4 Reasons Why A Contact Center Needs an Omnichannel Strategy

Customers expect an immersive experience in every channel. They want you to remember their likes or dislikes and engage accordingly. With remote services on the rise, customers are constantly reaching out to the brands on preferred channels. To keep up with this demand, it is important to have an Omnichannel Contact Center.

Omnichannel Solution for the call centers is responsible for creating a cohesive customer experience. It will seamlessly integrate all your channels and empower your agents. Your agents can swiftly move around channels, access customer history and figure out what the customer wants.

Why Do You Need An Omnichannel Solution for Contact Center?

An omnichannel solution for a contact center is so much more than just a tool that eases communication. It can be applied in multiple processes to reduce friction with your customers. Let’s find out multiple ways, in which we can leverage an omnichannel strategy in the contact center.

1. An Omnichannel Contact Center Removes Obstacles in the Customer Journey

One of the most frustrating things I have faced as a customer is when I have to repeat information. It made me feel angry at the company I was buying from and pushed me towards better options. You wouldn’t want your customers reacting the same way. The quickest way of helping a customer is to record their concern at once and make it accessible on all channels.

For example: If a customer has complained about delayed delivery on chat, then the information about that must be available across the dashboards of all channels. Hence, if somebody reaches out to the customer on call or any other channel, then they will not bother the customer to repeat that information. The agent will already be aware of the problem and will only engage in regard to offering a solution.

In CZ Omnichannel, the agent can immediately view the customer journey, what were the previous interactions, the outcome of the interactions, if some tickets are already in-progress state, and obviously all the detail of the customer. So if the agent is handling the customer for the first time but for the customer, the experience is seamless.

2. An Omnichannel Contact Center Prioritizes Automation and Efficiency

Modern contact centers recognize that customers are no longer reliant on voice channels. If the business has an app, social media, or a website, chances are customers will use them. With a rise in usage of digital channels, there is a rise in automation as well. Chatbots are being used to create immediate responses to most tickets while offering an option to call the agent in case the issues aren’t resolved.

Now, in an omnichannel contact center, the approach is more personalized and targeted. To support customers who want quick access, chatbots can be trained to access user information and make it available on all channels. If a customer starts a conversation with WhatsApp Bot but continues it on the website chat, s/he will still be able to pick up where they left off. In fact, the chatbot will also offer other channel pathways to the customer to give them options.

This strategy is beneficial for industries that rely on websites and applications more, than traditional channels. Some sectors will be like e-commerce brands or financial institutes like insurance companies or banks. Leveraging an omnichannel solution for a contact center to enhance your automated processes will be the right step forward.

While the intelligent virtual agent which can be a chatbot or a voice bot, provides 24×7 assistance to the customer, it can hand off to a live agent if there is a need. So with the power of AI, automation drives the efficiency by multifold.

3. An Omnichannel Contact Center Is Versatile

Customers seek versatility. In other words, they demand options. If a customer wants to communicate through email, then they should be able to. The same goes for any other customer who wants to connect through their preferred channel.

A customer’s journey always starts in one channel and can move to different channels. The journey is never stagnant. The course will take across webchat, email, telephony, or SMS. An omnichannel contact center is always prepared to manage and sustain such customer journeys.

An omnichannel contact center is versatile as it adjusts to the customer’s preference of channel. There is obviously a rise in the usage of digital channels, but some consumers still prefer calling an agent.

Another cool feature is the call deflection. So if the lines are busy or there is a longer wait time, the customer is recommended to move to a self-service channel or a messaging channel like WhatsApp or Telegram. But whatever channel the customer seeks from the entire customer journey is maintained within the Omnichannel.

4. An Omnichannel Contact Center Is Agent-Friendly

Imagine a customer has called again for support and the agents are scouting for information. They will toggle through channels, do multiple logins while the customer is on hold. Even worse, the agent might ask the customer to repeat information and risk getting poor feedback. Let’s not put agents in a position where they have to struggle.

An omnichannel contact center empowers its agents with ready information about customers. When facing the customer, the agent will be prepared to tackle all the questions and resolve the customer’s issue. It makes them appear professional and efficient. Agents when performing well, will also generate positive feedback, lower AHT, and improve the experience.

CZ Omnichannel is integrated with the CRM and the agent can retrieve the relevant ticket or create the new one without switching over to any other screen. The idea behind CZ Omnichannel is to provide the agent with a single desktop to manage all the interactions, seamlessly.

Conclusion

As Thomas Edison said – “Strategy without execution is just hallucination”. So once you have put up an Omnichannel Strategy for your customer service team, it is critical to have an Omnichannel platform and a team that is properly trained to leverage the omnichannel capabilities to provide a superior customer experience.