Ring, Ring? Why Walla Doesn't Use Phones For Customer Support

What’s the best way to support you at Walla? It’s not back-and-forth calls, voicemails, and playing phone tag with the Walla Customer Support Team. It’s about getting you the answers and help you need fast with intuitive tools that educate, inform, and give you a deeper understanding of our software. 

Traditional phone support often falls short for studio owners and their staff, despite its initial appeal as a quick and easy option. In reality, phone calls can take longer to resolve issues. We know you are constantly juggling multiple tasks, from managing classes to handling client inquiries. Phone support doesn't accommodate this multitasking, as it puts pressure on you and our team to resolve issues quickly or disrupt your studio workflow. 

At Walla, our team doesn’t use phones to assist you for many reasons, including: 

• The need for an immediate response isn’t always the most informed response 
• We can’t go back and always review pertinent information
• Less of a streamlined experience and risk of interruptions 
• Need for outsourcing and unnecessary overhead

Whether it’s chat, email, or our new AI tool, Finn—constantly learning based on your questions and our answers—we want you to know exactly who you’re talking to: one of our local Walla Support Experts. (And that’s exactly the reason we implemented Intercom!) So why have we ditched the phone? It’s pretty straightforward… Simplicity meets time-saving efficiency. 

Over 67% of customers across multiple industries prefer using self-service support tools rather than talking to someone live over the phone. When you center support offerings around phones, it can be disempowering to you, the studio owner. We want you to have flexibility and independence! Phone support can naturally perpetuate the idea that you need to rely on an agent for every issue rather than being able to find solutions easily on your own.

That’s why at Walla, we address your questions quickly and take pride in our response times and ratings—meaning we don’t need a phone!  Our ultimate goal is to provide a transformative support experience that sets a new standard for efficiency and effectiveness in the industry.

Walla Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): 93% - industry average is 75% 

Walla Messenger First Response Time: under 5 minutes  

“At Walla, we understand the need for a quick response—but also an informed one. By eliminating the need for phone support, we streamline the overall support process, reduce interruptions, and ensure that you are always interacting with a knowledgeable local support expert. We are dedicated to continually improving our support services, integrating automation and user insights to better understand and anticipate your needs, allowing us to resolve your issues more swiftly and effectively, saving you time and reducing potential technical headaches.” - Jen Kocur, Director of Operations

Here’s how we are continually upgrading the Walla Support Experience (sans the old-school phone system): 

Cutting-edge support: Comprehensive context meets modern capabilities  

Walla aims to enhance customer support by using all-encompassing online communication platforms, like Intercom. The move is driven by the need to provide a more efficient, responsive, and engaging support experience for all Walla users.

• A straightforward, simplified suite of tools designed to enrich your support interactions 
• User-centric, helpful design with you in mind, ensuring more intuitive and effective communication

Every message counts: Personalized communication 

The best way to resolve your questions and issues quickly is to utilize tools that foster education and more instantaneous resolution of inquiries. The Walla Support Team is always focused on this! 

• Real-time messaging enables immediate and personalized communication between our support team members and your studio/staff for more immediate answers. 
• Walla’s self-service help center provides a centralized source of support articles, videos, and frequently asked questions (FAQs), allowing you to find answers independently (with no dead-end links, which is common with our competitors).
• Automated responses utilize bots and automated workflows that we are constantly training (and are learning) to handle routine inquiries, freeing time for you and us.
• User insights and analytics give the Walla Support Team detailed insights into individual behavior and interaction history, which helps our team better understand and anticipate your needs.

Always improving: Giving you the best experience and support interactions 

From our software features to your support inquiries, everything we do is to save you time (and a tech headache). That’s why, with real-time messaging and automation, response times are significantly reduced, leading to faster issue resolution.

• Integrating a more interactive and user-friendly support system contributes to a more satisfying customer experience for you.
• Automation and better organizational tools streamline your support process, making it easier for our team to track, manage, and resolve your support tickets (while being able to analyze your Walla Support history accurately), increasing productivity on both sides. 

By using tools like Intercom, the Walla Support Team is constantly modernizing support operations, eliminating the need for phone calls!