Omnichannel Customer Service: What it is

Delivering an exceptional customer service will help your company build a more loyal customer base and will create a stronger trust relationship with your clients. Good customer service should be a priority for every company because it will have a direct impact on every other important aspect of the company and will be a major point to distinguish your business from the competition. Omnichannel Support allows companies to reach a broader number of clients and assist them faster, using any channel that they prefer.

A study conducted by Zendesk has shown that omnichannel not only makes customer service more efficient, but it also enables companies to meet customer expectations more effectively.

Omnichannel Customer Service

Every customer’s needs are unique and sometimes meeting every demand can be overwhelming. Providing support only over the phone or via emails is no longer enough.

Omnichannel Customer Support means supporting your clients through every preferred platform in a seamless way, by integrating all customer service channels and managing them in one place. This method has immense benefits:

1. For the clients who receive fast and effective assistance switching from one channel to another seamlessly.
2. For your company, by enabling you to keep track of your clients’ inquiries, understanding your clients better and increasing loyalty.

Classical customer service channels

Some of the most popular platforms used for customer service include classical channels:

Self-Service

Options such as Knowledge bases, FAQs, forums, etc, are the first choice for most of the clients since they will try to find an answer or a solution to their problem themselves first. Clients will often google their issue to find out what they can do. If they are not able to fix the issue, they will turn to customer support. Having an organised self-service solution is a good idea to lower the number of first level queries and basic problems. Your other channels should always be easy to find on the self-service sections to ensure a smoother transition between channels.

Telephone Support

According to research conducted by the Software Advice Survey, telephone support is still one of the most popular channels with 79% of interviewees selecting it as the first choice for complicated issues. Explaining an issue over the phone is sometimes faster than typing out and most clients would like to receive a quick solution rather than go back and forth with emails. The omnichannel method helps companies to keep the telephone support teams and other channel teams in line with each other and with the clients.

Email support

It is the preferred method of customers who want a quick answer but are willing to wait more for it too. If an issue is not urgent, a customer will often bypass the telephone support and simply send an email. This method is helpful especially when the clients also need to share additional documents or files to help explain the issue better. By asking support via emails, the clients can organize their thoughts better and explain their issue in more details.

Web queries 

Like emails, this is also another written form of customer care. Customers will complete web forms to send a support ticket, often filling in data that is important for the customer service representatives to understand the issue. With a web form, you can also easily assign the tickets to the correct departments, based on the query topic and nature.

New Channels of customer support

In a new era, dominated by internet, it is important to develop new channels of clients assistance.

Live Chat 

According to a Zendesk study, live channels are outpacing other channels in performance and are also ever growing in popularity. The study also has shown that the tickets handled through live chat and phone have better key metrics, such as a higher Customer Satisfaction rate, lower re-open rates, and faster first resolution times. Customers that contact customer care over live chat usually belong to a younger demographic, more familiar with the technology and more inclined to use it to get faster replies without having to stay on the line waiting.

Social Media Support

Social media is one of the customer service channels that is used by clients who want their issues resolved fast. Since social media is public, most of the clients that contact companies through social media, not only want a fast response but also want to make their issue public. Social Media is one of the most difficult channels to manage since it also serves as a marketing tool and as a PR strategy. Because of this, dealing with angry customers in social media is usually more difficult and needs a higher level of expertise. Yet, integrating social media support with other platforms in the omnichannel model enables companies to analyze the client demands and issues at a deeper level and communicate with clients at a higher level.

Instant Messaging

It includes support channels over chat messages, such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram Direct Messages, Skype, etc. This solution is very similar to live chat and social media but at the same time more difficult to monitor. Without an omnichannel support model, instant messaging would be hard to track. In this case, customer service teams would not be in sync. This can make the customer support ineffective by increasing the resolution times and making the customer experience less enjoyable.

The difference between Multichannel and Omnichannel Support

Multichannel and omnichannel are used very often as synonyms, but it is the very difference between them that makes a difference in customer experience.

Multichannel means providing support through several channels, enabling clients to reach your company anywhere. Omnichannel is what integrates all the channels together to enable the clients to go through the customer service journey seamlessly, passing from one channel to another smoothly and in a consistent way. Omnichannel not only improves customer experience but also increased the effectiveness of your team and communications by synchronizing all the information.

Zendesk omnichannel solutions

Zendesk, founded in 2007, is a customer service and engagement platform and a leader in omnichannel support. Zendesk’s omnichannel approach enables customers to contact companies through their preferred channels and switch between them easily. It also makes the job of the customer service representatives better by improving the workflow and integrating the channels together. Monitoring and managing the channels and analysing the data and feedback is easier than ever since Zendesk provides a consolidated dashboard and reports.

A study conducted by Zendesk, analysing the ROI case for omnichannel support concluded that the omnichannel approach not only helps change customer expectations but also affects the ROI.

We Are Fiber

WeAreFiber has partnered up with Zendesk to provide customer service teams, fully trained with the latest technologies and solutions, experiences in delivering omnichannel solutions and catering to customers on every level and platform.

Get in touch with us if you’d like to know more details about how omnichannel support can improve your ROI and customer experience. Our experts are available for a short chat to walk you through the process and benefits anytime from Monday to Friday.

info@wearefiber.com
Phone (It) +39 02 42 10 11 22
Phone (Uk) +44 20 38 70 44 08

Sources: Zendesk