Better customer experience means never having to say sorry. Customer service agents express regret when a customer complains about a product or when they are not accessible through the desired communication channel.
This happens when contact centres still stick to old contact centre software with its severely restricted method of access. Omnichannel contact center software, on the other hand, gives you a single dashboard overview of all that is happening across channels including social media, instant messaging, voicemail, fax, email and good old voice.
Imagine customer delight when they initiate contact through their preferred method of communication and receive a response. This is one reason for contact centres operating with legacy software to make the switch to omnichannel.
You never have to say sorry for not being accessible on the channel of choice. Ease of use for customers does matter.
Going proactive
With the traditional contact centre software what you have is a reactive environment. You wait for customers to initiate a process and agents dutifully follow the path to resolution.
Smart omnichannel solutions give agents a dashboard view of all that is happening across various channels. You may even set flags to alert agents about relevant chatter and that helps them to jump right in. If there is noise about a product performance then agents can take action.
If there is an interest someone shows in a product then that someone can become a lead. Listening can help agents derive intelligence that could become inputs for product or service improvements. Leave customers amazed that you anticipate their requirements.
Happy agents, more productivity
Not having omnichannel means your agents have to jump across several communication tracks. Multiply this by the number of customers they serve and it becomes a quicksand experience where efficiency and productivity levels sink.
Today’s intelligent call centre solutions are designed to make life a bit easier for agents not only in the matter of communication channels that can be monitored from a single dashboard but also in other ways. You have intelligent skill mapping.
This means a call goes to the agent who can handle it instead of to an agent who takes the call, spends time fruitlessly and then transfers it to another capable agent. Capable agents can do more, with less effort and do it better. Customers are happy and so are agents.
Call centres experience lower rates of agent churn. When you consider the time, expense and effort it takes to train agents you will see that switching to omnichannel is a no brainer.
Intelligent analytics
Call centres may want maximum returns and will drive agents relentlessly but doing so without adequate intelligence to back up the push can be counterproductive.
Intelligent omnichannel call centre solutions help managers derive intelligence on various issues such as pain points in the agent being able to carry out duties, issues that customers face, response quality, time spent on calls and other factors.
Solutions that have AI and ML get better at analytics as well as other areas. Instead of becoming outdated what you have is a platform that keeps learning and becomes polished with the passage of time.
A tool, they say, is only as good as its user but when you have a fine tool, you can do so much more and that is what omnichannel contact centre solution gives. It is for contact centres to adapt to the change, train agents and leverage advantages of more modern software for customer delight.
The normal pattern is to ask a customer to leave feedback online on your eCommerce site or normal website or through email or send out a survey but these remain hidden from public eyes. Instead, once a transaction is over you can continue on social media and request feedbacks that others can see.
Omnichannel contact center software has a host of features and not the least important is social media integration. Make full use of it and you will see a remarkably noticeable improvement in the satisfaction index.
There is no industry segment that cannot find a use for call centre solutions in their communication and customer service as well as sales setup. From capturing leads to ensuring loyalty, it is pivotal at all stages of the customer journey. As for cost, when you go for online call centre software all you pay for is used.