Few things are more frustrating to customers than having to repeat the same information over and over.
A customer emails a question or complaint. They call to follow up and have to repeat everything. Or they start an online chat and, again, they have to start from scratch. Or they call, and later get an email in response that reads as if their phone call never happened.
That’s the opposite of a good customer experience. It’s also a problem that omnichannel communications can solve.
What is Omnichannel Communications?
From the customer’s point of view, omnichannel is a fancy word for seamless. The customer might ask a question using web-based chat, get a follow-up email, a text reminder with a link for additional info, and maybe have a phone call later.
Throughout the process, the communications are targeted. The customer never has to explain something twice. Sometimes customers are empowered by self-servicing: they get a text and respond to confirm an appointment, or they call an automated system to check their account balance and can request an email with their most recent transactions.
When customers can communicate with you how and when they want, everybody wins. Your company wins because customers are more satisfied and loyal. Your employees win because they’re communicating more efficiently with happier customers. Your managers win because now they have advanced metrics that can drive smarter, more strategic decisions. And your customers win because they can get the information and assistance they want and need.
Expanding Omnichannel Functions
Omnichannel communications can be as simple or as robust as you wish. Besides integrating voice, chat, text, and email, a system can include other capabilities.
For example, third-party software can monitor selected social media channels for company mentions. When a mention is found, that information can be routed to the company’s contact center, where an agent can respond to a compliment or remediate a situation or complaint. Or artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to respond to many inquiries; for many people, a Google AI bot is so lifelike they may not even realize they’re interacting with a bot. If the bot can’t resolve the issue, the call can be automatically routed to an agent, who can quickly see why the client called.
Omnichannel in the Cloud
Although omnichannel systems can be set up with on-premises systems, a cloud-delivered system such as Cloud9 by VOIP Networks offers a much more flexible solution. By using the cloud, employees aren’t tethered to a physical call center, but can operate from anywhere. Systems can be expanded, and capabilities can be added easily. Systems can also be managed—and metrics monitored—by anyone, anywhere.
The Power of Customer Satisfaction
Companies reap many benefits when they offer the exceptional client experience that omnichannel communications provides, especially in a cloud-based environment.
A white paper by Frost & Sullivan, a Silicon Valley growth consulting firm, highlighted these benefits of cloud-based systems named by decision-makers at a variety of firms:
- Ease of use: cited by 88%
- Access to advanced capabilities and expertise: 85%
- Deployment speed: 85%
- Lower total cost of ownership: 84%
- Ability to store increasingly large amounts of customer and interaction data: 84%
- Flexibility and scalability: 82%
- Ability to support a distributed workforce: 82%
The ROI on a better customer experience is equally impressive, based on a study by the Temkin Group, a customer experience research, consulting, and training firm. Consumers who have a very good customer experience are 3.5x more likely to make additional purchases and 5x more likely to recommend a company.
VOIP Networks specializes in building omnichannel systems that are highly flexible. We develop custom solutions designed to meet any need of your organization, based on your enterprise’s strategy and schedule.
