The Importance of Offering Omnichannel Support
We were already heading for a digital-only world, but social distancing really sped up the process. Amid a global pandemic, brands needed to be able to connect with customers in more ways than one. Businesses that took an omnichannel approach have reaped the rewards by becoming high performers. In fact, when we take a look at the data, we see that companies with extremely strong omnichannel customer engagement retain on average 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for companies with weak omnichannel customer engagement. Today we will tell you why omnichannel support is so important and what you can do to start providing such services to your customers if you are not doing so already.
Customers Expect to Be Able to Contact via Many Different Methods
According to our report, more than 35% of customers expect to be able to contact the same customer service representative on any channel. We also need to take into account that various demographic groups have their own preferred contact methods. For example, let’s take a look at Gen Z, which includes people born around or after 1997 and are now turning into one of the largest spending groups and are the customers of the future that we need to appeal to. Gen Z spends an average of 6 hours a day online, they are the most widely based users of the most recent social media channels like WhatsApp and Instagram.
Therefore, it is important to analyze your audience and learn about the communication channels they prefer to use. By offering many different options, you are making it easier for them to contact you and build relationships with your customers.
Offer a Seamless Customer Experience
Unfortunately, the overall experience with a brand is more often than not likely to be inconsistent or somewhat frustrating. To get noticed by and retain customers, companies need not only to understand their customers and their preferred experience but also proactively innovate and overdeliver on these experiences. This is where the seamless customer experience comes into the picture. This means that the customer experience is a customer journey that is devoid of any mistakes, delays, or setbacks. In other words, this kind of customer experience is efficient, smooth, and enjoyable. It should also be consistent across all channels.
So, how can you help provide such seamless experiences by offering many communication channels? Well, usually when a user chooses different channels to communicate their information to the company, so-called media breaks occur. If a customer first calls regarding a request, the agent will take notes of the call and record the most important contents of the conversation.
If the customer then chooses to contact support through a different channel, let’s say instant chat, they will be communicating with a different agent who will not be aware of their previous phone calls or conversations with another agent forcing the customer to repeat their issues. As you can imagine, this is very frustrating.
One of the biggest benefits of having an omnichannel platform is that it serves as a Single Point of Information (SPOI) – a central database for all customer information. Any information that a customer communicates to the company, whether by telephone, letter, e-mail, social media, chat, or digital chatbot channel, must be stored in the customer account and must be linked and accessible to the customer data in the database.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
Recent data shows that companies that offer omnichannel customer support enjoy 89% more customer retention and satisfaction than the brands that don’t. Omnichannel service aims at making customers’ lives easier from start to finish, ironing out any friction they may face while engaging with a brand. This ultimately boosts customer satisfaction. By reducing customer effort, dependency, and time across all brand interactions, you are providing a holistic eco-system for your customers to exist and engage with your brand at their convenience.