Switch on the next generation of phone support

When it comes to customer support, there’s no substitute for the personal approach. Now more than ever, businesses are looking for a way to scale that personalized support. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Intercom Switch: the easiest way to move inbound call volume to messaging.

Phone support has been carrying that personal touch for support teams for decades. But in 2022, almost every business is an internet business – and phone support just can’t scale fast enough. It’s inefficient and expensive to speak to just one customer at a time, it’s difficult to revisit a conversation or review a resolution after the call – and, no matter how great your choice of on-hold music, customers can only spend so long singing along.

“Efficient, personalized messaging is at the center of everything we do here at Intercom”

Efficient, personalized messaging is at the center of everything we do here at Intercom. We work to ensure customers get the answers they need quickly, and your support team saves time. But for businesses who’ve relied on phone support until now, it can be costly, awkward, and time-consuming to introduce messaging.

Introducing Switch, Intercom’s personalized solution to high inbound call volume

That’s the logic behind our latest feature, Switch. We realized that for our customers to experience all the benefits that messaging has to offer, we had to provide a simple, cost-efficient way for them to integrate it into their current support offering. We didn’t want to eliminate the valuable option of phone support. Instead, we wanted to help our customers expand their users’ choices, complementing and upleveling the excellent customer service they already offer.

With Switch, you can add messaging to your support offering without using any code, or changing phone provider. Just activate Switch in Intercom, then add the option to switch to messaging to your phone menu to get started.

Switch makes it easy to move inbound call volume to messaging, allowing you to scale your support offering and cut your customers’ wait times – by a lot. We prioritize personalization in everything we do, and Switch is no exception. When your customer chooses the option to switch to messaging, Intercom will recognize their phone number and use it to tailor their flow based on their user profile.

6 reasons to Switch

With Switch, we aimed to make it not just possible, but easy, to move inbound call volume to messaging. Some 57% of people have been so frustrated by long hold times that they’ve hung up the phone before getting an answer. If that’s not reason enough to switch, here are six more:

Achieve faster resolution times

Research suggests that 73% of customers say that companies valuing their time is integral to a good support experience. Switch offers your customers another option for personalized support that saves them from being stuck on hold, and enables your support team to handle multiple conversations at once instead of the time-consuming one-to-one phone calls they’re currently dealing with. Faster answers means happier customers, and your CSAT scores will see the benefit.

Switch works with any phone provider

Switch is incredibly easy to install and you don’t need to change your current provider to integrate it. Just a quick one-time setup process and you’re good to go.

“When the conversation requires a human touch, bots can automatically triage the issue, saving the team time and providing much-needed context”

Self-help options, automated answers, and triaging

Use Resolution Bot to answer standard queries or suggest helpful content so your customers can find their own solutions. When the conversation requires a human touch, bots can automatically triage the issue, saving the team time and providing much-needed context.

Personalized experiences

Switch identifies customers by their phone number, meaning support reps automatically get all the context they need to address the customer’s query quickly and personally.

“Since implementing Intercom’s Switch feature, we’ve seen a 50% reduction in voicemails and phone calls because our inbound volume is being directed to chat. It helps us provide real-time support and respond quickly and efficiently to customer queries. A true game changer for customer service.” Annabelle Frank, Chief Happiness Officer, LoyalZoo

Lower cost-per-contact

A 2021 Forrester report, How to Reinvent Customer Service to be Digital-First, claimed that “pound-for-pound, phone is the most expensive means of delivering CX, while messaging is the most cost-effective.” Switch is an easy, cost-effective way to transfer inbound call volume to messaging, saving your support teams’ valuable time and lowering costs for your business.

“Switching phone calls to messaging means that reps can speak to multiple customers at once”

Reduces pressure on support teams

According to the results of a commissioned study by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Intercom undertaken in April 2021, Drive Conversational Experiences for a Future-Ready Customer Support Strategy, support leaders claim their teams have 51% less bandwidth today than ever before. Switching phone calls to messaging means that reps can speak to multiple customers at once, and customers can avail of self-serve and automated resources, leaving reps more time to focus on complex queries.

Ready to ditch the on-hold music?

Switch makes it easy to move inbound calls to messaging, reducing your customers’ wait times, freeing up your team’s bandwidth, and reducing support costs for your company. It’s our next step towards our mission of making internet business personal. We’re excited to see how it helps you to scale your customer support offering. Give it a try by calling 1-877-SWTCH-IT or click here to learn more.