"Nice Business!" Podcast

The Business Call Nobody's Ready For

• Richard Train • Season 1 • Episode 19

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0:00 | 16:38

Most businesses still treat phone calls as a routine step in customer service. In reality, they’ve become one of the most decisive moments in the entire customer journey.

In this episode of the “Nice Business!” Podcast™, hosts Richard Train and Jim Bob Howard explore how business phone calls have changed in an era shaped by AI, automation, and self-service research. While call volumes are declining across small to mid-sized businesses, the importance of each call has increased significantly as customers now arrive more informed and closer to making a decision.

The conversation highlights three key shifts: fewer calls, higher stakes, and a changing expectation of who is answering. Richard and Jim Bob discuss how AI now handles triage, FAQs, and transactions, leaving human agents with the most complex and high-pressure interactions while they often juggle multiple responsibilities.

They also challenge the continued use of rigid scripts, showing how they fall short in real conversations where customers are not seeking information but certainty and solutions. Instead of helping, scripts often limit genuine connection and problem-solving.

This episode is a reminder for leaders that the modern phone call is no longer the start of a journey but often the final step in a decision. How businesses prepare for that moment can determine whether trust is built or lost.

Topics Covered:

00:00 – Episode Snippet

00:24 – Welcome to the Nice Business Podcast

01:09 – Why calls still matter more than ever

02:48 – AI now handles most triage and FAQs

03:38 – Why customers still need a real person

05:14 – Callers are closer to making decisions

06:50 – Calls as a test for trust and certainty

08:16 – From starting a process to finishing one

09:21 – Pressure on under-resourced staff

11:45 – Why scripted responses fail real conversations

15:07 – Three big shifts reshaping customer calls

15:55 – Next episode preview: The psychology of the modern caller

About Your Hosts: 

Richard Train is a Leadership Coach, Culture Consultant, and the Creator of the “Nice Business!” PodcastTM. He has spent more than 30 years helping leaders uncover the real issues behind performance, often the hidden “drama problems” that do not always show up in the numbers.

Connect with Richard Train:

Jim Bob Howard is a speaker, author, connector, and collaboration expert specializing in SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and Microsoft 365. He helps teams and organizations communicate clearly, collaborate effectively, and connect ideas to solve real business challenges. From teaching basic tech skills to leading global events, speaking to large audiences, and coaching teams, Jim Bob is passionate about using technology to bring people and ideas together.

Connect with Jim Bob Howard:

SPEAKER_01

Most calls to smaller to mid-sized businesses are coming to a group of people that are doing a lot more than just call center stuff.

SPEAKER_00

We're talking about the person who's calling in is ready to find a solution, but who's answering the phone? And you've talked a little bit about that already, but that's the third key is who's answering the phone and how equipped are they to answer the calls that they're taking.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to the Nice Business Podcast. I'm your host, Richard Train, executive coach, leadership and culture consultant, and I'm joined by my good friend Jim Bob Howard, veteran technical consultant. Together we have more than 60 years combined of business and organizational experience. The purpose of this podcast is to have short but meaningful discussions about the people and culture side of business and how owners and executives can be both kind and successful.

SPEAKER_00

So we've been talking about calls, right? And phone calls specifically. And I think it's important for us to talk about what are the issues that we're really seeing. And I think you pointed out three different ones, but you know, as you're getting ready to launch your Answer Me program, let's talk about those. The first one you mentioned was volume shift. Now, I hear that in a couple of different ways. So one is that, and and we can talk about this, but one is that our call numbers have gone down, or call volume has gone down. We're not getting as many inbound calls, although we're still getting some. And it kind of depends on the size of the business, right? So smaller businesses, medium businesses, you're going to get different ones. But we're seeing the volume go down. And so maybe our tendency is to think calls aren't as important. But you say that's not true.

SPEAKER_01

In fact, calls are more important now than they ever have been because here's the problem. It's not a problem, it's just something that people need to recognize for their businesses. It really doesn't matter the size of the business because what's happening, and also the larger the business, the more they probably have an online presence. They have a lot of information out there, so a lot of resources for their customers or potential customers to get through to them. And think about it from you and me. I mean, more and more before we buy anything or tackle a project or do business with somebody, you're researching them first, right?

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

And so if you still are not getting the information that you need, you still may need to talk to somebody. So you'll at least gentlemen of a certain age will probably start calling at some point. Our kids are probably still picking up the phone at some point or another if they can't find what they're looking for online.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So uh they'll call into a business, and what's happening? AI, which is such an amazing tool for most businesses, they're probably using some sort of more advanced phone system. If you're if you want such and such press one, if you want such and such press two, or whatever, they're giving you more advanced phone trees to be able to get to someplace, or they might have an AI agent that is trying to guide you through and answer your question. So AI can handle a lot of things, such as call routing. Right. They can answer your basic questions. So your FAQs, your frequently asked questions. AI can handle payments, right? They can take your on you know, your payment for you. There's a lot that AI can do to help the business. So all of the FAQs, all the standard simple things. If that doesn't satisfy your need, you still may be sitting there needing to talk to a person. I just want to talk to a person, I just want to talk to a live body. Jim Bob, how many times have you been holding your phone, screaming into it, saying, agent?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Talk to a representative, yeah, or trying to figure out what the bleeping right word is.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Right. Because I think I think, yeah, that makes perfect sense. So we're not we're talking about yes, volumes going down, but the reason it's going down is because we're not using the calls for triage anymore. That triage is happening before they call. So now instead of them come calling and like, well, let's find out what their question is so we can route it to the right person, or we can get their payment made, or we can get their booking scheduled, where typically you have to have to do that traditionally. Now, when the call does come through, it's they're already past all the triage, right? So now it's a higher stakes call. So volume down stakes high.

SPEAKER_01

Matters more, right? Yeah, it matters so much more, absolutely. Yeah, and that's really what um what Answer Me was built around was because I mean I and I wrote it back in 2010 originally, and it it is more relevant now than it was back then, right? Because calls are fewer, so they matter more, and and it's handling them correctly is way more important because you don't know how many people you're not being able to give the answer that they need to.

SPEAKER_00

So let's talk about the person who's calling in. Okay. So we've talked about the fact that they've already been triaged to some extent, maybe. I and it depending on your on your business and how you have things set up and how what the process is to actually talk to a person, when that happens in the process and what it is that they're calling about. I can see that there's sometimes when I'm just trying to get an answer to a question that I couldn't look up online, right? I may have asked AI to help me solve something, I may have done a Google search, I may have gone to your website and looked through as much as I could, and I'm sure it was really pretty, but maybe just didn't have the answer to the question. I want to know the ingredients on this particular thing, or I want to know how this particular thing is made, or how do I work with that service? Or it could be even higher stakes than that, which is I've got an active problem I'm trying to solve, and none of the other avenues have done that for me. And now I'm having to call in to talk to a person because you couldn't get me the answer on other things. So it's the stakes may not be, I'm just saying that the caller may not be upset necessarily, right? They could be, but they could also just be like, Can I get an answer to my question? Because I can't find it anywhere else. Can I if I talk to a person, will they be able to answer it? So let's kind of talk about the people that are actually calling in, right? First, and what is it that they're looking for when they actually do finally call.

SPEAKER_01

And obviously, it depends on the nature of what it is that they're looking for and the type of business and all of that kind of stuff. It's ironic that even though a caller has not gotten the information that they need, that's why they're calling. Yeah, the way that most callers tend to approach it is stunning, actually. They tend to not necessarily ask as directly, they're getting more protective of their questions. I may be overthinking this, but this is what I need help with. Or I just need, I'm calling around, so I'm trying to get just a general idea, which may be true. All of these things may be true.

SPEAKER_00

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

They may actually need, I just need to get a price. Yeah, but they're asking like they're not necessarily saying I need a price. What they're saying is I need to know if this is worth my investment. Okay. So it's a different thing. Yeah. What they're doing is they're testing to see if you're the person that can solve their problem. Yeah. Because when you think about it, they've already done, think about it as if it's you or me. Like I was saying before, we've already done the research. Right. We've already looked online. We already kind of know, but we still don't have that level of certainty that we need before we make a buying decision. Whether it's a product or a service or whatever, you're getting your HVAC replaced, you know, your compressor replaced or something, or you're doing something major to your house or whatever. You still have a little bit of uncertainty. So you need to actually talk to somebody.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So what I'm doing as a caller is I'm not trying to start the process, which is what it used to be. You would pick up the phone and start calling businesses to start getting an idea of things to help you formulate your opinion to make your decision. Now, what's happening is the caller isn't trying to fit trying to start the process, they're trying to finish it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they're already midway through, took close to the call.

SPEAKER_01

And the call to you or to your company is really kind of the last link in the chain.

SPEAKER_00

So again, like we said before, the stakes are higher, right? It's the when somebody calls in, it's high stakes. It's not the feeler questions, it's the can you solve my problem questions.

SPEAKER_01

And think about it this way, Jim Bob. If I call in and I have a conversation with you or with your CSR, your customer service representative, and I ask some questions, and they are perfectly polite, and they answer my questions directly, but I'm still not feeling. Think about the typical kind of business now. Because customer service has been so hollowed out in most businesses, you're talking about a lower-level employee, less pay, probably fairly new, and they're having to handle more than just inbound calls.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because most calls to smaller to mid-sized businesses are coming to a group of people that are doing a lot more than just call center stuff.

SPEAKER_00

So that's actually the third part, right? That's the third thing we're talking about. So we're talking about call volume going down. We're talking about the person who's calling in is ready to find a solution, but who's answering the phone? And you've talked a little bit about that already. But that's that's the third key is who's answering the phone and how equipped are they to answer the calls that they're taking.

SPEAKER_01

Less and less.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

So most businesses are doing a lot less with they're reducing their overhead by reducing their people. So they're giving those who are who remain, they're having to carry more of a burden. Yeah. So they are taking inbound calls, but they're probably also doing something else. So from the caller's perspective, I'm calling into a business, I'm probably interrupting this person from doing a thousand other things.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

So don't you think that I can hear that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, voice. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I can think of examples recently where I called in to a repair shop for my car. And uh and then know that I caught them in the midst of do doing a repair on somebody else's car. Right. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01

And that's a small business, but large businesses in in many ways it's even worse because they're either offshoring their call center. So it's a whole phone tree just to be able to get through a person to a person there who probably has it, they're fielding thousands of calls.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And you're just a number.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So how important are you? So there's a lot to take into consideration. It so that that's what a lot of businesses are having to deal with right now, but they're also not looking at it from the caller's perspective.

SPEAKER_00

And typically, too, just onto the person answering the phone, typically the way we've done this, because we were like when the call comes in, we're thinking triage first, route later, solve the problem later. Isn't it dumb most? I mean, is traditionally hasn't it been a script that that we've handed our CSRs, right? So they've they've got like if the customer says this, we say that. If the customer says this, we say that, right? So it's a way to kind of walk through to try to figure out where I need to route this person for their final solution because this isn't it. I'm not the person making that solution.

SPEAKER_01

I have to say, first and foremost, and I will say it loud and proud, I hate scripts. I hate them, I hate them. And you know me, I don't hate much of anything or anybody. That's true. I hate scripts. Yeah, think about it this way, Jim Bob.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Where are scripts most commonly used?

SPEAKER_00

In acting, in theater or in movies, yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Movies, theater, or whatever. Who has a script in that movie or play?

SPEAKER_00

Everyone. Everyone. Everyone has the script.

SPEAKER_01

Both sides, right? Everybody's working off the same script. Yeah. That doesn't happen in business. No, no. If you give a CSR a script, that assumes a perfect situation. But you cannot, the people who write scripts hate them, the people that have to read the scripts hate them, and the people who have to listen to somebody read from a script hates them. Ultimately, there is no such thing as a perfect call. Right. Because your situation for why you may be using this particular widget or mine are going to be completely different. Yeah. And my comprehension of what it is that they're telling me and how they're walking me through a situation may be different than your comprehension. So there is no such thing as a perfect scenario, a perfect situation for a script to be able to take effect. Here's the thing, and I've seen this happen numerous occasions at in numerous places in which I have worked, is a script gets handed to somebody and they say, you need to take your time, you need to learn it, and you need to memorize it until it becomes second nature, and then you'll know where you can make that script your own. And it sounds reasonable. But the problem is what happens to every single what let me back up for a second. The problem is that the leadership of that organization telling that CSR that thing, they're focused on what? They're focused on their own internal people and their own efficiencies and how they can get that person up to speed quickly for a script that they have written. What are they not taking into consideration? The person calling. Exactly. So all of those people that call from the start of that CSR trying to learn that script, and when they finally get up to speed is wasted. Yeah, is that everybody that is trying to simply just handle their business is being kind of left in the lurch.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

In the meantime. That's the main reason why I really can't stand scripts because it is not customer focused or customer friendly, and it's really not friendly to anybody.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's good to know that Answer Me is not about script writing.

SPEAKER_01

It is absolutely the anti-script course.

SPEAKER_00

So we've talked about we talked about three big things, right, that that have really kind of caused a shift in in calls and how we handle calls within our businesses. We've talked about call volume, that's gone down, but the stakes have gone up. The people calling in have already done some research and now they're looking for a solution, which is really kind of not the way we've done that traditionally. And then the third is that we've assumed that it still works okay to have someone be given a script, maybe the lower tenure, the lower pay person, or maybe even outsourcing it and offshoring it, when you've got this high-stakes caller coming in and you've got a you've you've got a new person, maybe a a lower paid person with a lot of turnover handling the calls, right? So I mean that those three things together are enough to make me want to learn more. So where does the series go from here? What's next?

SPEAKER_01

So next time I think we're really going to dive into the psychology of the caller.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Get a better idea of what it is that they're thinking and what makes up a good call.

SPEAKER_00

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_01

I like that. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Nice Business Podcast. We hope you got some valuable information and inspiration. We're always looking for great stories that will help your business be more kind and successful. And if you know of one we should hear or someone that would be a great interview, please let us know. To contact me, click the link here to go to my website or use this QR code. I wish you a nice business.