If a customer complains on the chatbot today, they expect a call tomorrow with a solution or more information. This is only possible when multiple communication channels are integrated within the system.

Today, the challenge that companies face is not to make their business accessible but to deliver a consistent experience and improved customer satisfaction. That’s where omnichannel customer service plays a crucial role.

Here, we explain what an omnichannel customer service platform is and how it can scale your business operations. 

What is Omnichannel Customer Service? 

An omnichannel customer service involves the integration of multiple channels for a connected customer experience. 

An omnichannel strategy ends the siloed customer interactions and helps you meet customer expectations through the right platform. Here, all the channels are connected so that businesses can offer continued service to customers across channels.  

For instance, if a customer reaches out via chatbot for a critical issue, the agent can switch the conversation to a phone call and pick up exactly where they left off. It could include various channels like:

  • Phone call
  • Email
  • SMS
  • Website chatbots
  • Mobile messaging apps
  • Video calling
  • Social media channels

Omnichannel vs Multichannel Customer Service

Omnichannel Customer Service Multichannel Customer Service
Offers a connected experience, regardless of the first touchpoint Offers support via multiple channels without necessarily connecting them 
Every channel is interconnected and offers holistic engagement Every channel operates in isolation and offers independent engagement
Ensures conversation history travels when agents and customers switch channels Doesn’t continue a conversation history and context from one channel to the next
Focused on creating a customer-centric and unified experience  Focused on providing multiple engagement options to the customers 

How Omnichannel Customer Service Can Scale Business? 

In omnichannel customer service, the conversation history and context are preserved while switching channels. This connected architecture helps:

  • Deliver Faster Resolution: You can introduce self-serve options like chatbots and IVR into your customer service strategy and offer quick resolutions to common inquiries. Further, the agents can also have a detailed view of customer concerns, which help provide quicker resolution.
  • Offer a Seamless Channel Experience: Use an omnichannel customer service platform to engage customers on their preferred channels, giving them options for how they want to contact customer service.
  • Deliver Personalized Experiences: The holistic view of the customer journey helps agents deliver personalized service to customers during conversations. Further, your businesses can also set up automated SMS or calls for feedback collection in real time.
  • Identify New Opportunities: Businesses can generate a better context of how customers interact with the brand omnichannel data collection. This helps understand customer needs and challenges, helping identify opportunities to improve the services.

Features to Consider in an Omnichannel Customer Service Platform

If you’re considering an omnichannel customer support platform, here are some key features to look for: 

1. Seamless Multi-channel Integration

This is too obvious—the platform you choose should integrate with multiple communication channels that are important to your business. For e.g., phone, email, chat, social media, and SMS. 

This helps

» Customer service reps can switch channels and continue the conversation without losing context

» Customers can choose their preferred communication channel

» Business to provide connected and personalized customer service 

2. Workflow Automation

The omnichannel platform should offer features to automate repetitive tasks to reduce human intervention For e.g., AI chatbots to handle routine inquiries, sending automated messages for feedback collection, and channel routing.

This helps reduce the workload for the human agents and improve their efficiency.

3. Unified View of Customer Interactions

The platform should consolidate customer data and interactions into a comprehensive view to offer a complete history of customer preferences, past issues, and interactions with the customer service representative.

This will help the customer service agents understand the customers, deliver better support, reduce customer’s efforts, and improve the end-user experience.

4. Self-Service Options

In an omnichannel contact center, self-service options allow customers to find answers and resolve issues themselves without any help from human agents. These options include chatbots, IVRs and knowledge bases. 

Modern-day customer service platforms offer AI-powered options that help customers navigate through their issues by directing them to the right resources. 

The self-service options help:

» Customers can resolve issues instantly

» Agents to focus on more important and complex conversations

» Businesses to reduce the overall operational costs

5. CRM Integration

The customer service platform should integrate with the CRM system for a seamless data flow and comprehensive view of customer data.

This will ensure that customer data remains up-to-date across systems and offer a high-level view of customer interactions with the business. 

Omnichannel Customer Service Examples & Use Cases

The omnichannel customer service is beneficial for businesses across industries. Here are some examples of businesses using omnichannel customer service. 

1. E-commerce

Amazon is an excellent example of omnichannel customer support. It allows customers to start a conversation on their website and continue it on their mobile app. The customers can get assistance, track orders, and request returns over voice, emails, and SMS.

Here are some other use cases of omnichannel customer service for ecommerce:

» Order Status Updates – Keep customers informed of the status of their orders at every stage using SMS

» Automated Feedback System – Gather customer feedback about their shopping experience using automated calls or SMS

» Marketing & Promotions – Send promotional SMS to your customers based on their actions on the website

» Automated Order Verification – Set up automated calls or messages to verify orders using OTP and reduce fake orders

Online businesses can use Exotel to leverage all these use cases of omnichannel support. It’s easy to use and integrate, book a demo now. 

2. Banking & Finance

Well Fargo integrates all customer information across channels like website, phone support, mobile app, and physical branches. This helps customers to manage their accounts, transfer funds, and get support using any of these channels.

Similarly, banking and financial institutions can use Exotel for the following use cases:

» Automated Communication – Send reminders for dues, payments, and renewals with automated SMS, saving time and delivering proactive services

» Optimized Customer Support – Improve pickup rates by optimizing caller ID for each customer 

» Protect Customer Data – Mask customer phone numbers to eliminate the risk of unauthorized usage

» Efficient Verification – Speed up customer identity verification with SMS OTP to secure access

3. Healthcare

A good example of omnichannel customer service in healthcare is the Mayo Clinic. It delivers an integrated customer experience through a mobile app, patient portal, in-person visit, and phone consultation.

It keeps the information updated and accessible to patients and allows patients to access their medical records, schedule appointments, and communicate with healthcare providers regardless of the channel. 

Here are the use cases of omnichannel customer experience in the healthcare industry:

» Managing Patient Appointments – Streamline tasks such as scheduling and patient confirmation using text and voice channels. 

» Accessible Telemedicine – Provide 1 on 1 consultation with high-quality voice and video channels, and use smart IVR and AI chatbots to make healthcare accessible. 

» Effective Emergency Response System – Ensure healthcare providers are alerted and available with trigger-based notifications and toll-free helplines. 

» Patient’s Data Privacy – Connect patients with healthcare personnel with routing features without revealing patients’ phone numbers. 

How to Build an Omnichannel Customer Service Strategy? 

Let’s look at the steps you can take to build your omnichannel support strategy. 

Step 1: Understand Your Customer’s Expectations

Not all customers interact with the business in the same way. Therefore, you need to understand your customers and their journey to design a personalized experience.

Understand why customers need your service and what their goals are. This will help you determine a goal for your customer service strategy.

Step 2: Identify Communication Channels

Discover which channels customers prefer to interact with your business. This will help you identify a platform that offers channels preferred by your audience. 

Step 3: Map Customer Journey

Create a visual representation of the entire customer journey to identify key touchpoints and interactions and identify opportunities to implement an omnichannel customer service platform. 

This way, you can identify where you can optimize engagement and tailor customer service meaningfully.

Step 4: Invest in an Omnichannel Customer Service Platform

Look for a platform that tracks and monitors the entire customer lifecycle to help you design relevant reactive and proactive services. Evaluates features, capabilities, integrations and automations in connection with your business need to select the best fit. 

For example, Exotel offers AI-powered customer service solutions that help deliver seamless and contextual customer experiences across touchpoints. 

Omnichannel Customer Service Best Practices 

It doesn’t end with implementing an omnichannel customer service platform. The key to a successful customer experience is identifying the gaps and refining the strategy.

Here are some of the best practices you can finetune the unified customer service experience:

⇒ Optimize for Mobile Experience – Include mobile channels like SMS, messaging apps, and phone calls in your strategy to offer quick support via phone

⇒ Scale Steadily – Start with one or two channels and keep experimenting with new channels. This will help you get started and scale as per customer’s feedback.

⇒ Personalize Interactions – Analyze customer interaction history to understand their preferences, needs, and behavior. Use the information to engage customers on their preferred channel and personalize messages.

⇒ Gather Customer Feedback – Collect customer satisfaction feedback to evaluate the effectiveness of your omnichannel customer service approach. Listen to customer feedback to identify areas where your service excels and where there is friction.

Omnichannel Customer Service: Key Takeaways 

Fragmented customer services negatively impact customers and businesses alike, making it complicated to harness the true potential of customer data. An intuitive app and engaging telephone communication cannot become omnichannel if they are siloed. 

An omnichannel customer service platform takes into account the various interactions across various touchpoints and channels to design a strategy that ensures a connected experience for every user. The frictionless approach creates a consistent brand image, increases agent productivity, delivers quick resolution, and improves customer satisfaction. 

Platforms like Exotel offer additional contact center functionalities like auto-dialers, smart call routing, automated SMS and calls, multi-level IVR and complex integrations to optimize call center operations. You can book a demo today to see how it can help your business.

FAQs

1. How to Implement an Omnichannel Customer Service Software?

Here’s how to implement omnichannel customer service: 

  • Identify your business needs and customer behavior
  • Map out the customer journey to identify key touchpoints
  • Choose a platform that smoothly integrates with your existing system
  • Integrate communication channels and test its seamless flow of data
  • Provide comprehensive training to agents for smoother adaption
  • Monitor the performance of the platform and optimize the strategy to improve the customer service outcome

2. What is an Example of Omnichannel Customer Service?

Imagine a customer who wants to buy a product from an online store. They start by raising a ticket on the website’s chatbot for information on EMI. The customer service calls her the next day to provide detailed information and also sends an email post-call to document information. The customer makes the purchase and receives order status updates via email and SMS.

Shambhavi Sinha

Shambhavi Sinha is an SEO expert at Exotel with a passion for writing about technology. With a keen interest in the latest trends in contact centers and artificial intelligence, Shambhavi aims to empower users by sharing insightful and up-to-date knowledge. Her expertise in SEO and her dedication to educating her audience make her a valuable resource for anyone looking to stay informed about the evolving landscape of tech in customer service and beyond.

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