We have all been in a situation where we needed to reach out to customer support. Damaged products, returns, queries, and complaints. The list is endless. The quick access to technology today has provided us with the possibility to connect in real-time whilst getting on with our lives.
But what happens when you accidentally lose connection to customer support? Whether that be from poor WiFi or signal loss on your end. Does this mean you have to start from square one when reaching out again? Nobody has time for that!
This is where omnichannel communication comes in. No matter what platform you, as the customer, are on, there is no need to repeat or reinform the support team on the other end. The business or brand you are reaching out to has ensured that not only can you access them on multiple platforms, but they have all your previously given information stored and ready to revisit.
What Is Omnichannel Exactly?
To begin, we must distinguish between multichannel and omnichannel. Today, most businesses provide their customers with a multichannel experience. This means opening up various communications platforms for interaction. Whether that be social media messaging, email, or live chat. Although that is still great, the difference with omnichannel is that as well as providing customers with multiple channels, it also ensures conversation flow is as efficient and seamless as possible.
This means that not only can you move in and out of using different channels but you can also come back to conversations at your leisure. Omnichannel support goes that extra mile to ensure customer satisfaction and experiences are at an all-time high.
Why Omnichannel Support?
Customer service is one of the most important driving forces for a business. This is where direct communication takes place and relationships can be made or broken. Omnichannel support makes that interaction much easier. With fast responses and real-time conversations. Spread out over a variety of channels.
This approach smooths out any bumps in the road of communication between business and customer. And it ensures frictionless communication and customer service optimization.
How to Create Omnichannel Support?
Omnichannel means a lot more than your customers being able to reach you on every channel. Instead, you need to ensure all customer touchpoints are aligned and seamless. This is no easy fair, but once you get it right you are well on your way to building long-term relationships and satisfied customers.
Here are a few ways you can work towards reaching that goal:
Collecting Customer Data
Today, personalization within conversations with customers has become crucial. That is why storing your customers’ past conversations and information is key. Not only are you enhancing the quality of interactions you are also enhancing customer experience. When all the information is right in front of your support team they can quickly access it and start a conversation back up from whatever point it was left off. Your customers will thank you for this!
The Right Tools for Omnichannel Support
Without the right tools, your business may struggle to deal with the modern-day consumer, full of demands. Ensuring all your communication channels are managed under one perfectly crafter inbox is a great way to do this. This way your agents have a simple to use the dashboard at their disposal to answer any questions in seconds, and on any platform. These real-time conversations will promote brand loyalty and once again add to those meaningful customer experiences.
Team Work Makes the Dream Work
Just as the right tools are important, managing your customer care team in the right way is important too. When you have a team that is able to work together seamlessly, you are creating better interactions for your customers. Information should be easily accessible so one agent can pick up from where another left off. Customers will no longer need to repeat themselves and it will eliminate any lengthy process your agents would need to go through to access this information. Additionally, hiring external staffing is a great way to destress your customer support team and ensure you are delivering those crucial fast response times.
Connecting to All Channels
Constantly updating your channels is key. Being accessible in all ways possible will help you set yourself apart from competitors. With multiple channels, you can offer a higher level of service to your customers. This in turn will increase customer satisfaction and higher retention rates. Live chat, for example, is a very popular platform, that customers seek out support on. Therefore, utilizing platforms such as this will facilitate growth for any business through customer satisfaction and building long-lasting relationships.
Putting the Pieces Together
If you are looking to implement an omnichannel approach it’s important to look at all the above-mentioned topics collectively. Focusing on one will indeed benefit your business, but not to its fullest potential.
To gain a better understanding of what it really means to successfully provide an omnichannel experience is to visualize each action as a string that leads to optimized customer experience. All these strings must be woven together in perfect harmonization. When done right the benefits can be endless.
Let Conversation24 help you get started on your omnichannel journey today and open the door to satisfied customers!
