What is an Omnichannel Call Centre Solution?
The Omnichannel Call Centre solution helps companies communicate with their customers across various channels, consolidating and organizing communications under one platform. ‘Omni’ translates to “all” and ‘omnichannel’ means all channels, but this doesn’t mean omnichannel will operate all media of communication.
An omnichannel solution integrates all channels of communication in such a way that customers have a seamless experience.
It was previously impossible for customers to switch between channels to address their concerns. But with the help of omni channel contact centre solution, customer support has now become more convenient and streamlined. Your business can get actionable insights into customers’ needs and expectations by accessing all available data from various channels like social media, email, web chat, calls, etc.
The omnichannel contact centre solution evolved from multichannel contact centre solutions where context and history disappear as soon as the customer changes channels. It also builds on a multimodal contact centre solution, which enables agents to use more than one channel during an interaction. If done correctly, this solution helps you create a smooth customer journey and move ahead of the competition.
Multichannel vs. Omnichannel Contact Centre
An omnichannel contact centre and a multichannel approach have some similarities, but there are also some fundamental differences.
Here are some of the ways they differ:
Unification: Multi-channel solutions support digital channels like chat, SMS, and social media, but you have to manage each channel independently; while omni channel solution offers various digital channels but unifies communication across all channels and devices.
Integration: With a multi-channel solution, each communication channel functions in isolation; but omni channel solution integrates all the communication channels.
Interaction: Customers might have to repeat everything if the digital channel resets with multi-channel but omnichannel solution records the customer’s previous interaction even if the point of contact breaks
Customer journey: Contact centre agents have access to only a single channel of customer interaction in multi-channel solutions while in omni-channel solutions, contact centre agents have access to all the touchpoints in the customer’s journey.
Top Features of an Omnichannel Contact Center
It’s no surprise that customers and agents prefer an omnichannel approach. However, omnichannel contact centres rely on software solutions to function. Its technology makes it possible to combine all communication channels into one platform.
Here are some of the top features your omnichannel contact centre should have:
1. Centralized Data Management
An omnichannel contact centre needs a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution to centralize data management. It will save your agents from information overload, and it will also help them solve customer problems better since they will have easy access to all the information they need.
Ultimately, making customer data easier to access will improve agent productivity, improve customer service, and improve customer experience.
2. Performance and Quality Management
If you don’t invest in the performance of your customer support team, you can’t improve customer satisfaction. For that, you need to track and measure individual metrics of your support team frequently. Quality and performance management tools give you access to the data you need to train and improve your agents’ productivity.
With an omnichannel contact centre solution, you can monitor scorecards, call transcripts, and track agent performance. A supervisor can see where customer service agents need to improve by looking at an agent’s performance and history on a daily basis.
3. Omnichannel Routing
Omnichannel routing is a method of cleverly directing customer queries across a diverse range of service channels.
When your business operates on an omnichannel platform, your customer support agents will interact with customers in multiple ways. Omnichannel routing assures that the interaction goes to the right agent with the help of AI-powered automatic contact distributors.
The query can be routed through email, text messaging, social media, video calls, and web chat.
The customer may feel frustrated and dissatisfied if they are transferred again and again. Using an omnichannel solution ensures that customers are assigned correctly from the get-go.
4. Social Media Communication
Social media can be a hassle or an opportunity for your organization, depending on how you use it. Today, customers have started using it to contact companies because it’s a channel of communication that they’re very comfortable with.
5. CRM
Having a CRM on your omnichannel solution help compiles all the customer interaction data on a single screen enabling your team to provide an improved customer experience with less effort.
Why you should adopt an omnichannel solution
1. Improve productivity and reduce agent effort
Customer support agents can experience issues like low job satisfaction, excessive stress, lack of recognition, and reduced productivity, omnichannel solution can alleviate these issues because communication is integrated into one platform, so agents only need to access one program, and they can view all information needed for a specific customer. This will reduce employee stress and increase job satisfaction.
2. Manage Social Media Presence
An omnichannel contact centre solution can help you identify and respond to posts and mentions on social media platforms, you can also route social media posts directly from your company’s profile page. Connecting social media with your omnichannel contact centre solution and making it accessible via phone, email, and SMS communications will ensure a seamless customer experience across the board.
3. Provides Customer Insights
Omnichannel call centre solutions integrate mediums of communication like call, SMS, chat and social media. This gives the call centre more than one data collection point. The collected data can be analyzed to get a wider picture of how your customers are interacting with your business for their needs across different channels. The gathered data can help you serve your customers better.
4. Brings Out the Best in Agents
Omnichannel call centre solution allows agents to quickly respond to clients’ queries, which means that supervisors have more time on their hands that can be utilized for training agents for more complex situations. Not only will this be a bonus for your organization, but it will also make your agents feel more efficient. It makes them feel more fulfilled with their jobs.
5. Cost Saving
Integration of different communication channels may sound expensive, but it isn’t. This solution is cost-effective because you do not need to hire dedicated agents for each channel. Also, the most popular channels for customer resolution tend to be the “self-help” kind, as most customers prefer to look for an answer themselves. Since the technology handles most of the heavy lifting, it relieves a lot of pressure on agents.
Final Thoughts
By leveraging an omnichannel contact centre solution, you can meet the changing needs of the modern customer. Through social media, emails, chatbots, and traditional phone calls, you’ll be able to interact with customers in the way they prefer.
However, whatever the provider, ensure that the omnichannel contact centre solution complements the customer experience strategy to get the most out of it. Identifying specific customer needs by mapping out customer journeys across channels is a great initiative to get contact centres started on the right foot.
Contact us at Prime Expression for more information about our contact centre omnichannel solutions to schedule a demo.
