Don't hang up

When I was a kid, AT&T ran a very successful campaign that told their customers to “Reach out and touch someone.” While at the time the campaign was very emotionally resonant, today it sounds kind of creepy, doesn’t it?

According to Nielsen, it turns out we’re not such big fans of having people reach out and touch us. And that’s why Gen X and Millennial are moving away from phone calls and embracing email, texts and social media. As Thompson notes in his Wired Magazine article:

According to Nielsen, the average number of mobile phone calls we make is dropping every year, after hitting a peak in 2007. And our calls are getting shorter: In 2005 they averaged three minutes in length; now they’re almost half that.

This generation doesn’t make phone calls, because everyone is in constant, lightweight contact in so many other ways: texting, chatting, and social-network messaging. And we don’t just have more options than we used to. We have better ones: These new forms of communication have exposed the fact that the voice call is badly designed. It deserves to die.

Consider: If I suddenly decide I want to dial you up, I have no way of knowing whether you’re busy, and you have no idea why I’m calling. We have to open Schrödinger’s box every time, having a conversation to figure out whether it’s OK to have a conversation. Plus, voice calls are emotionally high-bandwidth, which is why it’s so weirdly exhausting to be interrupted by one. (We apparently find voicemail even more excruciating: Studies show that more than a fifth of all voice messages are never listened to.)

It’s the same. Only it’s different. Consumers are connecting more. They are reaching out and touching one another. Just not the way Ma Bell expected. And that’s a Good Thing.

Remember, this didn’t start with texting. Look at how we’ve been using answering machines, voicemail and caller ID to screen calls for the last couple decades. We’ve always known that phone calls were a pain. Consumers just never had a better option.

So, what does this mean to your company? After all, you still want your phone to ring. Is it possible for you to embrace these changes? I’ve long advocated including your phone number prominently on your website. (I still do, by the way). But is it necessary to be so “phone-y?” Should you include a text line, too? Can your customers interact with you asynchonously? Do you require them to accept your phone calls?

Consumer habits are changing. The businesses that change with them are the ones that stand to benefit.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website?

Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Technorati Tags:
social, mobile, online marketing