--- title: Which customers never call? Why analyzing customer support calls alone is not enough description: Call analysis doesn’t show the full customer picture. Learn how channel preferences differ and compare calls, chat and email for broader customer insights. image: https://info.indicateme.se/hubfs/reklambild-kvinna-pratar-telefon-2400x1260.webp --- [Skip to main content](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/which-customers-never-call#main-content) [![indicate-me-logo-beet-vertical-1](https://info.indicateme.se/hubfs/indicate-me-logo-beet-vertical-1.svg) ![indicate-me-logo-beet-vertical-1](https://info.indicateme.se/hubfs/indicate-me-logo-beet-vertical-1.svg)](https://indicateme.se) - [Insights](https://info.indicateme.se/insights) - [Films & Webinars](https://info.indicateme.se/en/films-and-webinars) - [Customer Voices](https://info.indicateme.se/en/customer-voices) - Show submenu for translations EN - [Svenska](https://info.indicateme.se/insights/vilka-kunder-ringer-aldrig) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [Insights](https://info.indicateme.se/insights) - [Films & Webinars](https://info.indicateme.se/en/films-and-webinars) - [Customer Voices](https://info.indicateme.se/en/customer-voices) - Show submenu for translations EN - English - [Svenska](https://info.indicateme.se/insights/vilka-kunder-ringer-aldrig) - [Book a tour](https://info.indicateme.se/en/book-a-tour) [Book a tour](https://info.indicateme.se/en/book-a-tour?hsLang=en) # Which customers never call? Why analyzing customer support calls alone is not enough ![Linnéa Melin](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e) October 9, 2026 Customer conversations reveal what people need from your business. But calls only capture part of that picture. Customers choose different channels, and age can influence that choice. Analyzing calls alone can leave perspectives from chat and email out of your insights. ## Preferences differ across age groups There are clear differences in how different age groups want to contact businesses. In an April 2025 UK survey, YouGov found that half of the oldest generation, the Silent Generation, chose the phone as their first option. Among Gen Z, the figure was 16 percent. Email preferences are more evenly distributed across age groups, peaking among Gen X, with 36 percent preferring it. The pattern is similar in the US. In YouGov’s March 2025 survey, 52 percent of Baby Boomers and 39 percent of Gen X preferred the phone, compared with 30 percent of Millennials and 25 percent of Gen Z. Gen Z and Millennials were more likely to choose email, at 28 and 24 percent respectively. Forrester reached a similar conclusion in its May 2025 Consumer Pulse survey. Baby Boomers and Gen Z prefer the same channels, but to different degrees. Among Boomers, 61 percent preferred voice calls, 47 percent email and 26 percent text messages. Among Gen Z, roughly two in five preferred each of email, text messages, chat and voice calls. ## Swedish figures point in the same direction Swedish surveys have more often measured discomfort with phone calls than channel choice in customer service, but the picture is similar. In a 2020 Vimla survey based on 1,068 interviews, 48 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds reported experiencing some form of phone anxiety. The oldest respondents experienced the least discomfort. The figure concerns phone calls in general, not customer service specifically, and is several years old. A more recent survey by Smart Communications and Toluna, conducted in June 2026, found that 35 percent of Swedish consumers sometimes or always avoid phone and in-person contact with businesses because they expect it to be stressful. The same survey found that email was the most preferred channel even when communications involved personal data, at 45 percent. The Swedish sample consisted of 200 respondents across finance, insurance, healthcare and the public sector, and the survey was commissioned by a vendor. Treat these figures as indicative. ![reklambild-kvinna-i-mote-kollar-i-kamera](https://info.indicateme.se/hs-fs/hubfs/reklambild-kvinna-i-mote-kollar-i-kamera.webp?width=2400&height=1260&name=reklambild-kvinna-i-mote-kollar-i-kamera.webp) ## Channel choice is not defined by generation It would be too simple to conclude that younger people chat and older people call. The data tells a different story. Nextiva asked US Gen Z respondents which support channels they actually use: 76.8 percent reported using the phone, 72.8 percent email and 56.8 percent website chat. In its survey, Sinch found that none of the four age groups leaned toward a single support channel. And usage is not the same as preference. YouGov found that almost 70 percent of Americans use the phone for support, but only 35 percent prefer it. YouGov suggests this is because consumers simply use the channels available to them. The differences are therefore a matter of degree, and the nature of the issue also influences the choice. Nextiva describes a pattern in which email is used when people want a written record or need to follow up, chat for quick answers and the phone for complex problems.   ## What this means for your customer insights These studies show differences in channel preferences. They do not establish how those differences affect your customer base. A dataset consisting only of calls reflects customers who choose to phone and feel comfortable doing so. Customers who avoid the phone, and issues better suited to written communication, may instead be represented in chat and email. This matters for two reasons. First, the themes, trends and causes of dissatisfaction you identify in calls may look different across your entire customer base. Second, there is a business risk when a customer’s preferred channel is not taken seriously. In Nextiva’s survey, 44.8 percent of Gen Z respondents had stopped using a service or product because their preferred support channel was unavailable. This figure concerns channel availability, not analysis, and is self-reported in a US vendor survey. But it shows what may be at stake. ![fler-kanaler-fler-insikter-EN-1](https://info.indicateme.se/hs-fs/hubfs/fler-kanaler-fler-insikter-EN-1.png?width=635&height=305&name=fler-kanaler-fler-insikter-EN-1.png) ## How to test this in your own customer conversations Use these findings as a starting point, then test them against your own customer conversations. Compare who contacts you through each channel. If you have age or segment data, does a different group call than the one that chats or emails? Compare the topics. Which themes dominate calls, and which dominate chat and email? Compare the outcomes. Do satisfaction, repeat contact or time to resolution differ across channels? If the differences are small, calls may provide a useful picture of the measures you compared. If they are substantial, call analysis alone may overlook important customer groups or issues. Bringing calls, chat and email into one intelligence layer lets you compare themes and outcomes across channels. Those insights can help customer service, product and leadership teams decide what to investigate and improve. This is not a universal truth about every business. Your customer base may look different, which is why the first step is to measure, not assume. ## Sources YouGov, UK, April 8, 2025. [https://business.yougov.com/content/51967-a-deep-dive-into-british-customer-service-preferences](https://business.yougov.com/content/51967-a-deep-dive-into-british-customer-service-preferences) YouGov, US, March 13, 2025. [https://business.yougov.com/content/51802-how-americans-prefer-to-contact-businesses-for-customer-service](https://business.yougov.com/content/51802-how-americans-prefer-to-contact-businesses-for-customer-service) Forrester, Consumer Pulse Survey, May 2025, published October 14, 2025. [https://www.forrester.com/report/brands-must-adopt-an-omnichannel-approach-for-customer-service/RES187518](https://www.forrester.com/report/brands-must-adopt-an-omnichannel-approach-for-customer-service/RES187518) Vimla, 2020, via SVT. [https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vastmanland/har-gor-svt-det-obehagliga-ringer-upp-unga-pa-telefon](https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vastmanland/har-gor-svt-det-obehagliga-ringer-upp-unga-pa-telefon) Smart Communications and Toluna, June 2026, via IT-branschen. [https://itbranschen.com/en/svenskar-digital-sjalvservice/](https://itbranschen.com/en/svenskar-digital-sjalvservice/) Nextiva, December 2025. [https://www.nextiva.com/blog/gen-z-wants-channel-options.html](https://www.nextiva.com/blog/gen-z-wants-channel-options.html) Sinch, State of Customer Communications. [https://sinch.com/state-of-customer-communications/chapter/happy/](https://sinch.com/state-of-customer-communications/chapter/happy/) **Tags:** [Indicate me,](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/indicate-me) [Övrigt,](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/okategoriserade) [Articles,](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/articles) [All,](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/all) [Customer Service & CX,](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/customer-service-cx) [Nordics](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/nordics) ### Related Articles ##### [![The most common contact reasons in the energy sector and what they signal](https://info.indicateme.se/hs-fs/hubfs/reklambild-man-pratar-i-telefon-2400x1260.webp?width=520&height=294&name=reklambild-man-pratar-i-telefon-2400x1260.webp) Indicate me • October 12, 2026 The most common contact reasons in the energy sector and what they signal 2 min read](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/contact-reasons-in-the-energy-sector?hsLang=en) ##### [![ATG: When customer service becomes the organisation's source of insight](https://info.indicateme.se/hs-fs/hubfs/atg-kundservice-organisationsen-insiktskalla-2400x1260.webp?width=520&height=294&name=atg-kundservice-organisationsen-insiktskalla-2400x1260.webp) Indicate me • October 1, 2026 ATG: When customer service becomes the organisation's source of insight 2 min read](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/atg-customer-service-becomes-organsations-source-of-insight?hsLang=en) ###### Categories - [All](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/all) - [Articles](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/articles) - [News](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/news) - [Indicate me](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/indicate-me) - [Customer Voices](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/tag/customer-voices) ###### Recent Posts - [The most common contact reasons in the energy sector and what they signal](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/contact-reasons-in-the-energy-sector?hsLang=en) - [ATG: When customer service becomes the organisation's source of insight](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/atg-customer-service-becomes-organsations-source-of-insight?hsLang=en) - [What you need to know about AI tagging of customer conversations](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/what-you-need-to-know-about-ai-tagging?hsLang=en) - [7 things to evaluate in AI tools for customer analysis](https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/ai-tools-for-customer-analysis?hsLang=en) ![indicate-me-logo-negative-vertical](https://info.indicateme.se/hubfs/indicate-me-logo-negative-vertical.svg) AI-powered customer intelligence platform that transforms data into actionable insights. - About - [Contact](https://info.indicateme.se/en/contact) ©2026 Indicate me AB. All rights reserved. [Privacy Policy](https://info.indicateme.se/privacy-policy?hsLang=en) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Linnéa Melin", "url" : "https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/author/linnéa-melin" }, "dateModified" : "2026-10-19T08:12:06.060Z", "datePublished" : "2026-10-09T09:46:29.000Z", "headline" : "Which customers never call? Why analyzing customer support calls alone is not enough", "image" : [ "https://info.indicateme.se/hubfs/reklambild-kvinna-pratar-telefon-2400x1260.webp" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://info.indicateme.se/en/insights/which-customers-never-call", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://info.indicateme.se/hubfs/indicate-me-logo-beet-vertical.svg" } } } ```