Today’s businesses rely on healthy customer engagement initiatives for profitability and long-term customer loyalty. Being present at all customer touchpoints with personalized, relevant communications is not only a customer expectation; it’s critical for a brand’s survival. Consistency of messaging is crucial at each step, from marketing programs to the contact center, having direct contact with prospects and customers.
Until recently, contact centers weren’t considered strategic; they were not seen as firm representatives of the brand but rather in a purely operational customer service role. Today, however, the contact center is a critical component of customer engagement. Brands rely on contact centers for their place in the customer journey and their ability to secure customer engagement and loyalty for the long term.
Customers are not one-dimensional, so it makes sense that your customer engagement strategy shouldn’t be either. Today’s customers use an average of six touchpoints when connecting with companies, and they expect consistent interactions across every channel.
Your call center must deliver a unified and comprehensive customer experience across every channel your customers use to communicate. It’s the key to high levels of customer satisfaction and customer engagement.
That’s what omnichannel call center management is all about. It allows your customers to communicate with you in whichever way they feel most comfortable while receiving the same support. Sounds simple right?
So how do you get started?
An omnichannel call center strategy leverages cross-channel communication to deliver personalized interactions and increase customer engagement. It breaks down typical department, channel, and system silos to unify the customer experience.
In its simplest form, an omnichannel engagement strategy creates a near-seamless transition between channels by uniting them all under one umbrella. It collects, analyses, and shares real-time customer support activity from every channel.
When done well, an omnichannel engagement strategy helps improve data exchange, reduce flawed assumptions, and increase consistency while creating common standards of customer engagement. Omnichannel engagement isn’t the future wave; it’s happening right now.
The benefits of implementing an omnichannel engagement strategy in your call center cannot be overstated.
If your call center wants to offer successful customer support that leads to profitability and long-term customer loyalty, then an omnichannel engagement strategy is critical to your survival.
So what does it take to implement an omnichannel engagement strategy in your call center?
To adapt to an omnichannel engagement strategy, your call center needs technology. You need tools that protect your customers’ time and provide a seamless experience across channels. The call center technology must serve the new omnichannel customer profile.
There are many options when it comes to technology that breaks down silos. A few of the most important features include:
Implementing technology and tools that bring together fragmented customer data makes it easier for your agents to delight your customers and build long-term brand loyalty.
Proper training is critical if you want your agents to deliver consistent messaging across channels. They need to understand how to use an authentic and helpful tone that conveys empathy and a willingness to listen. Soft skills training is essential.
Schedule regular training to help your agents:
Beyond agent training, you should also involve your agents in developing your omnichannel engagement strategy. Solicit feedback about call center operations and methodologies. The more your agents feel like they are at the heart of customer engagement, your initiative will be more successful.
Unlike multi-channel support, omnichannel customer support must deliver a seamless and personalized customer engagement no matter the channel. It shouldn’t make a difference whether a customer contacts you via phone, email, or live chat. Your call center must be fully capable of handling every situation flawlessly.
As part of this, your customers should be directed to the right agent in a timely and effective manner. This requires a thorough planning and routing strategy. The goal should be to dynamically match customers from any touchpoint, over any channel, to the customer support agent with the optimal insight, skillset, and proficiency to help.
This requires a deep understanding of the customer journey—the collection of touchpoints and interactions a customer goes through during their experience with your business. For example, you’ll need to identify which communication channels your customers prefer for particular issues, how channels overlap when automated solutions can help, and the best use for each agent.
Omnichannel call center engagement requires an unrelenting focus on the customer. Anything else will fail, so it’s essential to dedicate resources and time to make the omnichannel customer experience seamless.
Remember: what is unknown cannot be measured and cannot be improved. Quality assurance allows you to review available data to monitor gaps, delays, and other issues. The goal should be to generate reports in real-time based on customer and agent feedback, so you can step back and see how your omnichannel engagement strategy is performing.
The key to successful QA across channels and for all agents includes:
Introducing an omnichannel engagement strategy in your call center is well worth the effort. It is undoubtedly responsible for delivering exceptional customer experiences that drive customer loyalty, generate higher lifetime values, increase revenue, and decrease costs. And the good news is that it’s never too late to make the change.
The Ultimate Guide to Creating an Effective Omnichannel Customer Experience can equip you with the tools and strategies you need to create an exceptional customer experience across every touchpoint.
