7 Reasons to Add Telephonic Interviews into Your CX Programme.

In customer experience today, “listening” has become synonymous with “measuring.”

We gather feedback at breakneck speed. We score every moment, track every transaction, chase every promoter. But for all the dashboards and automation and dashboards about automation, many brands are still flying blind when it comes to the real voice of the customer.

Why?

Because not everything worth knowing fits in a 5-star rating. And not everyone worth hearing from clicks a link.

Why Now Is the Time to Re-Think How You Listen

Over the last decade, digital CX tools have done what they promised: they’ve made feedback collection faster, cheaper, and more scalable. But in doing so, some organisations have unintentionally traded depth for efficiency and representativeness for reach.

That’s not a tech problem, it’s a listening strategy problem. And it’s why more forward-thinking CX leaders are reintroducing an old-school tool into their very modern programmes:

CATI. Computer-Assisted Telephonic Interviewing.

Yes, phone calls. Real conversations with real customers, guided by smart data and powered by people who know how to listen.

At Smoke CI, we believe the best CX strategies balance speed and depth, digital and human. That’s why we’ve built interviews into our offerings, not as a retro fallback, but as a strategic layer that makes your programme stronger.

Here’s why it might be exactly what your VOC approach needs next.

Some of your customers aren’t online - and they still matter.

Let’s be honest: digital surveys are biased toward the connected. They favour younger, urban, tech-comfortable customers. But what about everyone else?

• Older adults who aren’t glued to their phones.
• Rural or under-resourced communities with limited access.
• Customers who simply ignore or mistrust digital outreach.

These aren’t edge cases. They’re core segments for many brands, and when they don’t respond, your insights aren’t just incomplete, they’re skewed.

At Smoke CI, we help you identify and engage these underheard voices through carefully targeted CATI outreach, bringing equity and balance into your feedback programme.

Nuance doesn’t show up in a score.

Metrics are useful. But metrics without context? That’s noise.
A dropped CSAT might signal frustration, confusion, or even delight about something unrelated. A 9 NPS might hide a lurking concern that a form just didn’t capture.

What unlocks the meaning behind the numbers? Dialogue.
CATI interviews allow customers to pause, explain, and reflect. They offer tone, texture, and emotional signals, things forms can’t catch.

Our approach blends structure and spontaneity, allowing each conversation to surface insight that’s rich, reliable, and immediately actionable.

Sometimes, your customers just want to be heard.

Feedback isn’t just about the business... it’s a human behaviour.

People respond better when they know someone’s listening. That’s why CATI often delivers not only better data, but better relationships.
It’s not uncommon for customers to express surprise - and appreciation - when they realise a real person is calling to ask what they think. It builds trust. Loyalty. Even advocacy.

We train every CATI interviewer not just to ask, but to listen, turning each call into a moment of connection, not just collection.

CATI improves engagement, not just coverage.

One of the most common assumptions about CATI? That nobody answers the phone anymore

But here’s the thing: done right, they do.

Response rates for well-timed, relevant CATI calls often surpass those of digital surveys, especially in segments where email fatigue or distrust is high.

What makes the difference?

• Calling at the right time.
• Speaking the right language.
• Keeping it brief and human.

We manage this end-to-end: from sampling to script to sentiment tracking, so you get more responses, with more meaning, from the right people.

It's the most affordable deep insight you’re not using.

Traditional qualitative research is powerful, but often slow, expensive, and siloed.
CATI hits a sweet spot: it gives you depth with scalability, flexibility without overkill, and insight without agency-level spend.

With Smoke CI, you can run CATI as:

• A once-off insight boost for a specific campaign.
• A quarterly check-in for high-value customers.
• A targeted outreach to an underrepresented region or demographic.

No bloated proposals. No long lead times. Just smart, focused listening where it matters most.

It adds richness to your digital VOC - without breaking it.

CATI isn’t a replacement. It’s a complement.
Think of it like salt in a dish: used in the right moment, in the right way, it makes everything better. Especially when you're already doing well.
You don’t need to stop sending digital surveys. You need to know where they’re not telling you enough and use CATI to close that loop.

Our Eyerys platform records CATI feedback directly, so you can analyse it alongside your digital data, surface verbatim themes, and trigger alerts, all in one place.

At Smoke CI, we don’t just make the calls - we make them count.

CATI is easy to get wrong. Pushy scripts. Monotonous agents. Disconnected data. It becomes a “research project” that lives outside your CX strategy.

We’ve built CATI to feel like what it should be: a natural extension of your VOC programme.

• • Advisory-led: We help you design the survey, target the right audience, and set goals that match your programme.
  • Integrated: Feedback flows directly into your Eyerys dashboards.
  • Insight-first: We help you analyse, act, and improve.

We’re not here to add noise. We’re here to help you hear what matters most; clearly, humanly, and on your terms.

So... is it time to listen differently?

We believe the future of CX isn’t about choosing between digital and human. It’s about knowing when to combine them.

CATI gives you access to the parts of your customer experience that are too important, too emotional, or too complex to leave to a text box.

It gives you insight from the people you’re not currently hearing.
And when you work with Smoke CI, it gives you all of that... without complication.

Want to explore how CATI could work in your world?