By Joel Sylvester, Chief Client Officer, Five Star Call Centers
When delivering an excellent experience, business must connect with their customers when and how it is convenient for the customer. The last few years have shown customer loyalty fading. To keep customers coming back, offering the communication channels that meet them on their terms may be the deal breaker for successful companies. Customers are willing to invest in your product or service, but they expect companies to invest in supporting them as well.
Omnichannel Meets Customers Where and When They Want to Engage in Your Business
Today’s on-the-go customers want the option to interact with brands through multiple communication channels and they expect a seamless, personalized experience each and every time. To meet this demand, contact centers offer omnichannel options, meaning brands can meet customers when and they they want to connect.
What is an Omnichannel Call Center?
Omnichannel technology provides a customer service solution where businesses can meet their customers through a variety of communication channels, like email, chat, voice, social media, and SMS – all with a seamless and consistent customer experience across all the channels.
When a customer is connected to an omnichannel contact center, the customer is automatically routed to the most appropriate agent based on their skills and availability. This action ensures a customer receives a personalized and efficient service, regardless of the channel they are using. This includes if the customer switches from one device to another. Why does this matter? Eighty-eight percent of customers say how a business delivers service is just as important as the products and services provided.
The omnichannel experience also means the agents have access to a unified view of the customer’s interactions across all the channels, meaning they can provide relevant and timely responses for the customer. This enhances not only the customer’s experience but also that of the agent.
For businesses, the omnichannel experience means they gain access to an array of data to better understand customer’s behaviors and preferences. This information is invaluable to business leaders guiding their businesses, especially in a year when an economic downturn is expected.
Learn how contact centers can help companies combat economic downturns here.
For businesses that can offer their customers a true omnichannel customer experience, they can improve customer retention, increase sales, and boost customer satisfaction.
Contact us to discuss how omnichannel contact centers services can save your business time and money.
Customers Expect a Personalized Experience with Your Brand
Personalizing customer service is a game changer in the contact center industry. It is becoming increasingly important for businesses to personalize their customer experience or risk losing customers to competitors. In fact, 73% of businesses plan to increase their personalization efforts. Omnichannel contact centers can help.
Meet Customer Expectations
Customers expect the businesses they interact with to know who they are and offer a personalized experience. Have you contacted a company and had to repeat your need each time you spoke with someone new? Today’s customers consider this a negative interaction with your brand and will change to competing business that can offer a better experience.
With omnichannel technology, any hand-off or follow-up the customer can have a seamless transition because the technology guides the agents through their journey. And with relevant and timely support, customers report better customer satisfaction as well.
Enhancing Self-Service
Self-service is a raising channel in customer service. Many customers prefer to locate answers without needing to speak with an agent. In fact, 67% of customers prefer self-service to speaking with a life agent.
Chat bots and self-help portals can provide customers with exactly what they are seeking. Omnichannel contact centers can also use personalization to offer recommendations based on past contacts with your business.
First Contact Resolution is an Expectation Not a Perk
While self-service options grow, there is still a need for customer service interactions with an agent. In these moments, the expectations of customers have clearly changed.
The customer has likely already dedicated time to seeking an answer through self-service channels, so when they reach out to an agent, their expectation is the issue will be resolved.
First contact resolution is fast being a critical measure of success in customer satisfaction. It’s an essential measure of customer service effectiveness. It also impacts:
- Customer satisfaction: First contact resolution is a key driver of customer satisfaction.
- Customer loyalty: A positive experience with a company means a customer is more likely to become loyal.
- Cost reduction: Reduce the number of follow-up contacts helps save business money in both agent and case management resources.
- Agent productivity: Reducing the number of follow-ups also means that agents spend less time on follow-ups, meaning they can free up time to support additional customer needs.
- Business reputation: Positive first contact resolution experience goes a long way in customers using word-of-mouth to share their positive experience with a business.
Omnichannel contact centers are essential to offering a great customer experience. Partnering with the right contact center outsourcer can help your business stay ahead of your competitors and support customer loyalty.
Connect with Five Star Call Centers for Omnichannel Needs
Five Star Call Centers offers true omnichannel experiences for clients through industry leading Geneysis. Our expertly trained agents are available 24/7/364 to help you manage customer service needs. We also offer unparalleled data tracking resources and the most powerful technology in the industry.
Contact us to discuss solutions to meet your business’s unique needs.
