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Table of Contents
Intro
When a customer starts an inquiry online with a question in your live chat, but the conversation begins to warrant a deeper discussion, the customer may reach for the phone. When that happens, it’s important for the customer experience that the change of communication channel is a seamless handoff. If the customer has to repeat themselves and re-explain their entire problem, it’s a recipe for frustration on both ends of the conversation. That’s why omnichannel customer service is such an important tool for a business to have. This article will explore the various aspects of an omnichannel approach, from its benefits and challenges to the process of implementation and best practices for omnichannel success.
Key takeaways
- Omnichannel vs. multichannel: Though both setups offer various channels of communication to their customers, an omnichannel setup offers seamless transitions between channels with no loss of context or information, while a multichannel setup is siloed.
- Benefits of omnichannel: Omnichannel communication provides a higher quality customer experience, with greater customer satisfaction, more personalized service, and consistency. Additionally, omnichannel reduces the workload and repetition for agents, mitigating burnout.
- Implementation: To successfully implement an omnichannel system, it’s essential to understand your customer journeys, select the best omnichannel support software, and thoroughly train agents to understand how to serve through each channel and navigate graceful transitions between channels.
Defining omnichannel customer service
Brands need to be able to connect with customers through many means, and omnichannel support makes that possible. Omnichannel customer service is when brands connect with customers through multiple integrated communication channels. In our increasingly digital and interconnected society, advancements in communication technologies allow customer interactions to flow across touchpoints like call centers, SMS, email, social media, and more.
For example, a customer inquiry might start on Facebook, transition to email for detailed follow-up, and conclude with a phone call, all while maintaining continuity and context.
What omnichannel means for customer service
Omnichannel vs. multichannel: Key differences
At first glance, omnichannel and multichannel customer service seem similar, in that they both involve communicating with customers through multiple separate service channels. However, the difference lies in omnichannel’s seamless continuity across different channels.
While multichannel customer service involves communicating with customers on various different channels — such as phone calls, text, online chat, social media, etc. — each of these individual channels is independent and siloed, meaning that each conversation lives and dies on the channel it started on.
Conversely, an omnichannel model allows each of those channels to intermingle. With the integration of a good customer relationship management (CRM) system, omnichannel customer service gives customers the option to start a conversation on one channel and seamlessly switch to another channel, picking up right where they left off since the agent should have all of the context they need.
The importance of a unified customer experience
The added level of data accessibility that omnichannel provides across touchpoints not only allows for a more cohesive customer experience, but it also provides agents with the useful context they need to offer a well-rounded approach that has room for personalization and creative solutions. The cohesive experiences available through omnichannel service help to boost customer satisfaction and cultivate brand loyalty.
Benefits of omnichannel customer service
Omnichannel is massively beneficial for both businesses and their customers. Some of the greatest benefits include:
Consistent and personalized customer experience
Omnichannel strategies are ideal for cultivating a cohesive and consistent experience, regardless of the channel your customers choose to use. The integration of a customer’s interaction history and personal preferences ensures that agents have the time and context needed to fully personalize the customer experience.
Increased customer engagement and satisfaction
When customers feel free to use the channels they prefer and to seamlessly switch between them, it greatly reduces customer frustration and allows them to feel more engaged and satisfied with the experience. Not only does this make for more loyal customers, but it also makes those customers more likely to advocate for you, spreading good will through word-of-mouth.
Improved efficiency and reduced repetition for agents
Fully integrated omnichannel systems reduce the amount of time your agents have to spend playing catch-up. The time it takes to ask repetitive questions and switch between a handful of different systems truly adds up, causing drag on your agents’ efficiency and leading to agent fatigue and burnout. With the repetition out of the way, agents are free to focus on the important details and personalize the experience for each customer.
Better data collection and customer insights
Omnichannel customer service leaves a paper trail of customer interactions across channels. Having data from multiple touchpoints then helps the business create a holistic view of the customer journey and identify how needs vary across channels, allowing them to adjust their operations as needed. By integrating omnichannel interactions, companies can track patterns, preferences, and pain points across the customer lifecycle.
For example, a business might observe that customers frequently ask for product recommendations on social media but use email to address warranty concerns. This wealth of data enables businesses to develop more accurate customer profiles and segment audiences based on behavior, preferences, and needs.
With deeper insights, brands can hone their messaging, offers, and support strategies to individual customers, driving personalization and satisfaction. Additionally, trends and feedback collected across channels help refine products, services, and overall customer experience.
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Key channels in an omnichannel customer service strategy
Just because you’re adopting an omnichannel solution, that doesn’t require you to adopt all existing communication channels. That just isn’t practical. A much better use of your time would be to determine the communication channels that your customers prefer, allowing you to meet your customers where they are. The most common channels to include in your omnichannel strategy include:
Phone support
Customer support over the phone is alive and well. At the end of the day, a phone call makes for effective real-time communication and is an efficient way to fully cover an issue that is difficult to replicate in purely text-based communication. Additionally, having a public phone number that customers can call is an excellent way to signal authenticity and legitimacy to your customers. Even for customers who prefer using other channels, the existence of an official phone line adds an inherent level of trust that a business will continue to operate for the foreseeable future and that they have the staff to field calls and other customer communications.
Email support
Email support is an incredibly cost-effective option, as it doesn’t require much in the way of infrastructure. Though customer service should strive for promptness, email isn’t treated with the same real-time reply expectation that many other channels are treated with, so it’s easier to comb through customer emails and triage based on priority.
Live chat and chatbots
Support through live chat is often a customer-favorite as it provides instant service, especially when paired with a chatbot that can get the ball rolling. Additionally, for customers still in the shopping phase, live chat allows quick answers to the questions and concerns that keep customers from pulling the trigger on a purchase. Because of its added convenience, live chat can even increase overall conversions as it removes unnecessary barriers to prospective customers.
Social media platforms
Monitoring the social media platforms most popular to your customer base for mentions of your brand and direct messages is an effective method of providing fast help to customers through a channel where they already willingly spend their time.
SMS and messaging apps
Mobile devices are the preferred mode of communication for many people, so it makes sense to provide support tools natively within the device they use the most, whether that takes place through SMS texting or in another messaging app.
In-app and on-site support
By integrating support functions directly into your company’s website or customer-facing app, you can cultivate an intuitive customer support experience that doesn’t require customers to leave to get what they need. In-app and on-site support options also provide an experience with helpful tools like tutorials, embedded FAQs, chat widgets, and even co-browsing capabilities. This channel is particularly helpful for brands with digital products and a tech-savvy customer base.
Identifying the need for an omnichannel customer service strategy
If you don’t know what to look for, it can be difficult to determine the right time to adopt an omnichannel customer service strategy. However, once the switch has been made, it can be a transformative shift.
One major sign that it’s time to move to an omnichannel model is that your business is receiving a high volume of cross-channel interactions. If a customer starts an interaction with you on social media, for instance, and then they wrap up over the phone, it’s much easier and more seamless to do so with an omnichannel solution, since no information or context gets lost along the way. This is particularly true if you’ve had complaints from customers about having to re-explain their problems after handoffs from one channel to the next.
Going hand-in-hand with the need for seamless experiences is the need for better data integration and operational efficiency. multichannel is inherently limited because agents lack access to the customer relationship management (CRM) data that would fill in the gaps of ongoing conversations. When this information is properly integrated into the workflow, agents don’t have to miss a beat, greatly improving their efficiency along with the customer experience.
How to implement omnichannel customer service
Knowing you need to upgrade to an omnichannel approach and knowing how to implement it into your workflow are two separate things. Here are some things to remember as you implement omnichannel customer service into your business.
Map out the customer journey across channels
To successfully implement an omnichannel strategy, it’s important to understand precisely how your customers tend and prefer to interact with your business. Take note of the common touchpoints and transitions that your customers have in common and see if you can draw up a map of your typical customer’s journey and see which points along the way could use optimizing.
Choose omnichannel support software
The correct omnichannel software is a crucial ingredient for success. Pay particular attention to solutions that allow you to integrate all of your various customer communication channels with support for real-time data sharing, as these solutions will offer the greatest efficiency boosts.
Train agents for omnichannel interactions
The correct omnichannel software is a crucial ingredient for success. Pay particular attention to solutions that allow you to integrate all of your various customer communication channels with support for real-time data sharing, as these solutions will offer the greatest efficiency boosts. Without properly trained agents, you don’t have an omnichannel solution. Agents need not only the soft skills of customer service, but also a strong grasp of how to handle multiple channels seamlessly. Knowing the best practices of each channel as well as the most effective ways to shift between them using unified customer data are invaluable skills for omnichannel agents.
Integrate customer data for a 360° view
When you centralize all customer information in one convenient system, you enable greater continuity across channels and open the door for more personalized customer service.
Monitor and optimize performance across channels
The key to successfully providing omnichannel service is to continuously monitor and measure performance in all of your customer service channels. By tracking key metrics like response times, customer satisfaction, resolution rates, and others, you can gain a better idea of where things are going well and where you have room for improvement.
Challenges of omnichannel customer service
Omnichannel customer service can be a major boon for a business, but it’s most beneficial when it’s implemented effectively. Effective implementation can only come from long-term planning. An omnichannel system has a lot of moving parts and when handled poorly, there’s many places it can go wrong. Many companies have run into unanticipated issues in implementation and ultimately failed to modernize. Some of the challenges businesses face when providing omnichannel customer service include:
Preventing internal silos and ensuring consistent cross-channel service
A major challenge in omnichannel customer service is avoiding the “hot potato” effect, where no single agent or team owns the user experience from end to end. As customers move across channels, responsibilities are often passed between teams or departments without clear accountability. This lack of ownership can create a fragmented, frustrating customer experience.
Unless leaders promote internal communication, collaboration, and transparency between teams, individual departments may operate in silos, acting and communicating differently. This can prevent customers from receiving complete answers or resolutions and compound their frustration. Brands should encourage cross-departmental alignment and ensure every touchpoint contributes to a seamless, high-quality experience.
Managing data privacy and security
Omnichannel systems require accurate, real-time data to provide personalized experiences. If customer data is siloed or outdated across channels, agents may lack context, which slows their resolution times and often leads to irrelevant recommendations. This lack of personalization reduces customer satisfaction and hampers the brand’s ability to build meaningful, long-term relationships.
On top of that, fragmented systems increase the risk of data breaches and privacy violations, as sensitive customer information may be inadequately secured during transitions between channels. This not only erodes trust but also exposes the brand to potential legal and reputational harm.
Maintaining real-time synchronization
When customer data, interactions, or updates lag behind, it can lead to confusion and inconsistency. For instance, if a customer updates their shipping address via live chat, but the change doesn’t reflect in the email system or phone support database immediately, they may receive incorrect information or service later. All channels and systems need to be synchronized in real time.
Synchronization delays can disrupt the seamless experience customers expect and can undermine their trust in the brand’s ability to manage their needs. Businesses need robust technology integrations and automation to ensure updates happen instantaneously across systems. Without this, teams risk delivering fragmented, outdated, or conflicting information that frustrates customers and diminishes loyalty.
Training and managing multi-skilled agents
Omnichannel customer service agents need diverse skills to handle interactions across various channels. This requires comprehensive training in communication styles, technical platforms, and problem-solving strategies tailored to each channel, such as the immediacy of live chat versus the formality of email.
Managing multi-skilled agents adds complexity, as supervisors must ensure consistency in service quality and provide ongoing support to address mounting customer expectations. Without proper training and management, agents may struggle to adapt, which may slow response times and fragment the customer experience.
Evaluating your omnichannel service readiness
To determine how prepared your business is to provide omnichannel service, it’s important to understand the steps required for an effective omnichannel approach and see where your business currently falls in that process. Where you fall in this process will help you determine your service maturity, from fragmented mult-channel, to fully-integrated omnichannel.
First, you’ll need to evaluate your current customer service channels. For all the communication channels you offer, how effective are they at meeting your customers’ needs and preferences? Do any of them underperform? What would need to change to help those channels meet those needs.
Next, analyze your current level of integration. How well are your channels interconnected? Do agents have sufficient access to customer info when picking up a conversation in a new channel, or is that information siloed?
Finally, what are your data-sharing processes? How is your customer data gathered, and what is the process for storing it and sharing it across channels? For an omnichannel strategy to be effective, it’s incredibly important that the system is unified, and that all data that is relevant to agents is shareable in real-time.
Best practices for effective omnichannel customer service
While providing omnichannel customer service, here are some tips to remember that will set your business up for omnichannel success.
Use analytics to understand channel effectiveness
By monitoring each channel and measuring its effectiveness against your key performance indicators (KPIs), you can uncover your current strengths and weaknesses in providing customer service through each channel. Knowing where you need to improve or double down will give you a better idea of where your resources need to be allocated and how to change up your processes.
Prioritize high-value channels for your customer base
Some channels will matter more than others to your customers, so it’s important to understand which channels your customers prefer so you can keep them top priority when weighing their comparative value.
Maintain consistent messaging and tone across channels
Just because you’re communicating through a different channel, that doesn’t mean the tone or brand voice changes. While it’s important to understand the best practices for each channel, the customer experience and level of service should remain consistent across channels.
Empower customers with seamless channel-switching options
The customer experience should feel flexible. A customer should never feel like they will be sacrificing context and consistency when they switch channels, because normal communication often spans various different channels. By making your omnichannel service as consistent as possible, customers can communicate in a way that feels natural and gets them the help that they need.
If your business is considering upgrading to an omnichannel customer service model, get in touch with a contact center expert at Global Response. We provide you with a team of dedicated brand advocates who are well-versed omnichannel customer service. Get a free quote today and learn how we supercharge your customer experience!
