My personal life currently involves contacting rather more organizations than usual. I have been struck by how very many of them are strongly encouraging the telephone as the means of contact. I have never been much of a fan of telephones for introducing customer service issues.
Telephones are necessarily an interrupting kind of thing. Call staff have to be available or customers have to wait. Rarely do I have an issue that is so urgent that it demands immediate attention so I would be happy for my matter to be dealt with as it naturally comes up as somebody works through their inbox. Similarly, on my side it is unlikely that ringback will occur at a convenient moment.
Further, it is difficult to reach the correct person first time. Either I get to work through multiple automated menus or I must repeat to various people what it is I want and what my details are. Repeating details alone is a pain but with long account numbers, addresses with zipcodes, etc., speech is the most tedious and error-prone way I could be attempting to transmit the information. Furthermore, with an interlocutor asking questions or making suggestions it is easy to be distracted into forgetting to include some other important point.
In short: I would much rather be able to first send a letter or e-mail in which I lie everything out simply and clearly. It can be passed around without my having to repeat anything. It can be attended to only when convenient. I can be doing other things while all this happens. A written record can also be referred back to in reviewing what was said when.
Subsequent telephone conversation is useful for resolving confusion, completing or confirming details and discussing options but why anybody thinks that it makes sense as the primary means of initial customer service contact is far from obvious to me.
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