Delivering exceptional experiences could give businesses an edge over competitors. Today, businesses are turning to an omnichannel approach to meet customers on whatever platform they use.
There are many solutions available in the market to deliver an omnichannel experience. But choosing the right one is important. In this blog post, we picked the top omnichannel platforms to help you deliver a more personalized and connected experience.
But let’s start with the basics first.
What is an Omnichannel Platform?
The omnichannel platform helps you offer continuous customer interaction across communication channels such as email, voice, social media, SMS, chat, and self-service portals.
It offers a single solution for inbound and outbound contact center experience. The solution helps improve customer interaction during support or service and manage customer engagement for lead generation and conversion.
For the customer support team: It offers contact center agents a unified view of all customer interactions across channels to ensure a continuous and personalized conversation. |
For customers: It allows customers to switch between their preferred communication channels at their convenience. Moreover, it empowers them to resolve their inquiries independently using self-service portals. |
How Omnichannel Platforms Differ from Multichannel Platforms?
Both omnichannel and multichannel platforms support various channels for customer communication.
In a multichannel platform, the channels are siloed, and the interactions are managed independently. However, omnichannel allows customers to switch between channels and continue the conversation with context.
Feature | Omnichannel Platform | Multichannel Platform |
Integration | Interactions across the channels are connected | Channels operate independently, leading to an unconnected experience |
Customer Experience | Customer experience is unified across touchpoints in the customer journey | Customer experience varies between channels |
Personalization | Synchronized customer data creates a personalized experience across all channels | Fragmented insights lead to channel-based personalization |
Seamless Channel Switching | Agents and customers can switch channels mid-conversation without losing context | Agent and customers cannot switch channels to continue a conversation |
Benefits of Omnichannel Marketing Platform
The omnichannel approach unlocks several benefits that help businesses create a personalized, thoughtful, and connected customer experience. It helps::
» Improve Customer Satisfaction: The platform ensures that customers feel valued and understood and helps businesses create an engaging journey that drives satisfaction and loyalty
» Make Cohesive Experience: It helps brands deliver a consistent and personalized experience across channels based on past data
» Increase ROI: Businesses can streamline routine marketing tasks with features like AI, which can reduce operational costs
» Deliver a Consistent Brand Voice: It ensures customers receive consistent communication and service quality regardless of the channel. This creates a consistent brand voice and identity, nurturing brand recognition and awareness.
Important Features of an Omnichannel Marketing Automation Platform
If you’re considering an omnichannel platform for your business, here are some essential features to look for:
» Integrated Communication Channels: A single unified interface for consistent messaging across all touchpoints
» AI-powered Chatbots: Assist customers with queries, raise tickets, recommend products, and expedite customer support 24x7without human intervention
» Real-time Analytics: Evaluate campaign performance, customer interactions, and agent performance to identify areas for improvement
» Security & Compliance: Secure platform against cyber-attacks and unauthorized access while ensuring compliance with high industry standards like GDPR and TCPA
» Robust Integration: Integrate with your existing business platforms like your CRM, helpdesk system, and other tools to create a unified view of customer journey interactions
Top Omnichannel Platforms
Here are the top options you can consider to improve customer experience:
1. Exotel: Our top pick for organizations of all sizes looking to scale contact center solutions
2. Nextiva: Best for SMBs seeking scalable VoIP and unified communication solution
3. Zendesk: Ideal for large enterprises with high-volume customer support
4. Knowlarity: Best for growing businesses needing scalable and AI-powered solution
5. Help Scout: Ideal for small businesses and startups looking for simple and affordable contact center software
6. Drift: Best for mid to large businesses looking for AI-driven platforms
7. Zoho Desk: Ideal for SMBs needing a customizable helpdesk
8. Live Agent: Best for startups and SMBs looking for a multi-channel customer service platform
9. Hiver: Best for SMBs offering Gmail-focused customer support
Now, let’s explore each of these platforms in detail.
1. Exotel
Exotel provides businesses with omnichannel contact center solutions, enabling seamless customer interactions through AI and automation. It offers features like AI-powered chatbots, IVRs, call routing, speech recognition, auto-dialers, integrations, and data analytics.
Its omnichannel platform solution ensures that you can maintain a consistent conversation across all touchpoints, no matter where customers start their journey with your businesses.
The platform is suitable for business aspects like customer support, marketing, sales, collections, and appointments.
Key Features:
- Seamless integration with cloud telephony for inbound and outbound applications
- Supports channels like voice, SMS, email, chatbots, and social media
- Offers AI-powered conversation quality analysis features to enhance conversation quality and mitigate non-compliance risks
- The real-time agent assist helps human agents deliver prompt and accurate solutions to customers with call transcribing
- Provides a single view of all customer information by integrating with CRM systems and other business applications
- Automate messages and schedule notifications to deliver proactive and timely communication
- Guage customer emotion and satisfaction level with sentiment analysis
- The unified dashboard offers comprehensive monitoring of all interactions, allowing managers and supervisors to make informed decisions
- End-to-end security safeguards your data and adheres to stringent compliances
The platform is suitable for growing businesses that require scalable, secure, and flexible solutions. You can book a demo today to learn more about it and how it can enhance your customer experience strategies.
2. Nextiva
Nextiva is a robust platform that integrates all your communication channels in a single interface, making it easy to manage customer interactions. It offers advanced functionalities like video conferencing, team collaboration tools and built-in CRM systems.
Key Features:
- AI-powered tools like predictive analytics and customer journey tracking, provide relevant insights into customer behavior and experience
- Built-in CRM to efficiently manage customer data
- Manage internal communications within team members or departments
- Detailed call analytics with key metrics like call duration and volume
- VoIP features like call recording, number porting, and call pop
3. Zendesk
Zendesk is a widely popular omnichannel platform that helps businesses of all sizes to deliver personalized customer experiences. It offers support channels like email, live chat, phone, self-service portals, and social media in a unified platform.
Key Features:
- AI-driven chatbots give instant answers, recommend replies, and summarize queries
- Ticket management system to handle support tickets in one place with access to historical customer data
- Upgrades and add-ons to customize the platform
- Pre-built analytics dashboards to monitor contact center performance
4. Knowlarity
It’s a cloud-based communication platform with omnichannel capabilities to streamline customer support and sales interactions. The scalable platform offers robust data security capability, ensuring compliance with global standards.
Key Features:
- Cloud telephony solutions with IVRs, call routing, tracking, and recording
- Agents can forward calls to their mobile numbers or landlines to provide remote service
- Redirect repeat callers to the particular agent they’ve interacted with in the past
5. Help Scout
Help Scout provides an omnichannel solution for small and mid-sized businesses that need a simple yet effective platform to streamline customer interactions. The platform also offers capabilities to enhance collaboration among support teams, like shared inboxes and internal notes.
Key Features:
- Intuitive omnichannel interface to offer support using email, live chat, and the knowledge base
- Automation workflows and customization with email filtering
- Comprehensive reporting tools to track agent productivity and call metrics
6. Drift
Drift is an AI-driven customer engagement platform that facilitates real-time conversations with customers and prospects. It offers AI-powered chatbots and workflows to help businesses provide instant support and capture quality leads.
Key Features:
- AI-powered knowledge base and chatbots that help agents with insights about customers
- Custom routing, message templates, and response timers
- Dashboard to track metrics like time-to-resolution, customer satisfaction, and deflection rate
7. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a cloud-based helpdesk solution that offers omnichannel support to help improve customer service. The platform offers AI-powered tools and workflow management, boosting support efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Key Features:
- AI-powered assistant with features like sentiment analysis and auto-tagging tickets
- Built-in analytics capability
- Workflow automation for ticket assignment and notification for faster resolution
8. Live Agent
Live Agent is an omnichannel customer service software with live chat as its core function. The platform also seamlessly integrates with other communication channels, including social media, email, and calls, to provide comprehensive customer support.
Key Features:
- Essential capabilities like IVR, call recording and monitoring
- Multiple live dashboards integrated into a single interface for seamless engagement
- AI assistance with 3 tones of voices, casual, neutral, and business that you can adjust as per business preference
- The ticket management system helps quickly process queries and track upcoming tickets
9. Hiver
Hiver is multi-channel software best suited for businesses that rely heavily on email communication to offer customer support. The platform works directly within Gmail, allowing teams to manage customer inquiries through live chat and shared inboxes without leaving their email interface.
Key Features:
- AI Summarizer condenses long customer queries into relevant notes for ease of understanding
- Manage phone calls and create a self-serve knowledge base
- Chatbot to offer 24×7 support and handle repetitive queries
- Pre-written and customizable email templates and responses for general queries
How to Select an Omnichannel Customer Experience Platform?
You can assess the top omnichannel platforms listed above and choose the one suitable for your business. Here are some considerations to make a good choice:
⇒ Business Needs: Identify your biggest business pain points that an omnichannel marketing automation platform can resolve. Map them to your goal for evaluating the available software.
⇒ Ease of Use: Find a platform that offers a user-friendly interface making it easy for agents to adopt the platform quickly
⇒ Onboarding Program: Evaluate the vendor’s onboarding process and training program to help agents onboard easily
⇒ Pricing: Compare pricing models of omnichannel platforms depending on the features and functionalities the vendor offers and business needs
⇒ Customer Support: Evaluate how easy it is to reach the vendor’s customer support and quality of support
If you’re still unsure, it’s always a great idea to try the best available option. You can book a demo with our Exotel’s team to learn more about how Exotel’s omnichannel solution can help you improve customer experience.
Improve Your CX with the Best Omnichannel Platform
Investing in an omnichannel solution can help you enhance communication, personalize customer journeys, and create long-lasting customer relationships. If you want to streamline your operations and deliver optimal customer experience, you can bet on the best — Exotel.
Exotel’s omnichannel contact center solution offers AI-driven features, seamless integrations, advanced analytics, and a unified communication experience, offering the flexibility to enhance customer experience.
FAQs
1. Do Omnichannel Platforms Support Mobile Interactions?
Most omnichannel platforms support mobile-friendly channels like SMS, push notifications, WhatsApp, and mobile apps.
2. How do Omnichannel Customer Experience Platforms Impact Customer Journey Mapping?
Omnichannel customer experience platforms allow businesses to monitor and track customer interactions across various key touchpoints and channels. This helps identify opportunities, pain points, and satisfaction levels across the customer journey.
3. How Can an Omnichannel Platform Enhance Customer Support?
Omnichannel platforms offer AI-powered capabilities, such as chatbots, agent assistance, sentiment analysis, speech recognition, and more, to help agents provide relevant and faster assistance to customers.