Modern consumers have made it clear they expect consistent, personalized service across multiple platforms. While businesses have responded by creating a presence on many channels, they often struggle to integrate them efficiently.
However, this is possible with omnichannel call center software. Let’s look at what it is and how your business can use it to improve customer experience.
What Is Omnichannel Call Center Software?
Businesses that incorporate an omnichannel strategy provide their customers with a consistent, seamless customer experience (CX) across all their platforms—including social media, SMS, website, voice, and email.
This is possible by leveraging omnichannel call center software that integrates and syncs these channels, allowing customers to switch between communication channels without starting from scratch.
Customers hate repeating themselves when dealing with a service issue. This call center solution provides agents with the entire customer interaction history so they get an overview of the context of every customer conversation with the brand. As a result, they can anticipate their needs and provide exceptional customer service across all platforms—adding great value to overall CX.
Omnichannel vs. Multichannel: What’s the Difference?
Like omnichannel call centers, multichannel solutions enable customers and businesses to communicate on several platforms. The main difference is the integration of these platforms.
Multichannel call centers have teams for each channel. This strategy is often utilized by businesses that aim to engage their customers by being where they are. Instead of focusing on seamless experiences, they formulate strategies for each channel to make them engaging and convenient to use.
On the other hand, an omnichannel approach combines all these communication channels and tracks the customer journey through omnichannel call center software. While a multichannel approach is channel-focused, an omnichannel strategy is more customer-centric. Removing the boundaries between channels and analyzing customer history creates frictionless CX.
Growing businesses can outsource multichannel and omnichannel call center solutions to achieve their goals and provide customers with better tools.
What Are the Benefits of Omnichannel Call Center Software?
An effectively implemented omnichannel strategy benefits your customers and the entire organization. Here are some of the top benefits:
1. Promotes Faster Customer Resolution Times
According to industry research, 90% of worldwide customers consider issue resolution their most important customer service concern. Additional research revealed that customers place the utmost importance on getting a response within ten minutes of their request. Leveraging omnichannel call center software allows businesses to address these concerns.
Utilizing an omnichannel call center for your business increases the likelihood of customers connecting with the most qualified agents that provide them the best assistance. Moreover, access to complete customer history makes it far easier for agents to resolve customer concerns by eliminating repetition.
Lastly, omnichannel call center software can provide self-service channels like chatbots, live chats, and virtual agents to help customers resolve simple queries and issues.
2. Improves Customer Retention and Sales
Companies that adopt omnichannel strategies have 91% greater customer retention rates than businesses that don’t. This results from the elevated customer experience an omnichannel strategy offers—including increased first-call resolution rates, seamless switching across platforms, and decreased hold times.
Apart from improving the customer experience, leveraging an omnichannel solution can also yield more conversions. According to an industry study, omnichannel shoppers have 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop via one channel.
3. Delivers Personalized Customer Experiences
Businesses that leverage powerful omnichannel call center software obtain key insights about their customers as they interact with the brand on different platforms. When companies analyze these data, they can understand their customers’ needs and tweak their strategies accordingly.
The results are more personalized customer experiences, which drive customer loyalty and increase revenue. Studies show 80% of customers prefer to buy from brands that offer personalized experiences, while 49% of customers have reported making impulse purchases after receiving personalized service.
4. Empowers Agents
Omnichannel call center software provides agents with everything they need to solve customer problems easily. For example, suppose a customer sends a website inquiry about a product you offer. In that case, they will automatically be routed to the sales department, and the interaction will appear on the agent’s dashboard.
The immediate context provided by the technology allows them to solve the query in a matter of minutes. Simply put, sales representatives with access to customer history can resolve customer problems faster—and sell more effectively.
5. Reduces Cost
Omnichannel is more cost-effective than investing resources separately and assigning agents across specific channels. Investing in omnichannel call center software that integrates and monitors all your platforms allows you to pass the bulk of operational burdens from agents to technology.
Businesses that don’t have the initial resources to invest in technologies and infrastructure can opt to outsource their omnichannel solutions to industry leaders like ROI Solutions. Besides cost savings, outsourcing ensures you access to cutting-edge technologies and experts in the CX landscape.
Omnichannel Strategy Best Practices
Implementing an effective omnichannel strategy entails assessing your current sales process, customer touchpoints, and organizational workflow. Some of the industry’s best practices include the following:
1. Identify Top Channels Customers Use
The first step your company should take is to identify the channels your clients use to interact with your brand. Customers prefer some channels over others, so conducting market research will be beneficial. After learning their preferred channels, allocate the appropriate resources to each platform based on the results.
According to Salesforce research, 57% of modern customers prefer online communication channels. In 2022, the top digital channels companies include chat, website access, and search options.
2. Map the Customer Journey
Customers rarely take a straight path when engaging with your business. Instead, they go through a series of stages before completing a purchase. The customer journey map outlines these stages, enabling you to provide the most appropriate support in the right channels.
Omnichannel call center software helps you map the customer journey and leverage this information in the following ways:
- Omnichannel solutions track customer actions on specific platforms, which you can use to actively drive conversion.
- Data gained from omnichannel software tracks a buyer’s unique journey, helping you create more personalized CX in the future.
3. Use AI to Your Advantage
According to Gartner, chatbots will become the primary customer service channel within five years. Making better use of AI and analytics is among the top three priorities for business leaders in 2022. This predictive intelligence helps businesses determine which customers to target, when and where to reach them, and which offers provide them the most value.
A good example is deploying an AI-powered assistant that helps customers report their concerns before transferring them to a live agent. AI-powered automation reduces the operational workload for agents, makes processes more efficient, and reduces wait times for clients.
4. Leverage the Power of Social Media
Social media is powerful because it amplifies the impact of your customer service quality. Customers nowadays can freely voice out their frustrations on social media. Conversely, if they love your company’s service, they are more likely to share their experiences which can boost your credibility.
Apart from being a communication channel, social media platforms have also turned into eCommerce channels where your customers directly purchase products. Companies leverage this to enhance their conversion efforts. Omnichannel call center software helps you reap these benefits through the following:
- Enabling you to set up automated, quick responses to customers on your social media channels.
- Integrating social media channels to other platforms, helping agents assist customers better and deliver personalized customer experiences.
- Helping you create self-service options for your customers reaching out on social media.
5. Track, Evaluate, and Adapt As Needed
Customer preferences can shift, and disruptive technologies are always on the rise. As you add new channels to your omnichannel mix, you can remove some outdated platforms to increase efficiency. To make this happen, you need to track your KPIs and monitor the effectiveness of every channel.
Your business will require omnichannel call center software that can adapt to your changing needs and scale quickly without rethinking the entire system. Outsourcing an omnichannel solution is one of the best ways to do this. It eliminates the initial cost of investing in software and technologies and enables you to scale customer service processes based on your business needs.
Experience the Omnichannel Advantage by Partnering with ROI Solutions
From selecting the right omnichannel call center software to managing your company’s platforms, implementing a truly omnichannel experience takes a lot of work. When you partner with ROI Solutions, we carry this burden for you. We offer world-class call center solutions that can help you improve customer satisfaction, increase revenue, and build a loyal customer base.
Explore our omnichannel call center options by reaching out or requesting a free estimate today.