Once upon a time, clients could only talk to their brands through fax and phone calls. Fast forward to the present, and one of those two is museum stuff, while the other is just one of many means. Omnichannel platforms are now the order of the day in terms of customer support.
But what are omnichannel solutions in client support? Further, what ideals should you strive for in running omnichannel contact centre systems? Read on, and let’s look into these questions.
What Is Omnichannel Call Center?
An omnichannel call center service merges and functions across multiple channels. These channels include text, instant messaging, social media, and email. But why bother working across many platforms?
Well, for one, it helps you serve your customers in more than one timely and effective way. It also raises brand image, a fact borne out by a Gladly 2020 survey of consumer desires. The study found that 89% of users expect dialogues with an agent to move smoothly between multiple channels.
however, omnichannel communications with clients costing cash and manpower to run. And while an in-house call service is a great idea for most, outsourcing tends to be cheaper. And so most brands just outsource the job to get better and cheaper omnichannel contact centre services.
If you want to vary your customer support system, you might want to do the same. But now that we know what omnichannel customer service is, what ideals should you strive for?
Omnichannel Customer Support Ideas
Here, we will look at some crucial ideas or best practices that you strive for in your brand.
#1. Shorter Social Media Response Time
Social media offers the most diverse number of sub-channels for customer support. In theory, it should be the most effective channel for responding to customer queries and complaints. Sadly, many social media support teams fail to reap this benefit due to poor response times.
A time gap between when the customer reaches out and when they get a response is normal. However, the gap between when customers expect a response and when most brands respond is too great.
For example, studies show that around 39% of consumers expect a response on social media in less than an hour. Yet, on average, most brands respond within 5 hours—that’s a 4-hour gap. Worse still, some brands don’t even respond at all.
These long responses piss off most clients, and you should strive to cut them as much as you can. Doing so can slash your churn rates by as much as 15% and boost the client experience and brand image.
#2. Greater SMS Engagement
Guess what’s still one of the most effective omnichannel solutions for customer support? text! Texting is one of the most widespread and versatile customer support methods around. Just take your bank for an example—the last word you got from them was likely via SMS.
This preference, of course, is two-sided, as revealed by many studies. for instance, this study found that 52% of those surveyed said they would prefer to access customer support via SMS.
But why do brands and users love SMS as a customer support channel? Well, there is the swiftness of text messages to look at. SMS messages are not only direct and usually brief but also very quick and cheap to send.
Further, on the brands’ side, most text messages to clients are read, making SMS a very reliable way to reach customers. So, what’s the bottom line here? It is that you must immediately connect to your omnichannel contact centre for the texting game.
#3. Up Your Mobile Game
The world is thoroughly mobile right now, with mobile searches and purchases always rising. This trend also shows in customer support circles, as most people call customer support from their mobile devices.
Sadly, many brands fail to meet customers’ demands for mobile involvement. Even among brands that meet these requirements, mobile service quality can be deplorable. Some studies show that as many as 90% of clients are unhappy with some brands’ mobile customer support.
To improve the quality of service across you omnichannel platforms, you need to optimize for mobile. By doing so, you will find that customer engagement and satisfaction will rise through the roof.
#4. Great self-service
Most clients now expect brands to make it easier for them to handle customer support concerns on their own. Sometimes, it’s easier to be able to research an issue and solve it without calling a customer support agent. In fact, compared to other service channels, most clients prefer using a brand’s website to find a solution.
Now, the most often used self-service channel is a detailed FAQs page. However, there are many other ways to help clients find solutions. For instance, users can access client forums, auto-help desks, and AI-powered chats.
When you can make valuable information easy for clients to access on their own, you will increase user satisfaction. This, in turn, will raise not only sales but also retention.
Of course, clients can always reach out to your agents directly when they can’t find a solution to their issues. This is where it becomes vital to have a broad omnichannel contact center network of agents.
#5. Test-Run and See How It Works
When launching omnichannel platforms for customer response, the crucial last step is testing. For many reasons, it is crucial to assess the quality of your customer support across your many channels.
However, the biggest one is that it will give you firsthand knowledge of what the user will get. Yet, this is a step that many new omnichannel brands tend to ignore. This is because some contact center omnichannel solutions have self-diagnostic features.
However, there is no better way to see if things are working right than to start a live chat or tweet and then wait to see how quick and effective the response is. This is crucial because many platform programs are new and full of bugs. One or more issues with your contact service network may prevent registration.
Conclusion
If you want to build a thriving brand, omnichannel user support is the way to go. However, you should not ignore the binding human factor. The secret to first-rate customer service is a well-trained workforce. You can respond to customer issues and present a good brand image with such force.
The aim is, and always will be, to give a helpful and honest experience. This will strengthen your relationship with your clients, regardless of what channels you decide to use.
Dan has hands-on experience in digital marketing since 2007. He has been building teams and coaching others to foster innovation and solve real-time problems. And also enjoys photography and traveling.