In an era where businesses invest billions in digital self-service platforms, a surprising trend has emerged: customers are increasingly turning to voice channels when their needs go beyond simple queries.
Recent survey data from ContactBabel’s “US Customer Experience Decision-Makers’ Guide” reveals a fundamental shift in consumer behavior that challenges the conventional wisdom (and investment strategy) of digital transformation.
A comprehensive study of 1,000 U.S. consumers examined channel preferences across three distinct interaction types: high-emotion situations (such as receiving an incorrect order), high-urgency scenarios (like checking flight arrival times), and high-complexity tasks (such as mortgage application guidance).
The findings paint a clear picture of when and why customers prefer to call a business – regardless of the knowledge that they will almost certainly face a wait – rather than choose a theoretically simpler and less effortful channel (see FIGURE 1).
The Voice Preference Across All Scenarios
Telephony emerged as the dominant choice across all three interaction types, with particularly striking numbers in complex scenarios.
For high-complexity interactions requiring expert guidance, phone preference has surged dramatically from 28% in 2018 to a peak of 47% in 2024. Even as this figure has moderated slightly, voice remains the clear frontrunner, outpacing all digital alternatives.
Customers are seeking something more fundamental: confidence and reassurance.
The pattern holds remarkably consistent across high-emotion interactions as well, where 42% of respondents chose phone as their preferred method for notifying a company about an incorrect delivery. This preference for voice persists despite years of corporate investment in email, web chat, and self-service portals designed to deflect these exact types of contacts.
Perhaps most telling is the shift in urgent interactions. Pre-pandemic research had positioned web self-service as the clear winner for time-sensitive queries. Today, telephony has reclaimed this territory, suggesting that speed alone is no longer the primary consideration.
Customers are seeking something more fundamental: confidence and reassurance. It should, however, be noted that web self-service enjoyed something of a resurgence in 2025, although it still trails live voice.
Understanding the Pandemic Effect
The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have created a lasting transformation in customer behavior.
Survey data collected annually since 2018 shows a pronounced jump in voice preference beginning in late 2020 and continuing through subsequent years. This shift coincides with widespread reports of deteriorating customer service quality as companies struggled with remote work transitions and staffing challenges.
The research suggests customers may have experienced frustration with digital channels during this period and reverted to the channel they associate with reliability and resolution.
The question for businesses is not whether to maintain voice channels, but how to optimize them for the types of interactions where they remain irreplaceable.
Even as service levels have recovered to some extent, the preference for voice communication has largely persisted, indicating that customer trust, once lost, is difficult to regain.
Interestingly, the data shows that face-to-face interactions have also rebounded somewhat for complex and emotional issues, though not to pre-pandemic levels.
This suggests that what customers truly value is not necessarily the phone itself, but rather human interaction and real-time guidance from an actual person who can understand nuance and adapt to their specific situation.
The Digital Divide by Demographics
Age plays a significant role in channel preference, with older demographics showing the strongest preference for telephony across all scenarios.
However, the trend is not exclusively generational. Even younger cohorts, who might be expected to gravitate toward digital channels, show substantial phone preference for complex interactions.
Income levels show less variation in channel preference, with telephony ranking as the top choice across all household income brackets for complex queries. This universality suggests that the desire for human connection during challenging interactions transcends socioeconomic boundaries.
The Business Disconnect
Organizations – despite spending over 50% more on CX investment into digital channels than the voice channel – seem to agree with customers (see FIGURE 2).
When organizations were asked which channels they thought would be best for customers across the three scenarios, telephony dominated their responses even more than it did for customers.
Yet many of these same businesses continue to invest heavily in deflection strategies aimed at reducing call volumes.
This paradox highlights a fundamental misalignment: businesses recognize that voice is what customers need, yet operational metrics often penalize the very channel that delivers the best customer experience for non-basic interactions.
As businesses plan their customer experience strategies, this data presents a clear message.
While digital channels excel for simple, straightforward tasks, complex, emotional, or urgent interactions require the flexibility, empathy, and real-time problem-solving that only human conversation can currently provide.
The question for businesses is not whether to maintain voice channels, but how to optimize them for the types of interactions where they remain irreplaceable.
The 2026 US Customer Experience Decision-Makers’ Guide is based on research with 1,000 U.S. customers and around 200 U.S. organizations. It is available for download from https://www.contactbabel.com/the-us-customer-experience-decision-makers-guide/