Reclaiming the voice channel: Why it still matters more than ever

Re-evaluating the voice channel should be a strategic priority.

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Somewhere along the road to “digital transformation”, we decided that voice no longer mattered. Everyone’s talking about AI, virtual assistants, chatbots and self-service. But no one seems to be talking about the one channel that still carries the most weight, the one that holds the heartbeat of every customer relationship. Yes, I’m talking about voice.

According to global contact centre reports, there are between 15 million and 18 million contact centre seats worldwide. Of these, roughly 65% to 70% are still voice-based: inbound, outbound or live-agent chat.

So, despite the impressive growth in digital volumes, the largest channel by far is still voice. And yet, you’d be hard-pressed to find a single headline celebrating an organisation that’s re-imagining its voice channel, evolving it, integrating it or using it as the anchor for holistic customer engagement.

Instead, all the attention (and budget) goes to automation, AI and digital transformation. These are valuable, of course, but the narrative has become lopsided. We’re so busy chasing new technology that we’ve stopped optimising the one thing that customers still reach for when things really matter.

When emotions are high – when there’s urgency, confusion or trust on the line – customers don’t want a chatbot. They want a human being who can listen, interpret and resolve. That’s the paradox of modern CX: we’ve built more channels than ever, but we’ve invested the least in the one that carries the most emotion.

Re-evaluating the voice channel should be a strategic priority, not an afterthought. Voice is not an old technology, it’s actually a very human one. It’s where tone, empathy and nuance live. It’s the only channel that can instantly repair a damaged experience or escalate understanding in real-time.

And yet, many organisations treat it as a cost centre to be automated, reduced or replaced. They don’t see that a well-optimised voice channel isn’t competing with digital but it is completing it.

Of course, re-imagining voice requires courage. It forces organisations to look inward, to confront legacy systems, fragmented data and outdated processes. It demands that we align people, platforms and purpose instead of endlessly adding tools. But the payoff is immense.

A re-engineered voice environment delivers more than improved satisfaction scores. It brings operational efficiency, financial performance and – most importantly – human efficiency. When the voice channel flows intelligently, every other channel benefits. Voice, more than any dashboard metric, is where you hear your customer’s truth.

While digital adoption grows, customer satisfaction has declined year on year across most major CX indexes. A 2025 Forrester report found that average CX quality scores dropped to their lowest level in nearly a decade. Meanwhile, Omdia notes that voice volumes have held steady, with customers still calling, often as a last resort, because self-service journeys have failed them.

That’s the message the industry isn’t listening to: when digital fails, voice saves. If we truly want to improve customer experience, it’s not about choosing between automation and conversation. But it is about designing both around human needs.

Re-imagining voice doesn’t mean going backwards. It means designing forward like smarter routing, richer analytics, better coaching and tighter integration with digital channels. It means using technology to enhance human connection.

It’s not easy work. It means shaking up old systems, challenging IT assumptions and sometimes slowing down progress to fix what we’ve ignored. But the reward is a contact centre ecosystem that’s nimble, flexible and capable of driving both satisfaction and efficiency.

So before we rush to build the next digital frontier, maybe it’s time to stop and listen. Understand your voice channel. Optimise it. Nurture it. Do that, and you’ll discover that every other channel – from AI to chat to self-service – gets smarter, faster and more human. Sometimes, the only way to move forward exponentially is to take a step back and listen.

At Smartz, we see voice as the bridge between data and emotion. Our AID routing engine and analytics suite empower contact centres to turn every conversation into intelligence – helping teams predict needs, reduce friction and recover relationships in real-time.

Because when digital journeys falter, it’s the human voice that restores trust. We build systems that make those moments seamless – uniting people, process and technology in one intelligent flow.

“A re-engineered voice channel doesn’t compete with digital. It completes it.”

• Seventy percent of all contact centre interactions are still voice-based. (Omdia, 2024)
• CX satisfaction scores have fallen to their lowest levels in nearly a decade. (Forrester, 2025)
• Seventy-five percent of customers still prefer human interaction for complex or emotional queries. (PwC, 2024)

The numbers say it all: automation without empathy is just noise.

If your agents are toggling between six systems to help a customer, you don’t need AI, but you do need clarity. Voice remains your most human channel, and Smartz Solutions is here to make it your smartest.