Top Reasons Why Businesses are Switching to Omnichannel Strategy

With consumers exploring different mediums for communicating with their folks as well as business, it becomes essential for the latter to serve them where they are. The increase in the number of modes of communications have made it compelling for businesses to devise an omnichannel strategy to serve their target across the popular channels of communication. 

Customers reach through several touch points like phone, email, live chat, WhatsApp, social media platforms and even the voice-recognition devices. 

This is why businesses today are facing the challenge of maintaining uniformity in communication. With a sound omnichannel strategy in place, they can improve their brand loyalty and generate repeat business.

What Makes Omnichannel Strategy Indispensable for Modern Businesses?

• Consistency in communication

Omnichannel strategy brings in the factor of consistency. 

The context is retained in the communication. Customers are not asked to repeatedly explain the concerns for which they have approached the support providers. This helps in faster and effective resolution of the issue.

This further saves time and effort invested in tailoring a customer-centric experience. The customers are most likely to return to the brand. Here is how it happens –

With omnichannel support, the agents can have a 360-degree view of customers’ interaction with the platform, product or the brand, through website or app. So, they know the intent of the communication and have the solutions prepared for the same in advance. This increase in visibility of communication provided to the service agents promotes a better existing relationship with the customers as they are served with personalized experiences. 

Apart from communication, the support department of the ecommerce ventures can know about the last purchases made too. Based on the purchase history, they can design the messages to encourage the customers to try other products or services and improve the reach and acceptance of the brand. The overall sales of a leading US e-commerce venture increased by 190% approx. owing to the omnichannel strategy adopted for handling customer queries.

On the operational ground, the agent collision never occurs. The agent handling the customer earlier is notified of the communication to attend to when the same customer calls back. It saves the customer the hassle of explaining the entire case repeatedly to different agents every single time.

•     Provide convenience in communication

Omnichannel communication enables the businesses to reach through all possible channels. Customers may have different ways of reaching the business. They expect a seamless experience regardless of the mode of communication chosen. Omnichannel strategy adds to the convenience of interacting through any interface of choice.

The convenience in communication adds value to the customer experience. Strategy chosen to reach the customers based on the latter’s profile creates meaningful experiences. With the help of omnichannel strategy, the businesses are able to cover varied types of customers in their ambit. They are there to help whether the customer reaches through online or offline mode.

• Improvement in Business Reach

With convenience, the reach of the business is increased. It garners positive word-of-mouth publicity and businesses are able to reach more people from different spheres and meet the end-user expectations. 

The businesses use the following channels to make communication fast, effective and convenient:

1. Messaging: Customers can get their query resolved simply by writing a message to the businesses. The automated replies are generated for generic queries.
2. Chat: This feature is designed to offer 24×7 support. The customer types the message in the chat window and the company responds.
3. Chatbot: A chatbot is more like a virtual assistant. When it intervenes, most of the regular queries are answered quickly. Wherever stuck, the bot will transfer the case to a company representative with context as well.
4. Email: Though among the first ones to have appeared in the scene, emails are still in vogue. The emails can be made more effective with AI and predictive modeling. A larger consumer base can be reached with automated email communication systems.
5. Phone: The fastest and easiest way to start a communication is to make a call. With the help of AI-driven natural language methods, the self-service feature is introduced to phone support. It helps faster resolution and reduces the burden off the agents too.
6. Social media: This mode allows recording of conversation which happens through threads. Thus, the users are capable of extracting the best benefits without wasting time in understanding the case from the start.
7. Personal Visit: It happens rarely these days, but is a popular way of providing support in industries like banking and communication. Whenever the money matters are involved, the person takes the in-person way and tries to reach a representative owing to better accountability. The omnichannel strategy, still, has reduced the footfall by about 45%, according to the latest reports.

All these methods speak of convenience when these are combined through omnichannel strategy.

• Better operational quality and productivity

An omnichannel strategy brings complete conversation between a business entity (website or app) at one place for the agents. They are saved from the hassle of switching from one channel to another. Especially through an AI-based omnichannel strategy in place, there is enhanced visibility of the case that helps agents resolve issues faster by focusing on important queries at hand. Common, repeat questions are tackled by the automated response process like chatbots. 

This CRM automation facilitated omnichannel support further translates into a better solution delivery. 

The operational objectives are met in a hassle-free manner. The time required to understand the problem is minimized and faster resolution is offered. There is a distinct sense of clarity and transparency in the operations as the whole escalation matrix is provided to the customer in case of extraordinary events.

Summing up…

Omnichannel strategy works three ways. It enhances visibility of the information using which the representatives are supposed to work. The customers enjoy the opportunity to interact through the medium of their choice. As a result, they convert into repeat customers. Lastly, the overall productivity of the support department takes a positive leap. So, think of adopting an omnichannel strategy to survive the competition, as this strategy is here to stay and has a lot to offer.