Defining, creating, and implementing a genuinely enjoyable customer experience is integral for success for any business. Companies and businesses have spent years, even decades, attempting to perfect the ideal customer experience, but an all encompassing answer is hard to find.
Why has it been so difficult historically for companies and businesses to find the perfect formula for the ideal customer experience? While there are a number of answers to this question, most of them boil down to these two points: everyone is different, and customer expectations largely change as time goes by. We’ll go into detail about those two points below.
Every customer is unique
It is impossible to use just one process, strategy, or approach for every customer. What some people may find charming and humorous, others may find distasteful.
Additionally, just like virtually everything else in the business world has evolved with the advancement of technology, so have customers’ expectations when it comes to a favorable customer service experience. While only offering phone support was adequate decades ago, modern customers in today’s marketplace expect a much more immersive customer experience.
With this in mind, more and more companies across a wide spectrum of industries are introducing omnichannel support and communication channels for customers. Let’s take a look at what exactly omnichannel communication and support means.
Omnichannel vs. multichannel
In order to understand the meaning of omnichannel communications, it is important to first make the distinction between omnichannel and multichannel. If a company offers customers a multichannel experience, that means they have the option of contacting that business through a variety of methods. These usually include telephone, email, text message, or online pop up chat.
However, multichannel communication options are not capable of unifying a customer’s service experience across those channels. For example, if a customer called a business and spoke with a representative on the phone for fifteen minutes before being accidently disconnected, they would probably have to explain their situation all over again when they either called, texted, or emailed back.
An omnichannel call center, on the other hand, ensures that each customer’s service experience is unimpeded by interruptions or by switching between communication channels. Omnichannel means that the customer experience will not vary at all depending on specific channels. Customers can switch between phone or text seamlessly without losing their place in the queue or having to repeat themselves.
Omnichannel benefits
This newly developed omnichannel software opens up a new world of convenience for customers who are looking to interact with businesses and brands on a more modern level. Current consumers and customers, more specifically millennials, are spending less and less time on the phone, and looking for more mobile-friendly ways to interact with businesses and brands.
Customers can even stay in touch with the same customer service representative as they seamlessly switch between call, text, and email. This saves valuable time for both customers and employees. The integrated display and platform that omnichannel communication software provides to customer service employees instantly updates them on a customer’s status, relevant history, and prior calls or messages.
Speaking of saving time, omnichannel software also utilizes the latest in analytics and data sharing technology to give customer service employees all the tools and internal information they need to answer any questions a customer may have.
Perhaps the best aspect of implementing an omnichannel communication process is that it doesn’t involve actually developing or installing new communication channels, but simply connecting all of those channels into one harmonious experience.
