Your customers want to be treated right, get their issues resolved quickly, and you are obligated to make the entire experience as simple and smooth as possible for them. In this article, we will compare multichannel service Vs. Omnichannel customer service, the differences between the two, and why the latter is the best option to treat your customers.
Need for Customer Service Across Different Channels
One of the most unpredictable aspects of a business is the user journey. What are the touchpoints that your customers interact with before they become a customer? You can only guess and hope to get it right one day or the other. That’s exactly why businesses have to build their products and services around these lines.
On average, a user uses more than 3-4 channels before they become your customer. It varies across multiple devices, channels, and whatnot. This is why businesses need to offer seamless omnichannel customer service or multichannel support for making the lives of their prospective customers easy.
Difference between Omnichannel and Multichannel Customer Support
Customer support available across more than two different channels is called multichannel support. The point is to engage customers via the communication channels they prefer.
When it comes to multichannel support, the customer can use multiple channels in interactions that are separate. But omnichannel customer support ensures there is a seamless experience since the channels are integrated. It enables businesses to handle support from a centralized, cloud-powered platform.
For instance, If a customer reaches a brand on Messenger and asks for an update via mail, the support agent can easily get the customer’s previous interactions and deliver a seamless service in omnichannel customer support. Whereas in multi-channel support, the customer has to repeat his/her issue again. Since each support channel is running independently getting data will be difficult.
Benefits of Omnichannel Customer Service
Let us look at why it makes sense for businesses to use omnichannel customer service for their support offerings:
Greater customer retention
Thanks to better conversations with the customers, customer retention greatly improves by more than 89% for businesses that invest in omnichannel support strategies. Customers would find it meaningful to stay with a brand that is always ready to offer their attention. Omnichannel customer service allows businesses to respond to queries immediately and offers the liberty for the customer to continue their conversation from any channel.
Seamless customer experience
Providing a seamless customer experience is one of the biggest advantages of using omnichannel customer service. No matter how the customer is reaching out to you, live chat or in-app conversations, the interaction will be the same, including the conversations played out on any of the channels.
According to the Omnichannel Statistics Report, the purchase rate increases by 287% when businesses use more than three marketing channels. Thanks to integrated communication channels and centralized data, providing customized solutions becomes much easier.
Helps cater to diverse audiences
Since you offer multiple communication channels, the brand can interact with potential and existing customers. The flexibility that omnichannel customer service offers will attract prospects. Providing options such as the ability to interact via social channels enhances the experience of the customer.
Promotes self-service
Omnichannel customer service increases the bandwidth of your support team by promoting self-service, thereby resulting in faster response times. The factors that propel omnichannel customer service are data centralization and knowledge base; it is the same for self-service as well. Since a lot of customer data is collected across different channels, the businesses’ routing strategy can assist with self-service needs.
You can provide self-service options like a knowledge base, community forums, FAQ pages, how-to tutorials, recorded webinars on how to use the product, and so on. 67% of customers prefer self-service over speaking to a customer service agent.
In fact, Gartner estimates that by 2030, a billion service tickets will be automatically raised by bots owned by customers. How’s that! All of this will be aided by omnichannel customer service to a huge extent.
Increases brand accountability
A bad experience will be spread around more than a good or even a great experience. 13% of unhappy customers will share their experience with more than 15 people. No business wants that.
When a business is available on multiple channels, your actions become much more visible. The conversations that you have with your customers have a great role in increasing customer trust. 86% of senior-level marketers opine that a cohesive customer journey across different channels is important, and that’s exactly what omnichannel support provides.
Social media conversations could be fodder for public ridicule unless customer interactions are handled properly. When brands address customers on a one-on-one basis or to everybody, there is an image to uphold. Offering social media support makes the brand more accountable and mindful of its actions.
Collect better quality data
Omnichannel customer service follows customer interaction and intent across various touchpoints. It offers a goldmine of data that makes a lot of business sense when used rightly. The quality of the data collected and its relevance make it possible to make data-driven decisions for your business.
Maintaining an omnichannel presence is not an easy task, but Conversational AI makes omnichannel interactions easier. With the ready-to-deploy options and wide range of integration options, Conversational AI can run data-driven customer service without any issues.