Your customers don't think about their relationships in terms of channels; they want to reach out to another human being - or even a friend. Make their relationship with your business feel the same as reaching out to a friend.
When your customers can have a seamless conversation with your company, coming away feeling valued no matter when or how they reached out for help, your omnichannel experience can help them to feel recognised. Delivering a great omnichannel customer experience necessitates a thorough omnichannel support strategy - one focused on removing inconsistencies and reducing the pain points in your customer service.
To allow agents to move across different channels and retain the thread of the conversation, you need software that will smooth your support interactions. It might be daunting when trying to open more support channels- especially when it comes to deciding how to staff them - but organisations of any size can deliver the kind of omnichannel customer experience that your customers demand. It may even simplify your operations to offer omnichannel support.
Take a look at the five hurdles an omnichannel solution could help you to overcome.
1. Inconsistent service levels across your channels
It's all too easy to prioritise one channel over another because you have a longer history supporting that channel or because there's higher volume. If your team are struggling to provide consistent service levels across channels, it’s not a reason to get rid of the channels that lag. Without comprehensive analytics, you'll be struggling to take stock of your channels - unable to evaluate what's working and what isn't. If you could compare KPI and SLA metrics and service loads across all channels, and in real time, you'd be able to make changes easily. Unsure how your service levels compare channel by channel? Take a look at your customer satisfaction rating. If it's dipping below your industry benchmark, time to take another look at your channel mix and your staffing.
Lack of analytics is also often a common culprit, making it hard to take stock of your channels to learn what’s working and what isn’t. With the ability to compare KPI and SLA metrics and service loads across all channels in real time, you can easily make changes. And if you’re unsure how your service levels compare by channel, take a look at your customer satisfaction rating. If it’s lower than your industry benchmark, it’s time to take another look at your channel mix and staffing.
2. Losing time as agents are switching between solutions
Switching between systems, whether to look up customer history and account info or to flip to a different engagement channel (in a different tool), your agents are losing time. Sure, there might be times when having an array of products at your disposal makes sense, but more often than not, there's just no need. Providing a seamless support experience for your customers means delivering a fluid agent experience in the back end. Imagine if you had a solution flexible enough to integrate with your back end systems...
Less hassle and more satisfaction of your agents. With one screen, your first response times would go down and your date would never get lost OR siloed.
3. Losing context between channels
Sure, you're providing support across multiple channels, but how are you doing when it comes to previous interactions and context?
If your agents can't see when someone on the phone has already sent an email or chatted with you, or what steps they took via self-service, you're adding time to each interaction and likely frustrating your customer. Through a centralised ticket history within an omnichannel solution, your business can retain the context of each and every conversation - reducing handle time and customer effort. If you're an organisation supporting mobile first customers, this could be especially important; allowing you to offer in-app support and automatically pull in device and historical data. Give your agents the context they need to start troubleshooting.
4. Difficulty reporting across channels
Pulling metrics from multiple systems, comparing reports across multiple channels and attempting to achieve visibility parity can often be a logistical nightmare. With an omnichannel solution that can provide channel metrics in real-time, you could have a single source of insight for customer contacts, irrespective of the channel. You could have the freedom to make changes and adjust your staffing on demand.
5. Setting up a new channel takes too long
If you're looking to pilot or launch another channel for your support, you don't need to vet and implement a whole new tool. With each channel integrated into a single solution, you'll have the flexibility to turn new channels on and off with ease. Increase the speed of your total time to value, and ensure your business has the freedom to shift your channel offerings in accordance with customer preferences and what works best for your support team. Alternatively, start with one channel and add more as you scale.
Meet modern customer expectations
By adopting an omnichannel solution, you can give your business the agility to meet and exceed your customers' expectations. Make changes without disrupting workflows and ensure a seamless omnichannel customer experience.
That's what it's all about - an effortless omnichannel customer experience that removes the challenges for both the customer and your team.
