With the advent of new(ish) communication tools such as team messaging and video conferencing, it’s easy to think that phones are losing their relevance—especially after a year of working remotely. After all, those tools were a saving grace as we scrambled to navigate an unprecedented year of changes in the workplace.
But amidst all of the group chats and video meetings, phone calls are still the preferred choice of communication for most of us. Think about all of the times you joined a virtual meeting only to see circle portraits of your colleagues—or how many customers called in for support during the pandemic.
The truth is, phone is just as essential to your communications suite as team messaging and video conferencing. It’s a critical piece of driving success in the post-pandemic world of work. Just take a look at the stats below.
Our findings from a RingCentral survey
We recently surveyed more than 500 executives and decision makers from companies that use RingCentral. In this survey, our goal was to see how RingCentral MVP™ made an impact on their companies and how they used message, video, and phone in their day-to-day operations.
While they reported some improvements that are directly linked to telephony use—such as lower telecommunication and hardware costs—many of the benefits our customers experience drive greater overall business value, especially for remote and hybrid businesses.
46% improvement in customer satisfaction
When it comes to customer support, phone calls are at the heart of resolving issues. Most customers prefer a live agent instead of having to dig through pages of self-help guides or, even worse, waiting days for an email response.
But the calling experience goes far beyond just reaching a live agent. The customer service journey includes everything from the automated IVR menu to average wait times to how quickly an agent can resolve their issues. In short, the entire calling package impacts how customers feel about your brand.
Our survey found that RingCentral customers saw an average of 46% improvement in their customers’ satisfaction with their companies. What made this possible?
Auto attendant
The auto attendant answers all of your customers’ calls and routes them to the correct department, extension, or voicemail inbox.
Call queues
The RingCentral call queue system automatically directs callers to the right agents with as little downtime as possible.
Live Reports
Live Reports gives managers real-time insights into how their teams are handling inbound and outbound calls with customers. This allows managers to monitor performance, educate agents, and bring on additional staff on busy days.
Significant cost reductions
Phone calls are a necessary part of your communications suite, but the costs can add up. From international calls to the costs of managing on-premises hardware, there are a lot of hidden costs companies have to consider.
However, switching to RingCentral yielded some positive results for our customers:
- 15% reduction on total IT costs
- 25% reduction in telecommunication calling costs
- 20% reduction in telecommunications hardware
Telecommunication cost control is a primary consideration at Higginbotham, a RingCentral business phone customer and one of the largest insurance brokers in the US.
“Now that I can end our acquired businesses’ telecom bills and place them on our RingCentral account, in many cases I’m essentially cutting those locations’ phone bills by 50%—which also makes it easier for them to show a profit.”
70% more employees can work from anywhere
At the height of the pandemic, health and safety was the number one priority for companies. Employees were sent home to work remotely—the first time ever for most. That meant finding the right tools to keep these newly remote teams connected without being in the office together.
The challenge was giving employees company phones without keeping them tethered to their desks or having to purchase physical phones across the board.
According to the survey, companies that switched to RingCentral saw a 70% increase in employee mobility.
What does this mean? A cloud phone system—which can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection—gives employees the freedom to be anywhere and still collaborate with their colleagues.
And it goes beyond just the nature of cloud telephony. The RingCentral solution offers added mobility features like Call Flip, which allows employees to easily switch between their desktop and mobile devices during a call.
We offer IT admins a robust suite of reports and dashboards—called the Analytics Portal—to make their lives easier while managing the RingCentral system. This single-pane view covers all aspects of RingCentral communications and collaboration features: telephony, video meetings, and team messaging. Like the other aspects of the RingCentral system, the Analytics portal is web-based and can be easily accessed from anywhere, using any device of choice: desktop, tablet, or mobile phones
32% boost in employee productivity
One of the biggest—and most well-documented—hurdles of having too many tools is a significant slowdown in productivity. This is due to a phenomenon called app overload, where the constant switching between apps causes employees to lose focus on their tasks.
It’s not just the mental hurdles of switching apps, either. When employees have to juggle so many communication apps, critical information gets lost, meeting invitations are buried, and workers are distracted by multiple distractions coming from all directions.
However, RingCentral provides multiple communication tools (message, video, phone) all within a single app. What this means is, users never have to switch just to change from a messaging thread to a phone call. All it takes is one click. In fact, RingCentral customers saw a 32% improvement in employee productivity.
“Just imagine how many projects you are not tackling today due to lack of sufficient resources. Even for a group of 25 employees, just a 10% productivity increase can translate into nearly $100,000 in value created in a year.”
Communications for the future of work
As a seven-year Gartner Magic quadrant winner, RingCentral delivers on the newfound mobility needs businesses are facing. Our customers report that RingCentral’s messaging, video, and phone features provide multiple advantages that are helping them make work easier for their employees and partners in a new world of work.
Check out the full results of our Customer Success Metrics Survey below and learn more about the business benefits of RingCentral.
Originally published Jul 19, 2021, updated Aug 15, 2024
