While there are a number of popular channels for customer support (and that number seems to keep growing), two in particular have been locked in a heated rivalry for nearly a decade — live chat and phone.

Each support channel has its own benefits and drawbacks, which can change depending on context. There are some subtle differences between these two methods, which could impact how and when you use them to assist your customers. Additionally, new AI tools impact every support channel, and phone and chat are no exception. 

Let’s take a look at how each stacks up, how AI is pushing both to evolve, and whether you really need to choose between them at all. 

What Is the Value of Phone Customer Support?

Although phone support is often perceived as a dying means of communication, it’s still valuable for many customers and situations, as it’s able to answer tough questions while simultaneously offering personalized support. 

In fact, Zendesk’s CX 2024 report revealed that when it comes to resolving complex or nuanced issues, 29% of respondents preferred phone support, while only 10% preferred live chat.

Similarly, a McKinsey study found that for consumers of all ages, phone is among the most preferred support channels — even for Gen Z, a group known for preferring text communication in many situations. 

Offering customer support over the phone can also resolve complex problems faster. Especially when conveying extensive information, a phone call simplifies communication, reducing the need for prolonged exchanges.

However, phone customer support does come with challenges. Callers may have to wait on hold or navigate your phone tree to connect with an agent, and even if their wait time is the same as it would be on chat, it may feel longer.

Additionally, as self-serve options for support become increasingly powerful with the adoption of new AI technology, phone support may focus more and more on dealing with hard, complicated problems. If your agents aren’t able to balance the soft skills necessary to talk someone through a frustrating moment while also quickly resolving their issues, you may find phone support to be less effective than other methods.

Key takeaways: Customers who have access to 24/7 phone support get the benefits of personalized service and expert help resolving particularly complex issues. But because agents can only handle one customer at a time, wait times may vary widely based on volume, and it can be extremely difficult to quickly ramp up phone support if your business experiences rapid growth.

What Is the Value of Live Chat Customer Support?

Live chat is a particularly helpful tool for companies looking to provide proactive customer support. By appearing as soon as customers visit the website, a live chat option indicates that synchronous assistance is available, whether a customer needs it immediately or later in their browsing experience.

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Messaging

Synchronous messaging is a real-time interaction between participants, while asynchronous messaging (e.g. email) allows for communication at different times.

Today, one of the biggest benefits of live chat is that it integrates seamlessly with chatbots using natural language processing (NLP) and AI, providing the opportunity for a self-service experience before involving a live agent. While not flawless, this technology resolves many simple issues before escalating to a human, and can effectively triage and route incoming chats to the appropriate personnel, significantly improving resolution times.

Live chat is incredibly appealing as a channel to many CX leaders, but users don’t all agree. The Zendesk report places it squarely in the middle of the pack for both general and complex issues. 

While there are technologies that combine the best of AI with skilled human operators, they haven’t become industry standard yet. According to Intercom’s Customer Service Trends 2024 report, about half of the support teams surveyed are still focusing on established tools and waiting for more reliable AI solutions before they fully take the leap.

Key takeaways: Live chat can be a great way to offer proactive support and 24/7 coverage, increase efficiency (as agents can help multiple customers at once), and scale more easily. However, if you’re concerned about customers abandoning interactions before agents have a chance to respond, or if you prefer to maintain a high level of personalization, it may not be the best choice for your organization. 

AI is poised to transform live managed chat support and make it even more powerful, but many businesses are waiting to see if best practice approaches will emerge. 

How Does AI Factor In?

Intercom’s trend report revealed that about half of the businesses surveyed are already using AI tools, and it’s easy to understand why. AI can handle the more repetitive and simple requests, giving customers the fast and accurate responses they’re looking for without having to wait for a person to pick up their call, answer an email, or dig for information.

When we’re specifically looking at phone and live chat as support channels, the impacts of AI are considerable. For phone or chat agents, AI can:

• Create a more seamless experience for both customers and agents
• Take on simple requests and route more complex requests to live agents
• Aid in the move from one channel to another, ensuring agents have all the info needed
• Offer sentiment analysis, personalization, and speech analysis
• Save time 
• Increase quality and consistency 
• Allow for 24/7 support availability  
• Enable better feedback analysis 

Phone vs. Live Chat: A Comparison