway talked about ‘The Telephone and New Office Technology’ on Radio 4. During the programme, she suggested that we are witnessing a phenomenon called ‘the death of the office landline’. While she may have a point in suggesting that we are seeing a drop in call volumes to landlines, which was confirmed by Ofcom’s Communications Market Report this week, she can’t be more wrong about linking it to the death of the landline – especially in business.
The truth of the matter is that the landline is far from dead or even dying. In business it remains the chosen medium for dealing with complex issues, solving problems and communicating important news.
In fact, in a recent research, commissioned by Resilient Networks amongst 500 employees and 150 IT leaders, both employees and IT leaders revealed that they consider voice calls to be the most critical channel of communication within business. And while there may be certain industries where voice communication is not that important, in business it remains a valued and essential medium.
The research went on to reveal that nearly half (47%) of employees believe voice calls are best used for resolving complex business issues. In addition, 56% believe calls will always be important to their day-to-day roles, and given the vast choice of traditional and modern communication channels available in the work place, voice is the most commonly used form of communication for handling/resolving most scenarios at work.
Moreover, a loss or failure of the voice network is considered to be seriously disruptive to business, with just over a fifth (21%) of IT leaders going as far as to say that it would destroy their organisation. As such, the ‘death of the office landline’ is still clearly quite far off.
But what does the drop in call volumes represent then? While domestic call volumes might be dropping, the situation is again much different for businesses. Our survey findings revealed that 55% of employees suggested that the number of calls they have received have increased, while only 39% have seen an increase in email volumes. In addition, over the next three years 64% of employees believe that landline call volumes will only continue to increase.
Taking all of the findings from the research into account I think it’s safe to say that the office, and probably your home, landline will be around for many more years to come. Its use will be fundamental to solving complex business issues and for getting things done. The more important question we should ask ourselves is, if voice is as critical as it appears to be, how will we communicate effectively if the landline disappears? It’s something to keep in mind while we ponder the role voice will continue to play in our day to day lives.
