If you walk into any call center in America, you’ll see two stories unfolding simultaneously. In one, leaders are investing heavily in digital channels like messaging, chat, and automation because customers say they desire speed and control. In the other, these same customers continue to reach for the phone wanting to talk to a human being.
We’re seeing that tension shape one of the biggest shifts in customer engagement in years. It’s also exposing an uncomfortable truth: voice isn’t dying, it’s just transforming. Businesses that misunderstand this moment will either struggle to connect or, far worse, never reach their customers at all.
Customers Aren’t Abandoning Voice. They’re Simply Redefining It.
It’s tempting to just look at the rise of digital channels and assume voice is becoming obsolete, but the numbers tell us a different, more nuanced story. Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer found 59% of customers still prefer the phone as a service channel, making it the number one choice. This high percentage is surprising to many. At the same time, Zendesk’s research shows a clear pattern: 69% of people prefer text-based support for simple issues, but 57% prefer voice when the problem is complicated.
This channel split reflects an extremely human instinct. If someone’s credit card won’t work, a chat window will suffice. If an important delivery goes missing, they want to talk to someone, and fast!
That may be why 77% of customers say phone calls are the best way to get quick answers to urgent issues, and over 40% say they strongly prefer human conversation to handle difficult problems. Have you tried navigating an annoying automated option menu when all you want to do is speak to a person? We’ve all been there.
What’s changing is not the value of voice; it’s the expectation around it. Customers will call. In fact, they'll call often, but their tolerance for friction, hold times, low trust, or robotic interactions has evaporated. Mindful’s research revealed 68% of customers say their biggest phone-service issue is being stuck on hold then disconnected, which happens far too often, and 63% say they’d rather get a callback than wait on the line.
The pain here isn’t the channel. It’s the experience.
Meanwhile, Digital Channels Are Booming…With a Trust Problem
Messaging and chat have exploded. Usage of online chat has increased by 35% in seven years. That fact is not surprising, but now 75% of consumers say they prefer private messaging with a business, and an astonishing 91% say they want SMS updates. Almost everyone wants texted updates? This is industry changing information.
AI is accelerating this shift. CivicScience reports chatbot helpfulness has improved by 10 points since 2022, and Sobot projects AI chat satisfaction to reach over 87% next year, far outpacing voice assistance at 44%. Something to remember, most people solve simple problems with AI chats, leaving the more complex issues for humans to solve. This might play a factor in those satisfaction percentages.
Yet beneath this convenience lies a growing sense of unease, with 68% of global consumers saying they’re concerned about online privacy, and more than half of Americans opting out of purchases due to data collection concerns. These concerns are forcing U.S. regulators to take action.
In 2024 the FCC clarified AI-generated voice calls are fully covered under the TCPA, meaning a single non-consented call gets a business fined $500, and then potentially millions in a class-action suit. Add to that the FCC’s $6 million forfeiture for the first AI deepfake political robocall (featuring “the voice” of Joe Biden), plus the tightening of Robocall Mitigation Database rules, and the message is crystal clear: trust is now a compliance issue and compliance is now a revenue issue.
What This Means for Voice: Smaller Volume, Bigger Stakes
McKinsey reports contact centers expect digital channels to take on 40% of inbound traffic within a few years. However, there’s a twist. The same leaders expect voice volumes to rise too. Why? Because when everything simple is pushed to self-service, the calls left for humans are those that matter most.
These are conversations where empathy, nuance, and clarity shape the outcome. They are also the conversations where customers are most sensitive to how the call starts. We’ve been working in this industry for over 30 years, and if that call opens with “Spam Likely” flashing on the customer’s screen, trust is already broken.
This is where the gap between digital-first strategies and real-world customer behavior gets especially costly. Companies spend millions building AI chat flows, omnichannel journeys, and automation engines, and then customers don’t answer the phone, causing that entire engagement ecosystem to crumble.
Which brings us to one of the quietest but most consequential changes we’re seeing in customer engagement today.
The New First Impression: Caller ID Reputation
Ten years ago, caller ID was an afterthought. Now, it’s a decision point. Carriers, analytics engines, and spam-blocking systems are more aggressive than ever. With good reason, as AI-generated voices and fraudulent text messages are being used at unprecedented scale. Regulators are cracking down, carriers are tightening filters, and good businesses are caught in the crossfire.
Your call centers feel it. Answer rates fall. Contact efficiency collapses. Suddenly, it takes 30-50% more dials to reach the same number of customers, a cost that compounds daily. Yet trust can be rebuilt, and we know how to do it.
With authenticated caller ID (full STIR/SHAKEN attestation), branded caller ID visuals, local presence numbers, and ongoing monitoring, we help businesses signal legitimacy from the very first ring. Plus, real-time spam-label remediation ensures that when analytics engines inevitably mislabel a number, it doesn’t stay mislabeled for weeks.
This is where Quality Voice & Data has planted its flag. Our work has always centered on one goal, helping outbound teams increase trusted, higher-quality customer connections. And in a landscape where compliance risk is rising and privacy sensitivity is at an all-time high, ‘trusted’ isn’t just a value proposition, it’s a requirement for success.
Why Trust Is the New Currency of Customer Engagement
Deloitte’s research is rather blunt: “Building trust may depend on improving transparency and making it easier for consumers to control their data.”
It’s clear when customers aren’t sure who’s calling or whether the call is legit, they don’t answer. When they don’t answer, they don’t engage. When they don’t engage, no amount of CRM automation or AI investment can fix that broken relationship.
However, if trust is restored, behavior quickly changes. Voice survey completion rates can jump up to 50% higher than text, simply because voice naturally captures tone and emotion. Similarly, Volaris Airlines demonstrated that when messaging works well, customers embrace it. They removed phone numbers from their site, maintained satisfaction rates, and found messenger-based chat 83% more cost effective.
Granted, every company is different, that’s why we collaborate with every client to find the best solutions. The lesson here is not to replace voice. Instead, put voice where it matters, strengthen trust around it, and weave it into a wider ecosystem of choice, convenience, and compliance for the happiness of your customers, and, in turn, the success of your business.
Expect Fewer Calls, Better Calls, and Higher Stakes in the Future
Where is customer engagement heading? Probably toward something like this:
As McKinsey put it, “We expect 100% of interactions to be AI-enabled.” From where we stand, we believe it’s not going to be AI-replaced, merely AI-supported, including voice.
In that world, caller ID reputation becomes part of CX. STIR/SHAKEN becomes part of trust-building. Monitoring and remediation become part of operational excellence. Companies that invest in protecting their voice channel will outperform those that treat it as an artifact.
What Businesses Should Be Asking Right Now
If voice is becoming more important, not less, then three questions matter most.
If you answered “I’m not sure” to any of the above, then your business is already behind.
Engagement Is Changing, Connection Is Not
We see the channels shifting rapidly, and the tech is evolving just as fast. The thing to remember: human beings and their needs sit at the center of it all, requiring clarity, honesty, and trust. That will never change.
Voice isn’t disappearing. It’s simply becoming more meaningful. For the outbound teams, contact centers, and businesses that rely on conversations, not just clicks, this represents an enormous opportunity.
At Quality Voice & Data, we believe the future belongs to companies that deliver authentic, trusted connections, the kind of engagement customers actually want to answer. That future begins with the very first ring.