Read Time: 9 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Most organizations that provide customer support will experience their share of unhappy customers who are frustrated with having to repeat their complaints every time they switch communication channels. When this happens enough, it might be time to consider that your organization has outgrown multichannel support and is ready to implement an omnichannel model. Let’s explore the main differences between the two models and what symptoms might suggest you’re ready to make the move from multichannel to omnichannel.
Key takeaways
- Multichannel, as the name suggests, allows conversations on multiple channels of communication. Omnichannel joins all of those channels into one conversation, allowing customers to pick up where they left off instead of repeating themselves with each interaction.
- Omnichannel is both a tech investment and an organizational investment. Implementing an omnichannel model requires cross-training agents who are able to navigate all available channels.
- The hidden costs of multichannel. Multichannel is prone to inefficiency, leading to repeat contacts, increased handle times, escalations, and customer churn.
What is the difference between multichannel and omnichannel?
Multichannel support means that multiple channels are available to your customers, whether those platforms are phone, email, chat, or social media. However, each of those channels is siloed, not sharing data or context.
Omnichannel support creates a unified experience between each of those channels, allowing customers to seamlessly transition from one channel to another without having to repeat themselves.
What is multichannel support?
Multichannel support is meant to meet customers right where they are, giving them access to support through phone, SMS, email, chat, or social media. Each of these channels is separately managed and staffed in a multichannel model, and each team is working with different ticket queues.
Where a multichannel model can succeed is in breadth. Organizations that are just starting to expand or are trying to understand new touchpoints will usually need an efficient path to growth that doesn’t require them to completely rebuild their current infrastructure from the ground up. A multichannel setup allows those organizations to divide their workload, allowing one team to handle phones while another takes on SMS, and so on.
However, multichannel can be fairly limiting. When customers try switching channels of communication, they find that the new channel’s team isn’t up to speed about their previous tickets or the history of any existing issues, forcing the customers to frustratingly repeat their problems and forcing the agents to do redundant work.
READ MORE: What is a multichannel contact center?
What is omnichannel customer support?
Much like multichannel models, omnichannel support covers a wide variety of channels, but with the key difference that each of these channels is interconnected and shares context and information. Any agent within an omnichannel model can pick up an existing customer conversation in a new channel, but is supplied with the existing context of the current conversation, the customer’s account info, and interaction history, allowing for one seamless customer experience, regardless of the channel.
READ MORE: The Hidden Power of an Omnichannel Contact Center
Omnichannel vs. multichannel: Channel integration vs. siloed operations
In multichannel models, the integration between various channels is either makeshift or nonexistent, requiring each agent to check multiple different systems, asking supervisors to retrieve reports from other teams’ dashboards, and performing redundant work that was likely already covered by another channel’s team.
Omnichannel is well-integrated by definition. All customer interactions from all channels are run through a centralized customer relationship management (CRM) platform, ensuring that information and insights are saved in one central place. Not only can agents start interactions with full context, but this setup also allows for smarter routing, considering the customer’s interaction history before placing them with an agent most equipped to handle their issue. This drives greater efficiency and a more positive customer experience.
Customer-centric vs. channel-centric models
In a multichannel setup, success is measured per channel, meaning that each channel measures KPIs independently and optimizes its individual processes accordingly. Because of this channel-centric focus, the customer experience can become siloed and fragmented, even if individual channels might be achieving high scores.
The focus of an omnichannel model allows for a more customer-centric process, placing the customer’s needs ahead of generic KPIs. The priority shifts away from how individual channel queues are performing and more toward examining the entire customer journey and life cycle.
Technological capabilities
Multichannel and omnichannel environments require appropriate technological infrastructure to function well. Here’s where both setups differ technologically.
Capability | Multichannel | Omnichannel |
CRM | No shared record across channels. Each channel has its own system. | One unified CRM that shows fully interaction history across all channels. |
Routing | Queue-based and isolated to individual channels. | Routing is context-aware, providing sending communication to appropriate agents regardless of the channel. |
AI/Automation | Channels deploy automation independently, with limited data sharing. | AI is trained on data from the complete customer journey. Predictive analytics can prevent escalation and strengthen retention. |
Reporting | Dashboards are siloed. For meaningful cross-channel data, manual aggregation is required. | Data is unified across all channels, providing more meaningful insights. |
Why the difference matters for CX leaders
Multichannel has a major frustration built in, and that stems from its inflexibility. For a customer, switching channels means starting over from square one, which is incredibly annoying as a customer, sending the message that the business doesn’t care about them. That message can easily lose you business.
READ MORE: What Is Omnichannel Customer Service?
Omnichannel models, on the other hand, remove this frustration by data-mapping the customer path in an intuitive and effective way.
When customers make a complaint with an omnichannel model, a ticket is written and saved to a centralized CRM, marked with the customer’s account info, the category of issue they spoke about, and a timestamp.
When a customer interacts again later, regardless of channel, their previous interactions and important information can be shared instantly with the agent responding, who can now open with something more personal and applicable to their unique situation.
“Hello, X! Are you following up about Y?”
That proactive touch can mean a lot to a customer and shows them that you’re paying attention.
This data flow can also be proactive, providing customer support ahead of time and retaining business. When customers complain more than once about the same issue, the system can provide a signal to agents that the account is in danger, allowing the agents to reach out ahead of time.
Want to scale your business?
Global Response has a long track record of success in outsourcing customer service and call center operations. See what our team can do for you!
Choosing the right model for your business
At a certain point in your company’s development, omnichannel will always be the better and more effective model, but the trick is figuring out where that point is for your company.
Multichannel is ideal for companies that:
- Have limited resources
- Are experimenting with new communication channels before committing
- Have low volumes of customer interactions
- Have a narrow product line
- Want to avoid technical debt before they are established
Multichannel is ultimately a transitional stage.
Omnichannel begins to make sense for companies that:
- Have a rising number of repeat contacts
- Have a falling CSAT score
- Are having increasingly more escalations
- Have disjointed tools and systems that agents are forced to juggle to figure out customer histories
- Manage complex B2B accounts, cross-time zone operations, and a growing portfolio of products
READ MORE: Which Call Center Model is Right For You?
Cost Factor | Omnichannel | Multichannel |
Platform | Larger upfront investment for integration, but higher long-term return on investment. | Low-cost upfront, but various individual licenses. |
Repeat Contacts | Higher FCR and lower AHT thanks to built-in context and customer data. | Lower FCR and higher AHT with customers forced to repeat themselves after channel changes. |
Agent Efficiency | Simpler workflow allows for increased efficiency and shorter AHT. | Wasted time switching between systems; handle time inflated. |
Churn Cost | Retention rate highly improved. | Friction in the customer experience causes extra churn, dropping retention rates. |
Implementation challenges
One of the most common barriers to omnichannel integration is the challenge of legacy system integration. Often, enterprises will find themselves upgrading piecemeal, adding little features and platforms to their infrastructure over time, which eventually accumulates into a patchwork of mismatched parts that don’t always play nicely with each other. To implement an omnichannel model, your organization will need to disentangle those systems, replacing the legacy platforms and software, and replacing them with more omnichannel-ready options. Some organizations might find it simpler to take a phased approach, prioritizing a handful of their most-used channels to begin with to make the changeover less abrupt.
Companies might also run into the necessary shift in perspective from siloed specialists to cross-trained agents who can nimbly move from channel to channel as needed. Since each channel has its own needs and quirks, it’s crucial that each agent has a strong sense of each and confidence in providing omnichannel support.
FAQs
Is omnichannel better than multichannel?
In most aspects, yes, omnichannel provides more benefits to companies and their customers, but it should be implemented at the right point in your company’s growth. Multichannel gets the job done for smaller organizations with fewer resources and lower customer interaction volumes. But as a company grows, multichannel models can outstay their welcome, causing inefficiency behind the scenes and worsening the customer experience.
Can a small business afford omnichannel support?
Though it isn’t always strictly necessary in the earlier stages, cloud-based omnichannel platforms can provide excellent and affordable options for small-to-midsize businesses, with some more basic omnichannel packages costing as little as a few hundred dollars a month.
What are the 3 main differences between multichannel and omnichannel?
- Data integration: In multichannel setups, the channels each handle their own data, whereas omnichannel models share real-time customer data that is present with the customer at each touchpoint.
- Experience continuity: Multichannel models rely on customers to provide context when switching channels, repeating themselves to a new agent. Omnichannel holds a single shared conversation, allowing customers to pick up where they left off when switching channels.
- Organizational model: A multichannel model uses channel-specific teams with their own data and their own independent procedures. Omnichannel uses cross-trained agents who are familiar with each channel, allowing for both a unified experience and more unified performance metrics.
