A call center executive in a digital age enjoys various perks and benefits. However, digitalization also has its share of disadvantages. Customers live with the assumption that the organization they are dealing with, will be always there for them to communicate, whenever they want to do so.
Large organizations have ensured that the benchmark for customer service is quite high, enabling potential or existing customers to access them promptly through services such as text messages, live chat, social media, along with email support and traditional phone service.
Thus, there is an increasing trend for providing service though an Omnichannel set up leading to a huge rise in customer expectations. Smaller organizations, for lack of funds may not be able to keep up with their bigger counterparts and may even get their customers deluded. It is true that it might not be possible for small organizations to offer service 24/7 like the bigger ones. However, such organizations can still ensure that high-quality customer experience is offered.
It is not complicated to include chat features, links for social media, phone numbers and email details on a corporate website. Including such information on the site demonstrates that customers have plenty of choices for contacting the organization. However, the customers should be given choices and not merely an illusion of those choices. One of the worst experiences a customer may go through is to be transferred to another call center executive and repeat his or her entire concern repeatedly.
What is an Omnichannel Solution?
Today, the expectations of customers have gone sky-high as they want to get services on the medium they want. The channel can be social media, mobile, web, text/sms, email or voice.
Many organizations have realized the needs of their customers and have started providing service on all a plethora of channels. This service integrates various channels so that there is no inconsistency in customer experience.
Customer Self-Service through Omnichannel Solution
The primary aim of this solution is to ensure that customers can help themselves well. Self-service is the buzzword nowadays. There are many web-based companies that try to encourage customers to help themselves by incorporating attractive FAQ pages and ‘help’ pages in their corporate websites.
When there is an accessible and easy explanation of basic questions and issues, there is a dip in the flow of customer inquiries. There will also be reduction in frustration among the customers who earlier had to spend considerable amount of time in trying to access and speak with a company representative.
Customers Don’t get Bogged Down with Multiple Channels
It is true customers are not worried about the large number of communication channels that are available to them. Nevertheless, it is a headache for companies and their customer service departments. Customers only want to find a solution to their concerns or get a response to their queries. They can access this information via a mobile website, voice or even a social media website such as Twitter or Facebook.
Omnichannel customer service is quite relevant in the world of mobile devices since they have acquired such high prominence. Today’s mobile customers are accustomed to communicate via social, instant-messaging, voice, and text channels. Thus, today’s customers have access to information constantly.
Self-service through Omnichannel customer service enables a customer to commence his or her activity in any one channel and then effortlessly transition to some other channel. For instance, a conversation might have started on Twitter but can be further continued using a phone call or a text message making sure the complete relevant context remains across various channels.
Solutions through this service don’t have to be implemented in all the channels. For instance, an organization conducted a survey to know the preferences of its customers. The organization can opt to provide social media, SMS and voice as various service channels.
However, an Omnichannel customer service makes sure the service quality, service level and the degree of responsiveness that has been procured on individual channels, as well as, from various channels is equally high.
An organization should ensure it is simple for its customers to be easily reachable irrespective of what channel is opted by the latter. It signifies that the employees of the organizations should be always ready to handle those customers who may not be happy or satisfied.
How Omnichannel is Blurring Boundaries in Customer Service
