Businesses want to expand touchpoints and the level of convenience they provide their customers. Customer support today is moving in a different direction, They are considered as a strategic customer engagement tool, where stronger relationships can be fostered with customers. An Omnichannel messaging technology approach is the future of customer engagement strategy. With access to more data, businesses can now unlock actionable insights hidden within that data, leading to better solutions for both customers and businesses. This data has further helped in integrating AI-based solutions into the mix.
Customers want to engage with your product or service in the method and time that best serves them. In digital that means providing access to your brand or service on any device, in all channels and touchpoints, with the proper feedback and responsiveness.
Why Omnichannel Strategy is Constructive for your Business.
The omnichannel strategy has rapidly become the smartest way to engage with customers by superior management of customer interactions across all channels. Now, modern businesses can’t hope to exist and prosper without a fully functional Omnichannel contact center.
Present-day customers want a steady, high-quality experience in all the channels they choose to interact in. Therefore, they might start looking for a product online, rave about it on social media, and finally choose to buy it in-store. Essentially they want the customer experience to be uniform in all the channels, and Omnichannel helps all of these interactions under a single platform for agents, along with the ability to seamlessly toggle among them.
Customer Data and Analytics for Proactive Support
The above strategy has to be backed up by data and analytics to handle all interactions, which is obtained by customer communications across numerous channels such as, Whatsapp, In-App Chat, In-Web Chat, Social platforms, SMS, etc. Modern customer support has the convenience and luxury of access to customer data which was not the case in the past. This acts as a huge opportunity for businesses today as customer data can be easily used to gain profound insights into people’s behavior and the way their sentiments are shaping up. Thus, this makes an easy way to develop better products and services.
Creating any product or service is a job only half done. I know this sounds a bit weird but in a world that beams with population explosion and an ever-increasing sharing of ideas and perceptions, this is the firm reality. Organizations worldwide can create top-class products and services but they can never control how people will perceive it. This is why customer data and predictive analytics are crucial for contact centers and businesses at large, as they enable business managers to identify areas of a product that customers likely need assistance for.
How does this Revolutionize an Agent’s Life?
Insights derived from data and analytics can be easily shared with contact center agents or businesses to get them prepared for the support that customers are likely to reach out for. Since a significant number of volumes start pouring in during the first month after purchasing a product, having access to insights surely fosters the Net Promoter Score (NPS), along with increasing First Call Resolution (FCR).
Humanizing customer engagement is key to any business. Consumers want to browse products and make purchases online. At the same time, they want to receive the same personal responses that they would if they were shopping in a store. Use chatbots or voice bots to provide real-time assistance when consumers are browsing through your company’s products. Respond to comments on various platforms in a timely, conversational manner. It is important to engage both Bots and Humans seamlessly to enhance the whole digital engagement and to improve your customer engagement online.
Whether it’s your contact center agent or your enterprise customer support rep, Agent life has been revolutionized to be more productive in terms of a unified desktop, multitasking, access to 360 customer data (CRM), a knowledge base for a quick response which further gives agents better insights to engage with customers and much more. Exceptional EX is about giving employees a set of options that will help them achieve their full potential and drive business value. Enabling new innovative technology would be a great start.
Real-time messaging will outpace other mediums.
Customers expect you to be always on — and most of them prefer to interact using chat than phone or email. Facebook Messenger as a channel for support has pushed us ahead of light-years! Now, you can converse with businesses in real-time, and Facebook will even show you their average responsiveness and if that responsiveness is poor, forget even engaging at all.
This expectation of real-time messaging and responsiveness seeps into other media, too. It’s not just the expectation on Facebook Messenger or Slack (either internally or with vendors), but on-site conversations and chat are all expected to be real-time, 1:1, and authentic. That’s a big change from the world of snail mail, and then email.
The world operates in synchronous time now — so that means you need to amp up your communication technologies and strategies while still using email to share important documents and communications your customers will want to come back to again and again.
Key takeaways you might want to consider to strategize a successful customer engagement environment.
- Select the right channels for your type of customers and your business objectives.
- Ensure you are ready for scale with the introduction of bots & AI.
- Make sure you have access to data and analytics which will be crucial to improve your customer engagement strategy day by day.
- When selecting enabling technology be aware that a good digital customer service platform has 7 core functional components.
- Omni Digital Channel
- Seamless Orchestration across digital channels
- Access to relevant knowledge
- Continuous Intelligence
- Ability to automate to deliver at scale
- An efficient agent desktop
- Seamless integration into existing IT infrastructure.
Final Thoughts
Ten years ago, omnichannel strategies would have seemed absurd. But now it’s the norm. The majority of customers chose multiple channels to reach their favorite brands. Limiting yourself to one or two channels and lacking the seamless integration you’ve seen here can be detrimental to your long-term growth. These tips should serve as a jumping-off point for your omnichannel strategy. Always look for new outlets and ways to connect each and every channel. Create an experience that isn’t locked into a single platform. Rather, create an experience that can be completed and repeated on each.
Sparkcentral – Messaging technology for contact centers.
Sparkcentral enables you to improve your customer experience ánd at the same time increase your service operations efficiency. Since 2012 Sparkcentral’s visionary SaaS platform for Digital Customer Service referred to as the AMD (Asynchronous Messaging Distribution) platform, has developed into a well established SaaS platform in the global contact center technology space.
Thought leaders in WhatsApp customer service.
Sparkcentral has enabled leading global innovative brands such as Zappos, Netflix, Emirates Airlines, Concentrix, and many more to improve their customer experience and increase their service operations efficiency. Sparkcentral product roadmap is focused on being the leading provider of advanced customer service solutions on WhatsApp and other asynchronous messaging channels.
Sparkcentral is mentioned in the Gartner customer service technology guide 2020. Gartner sees the emergence of a new area of customer care referred to as digital customer service. In this area, they monitor a set of vendors that focus on digital engagement through chat, chatbots, messaging, outbound alerts (proactive notifications), and social media engagement. Sparkcentral is proud to be associated in the Digital Customer service and support technologies space: Gartner Market Guide for Digital Customer Service and Support Technologies.
Interested in Sparkcentral Digital Customer Service Solution? Learn more.
Article by – Sabin Gomez
Development Manager | Contact Center Digital Solutions | Customer Experience Strategy.