For years, customers have gradually increased the number of channels they use to interact with companies.
According to Harvard Business Review, 73 perecent of consumers say they use more than one channel during their shopping journey. These clients expect context of their journey to follow them as they hop between solutions.
More importantly, consumers don’t just expect a business to be available on the channels they want to use – they also want them to align their journey between different environments.
In addition, modern customers don’t want to have to explain their issue multiple times when they jump back and forth between chat, video, and audio interactions.
As McKinsey & Company puts it: "Customers believe they can get whatever they want, whenever they want, within minutes."
An omnichannel strategy for the contact center is the best way to thrive in this new landscape. Unfortunately, there are still several companies out there struggling to make the switch to a true omnichannel experience.
After all, it's hard work to design an omnichannel customer experience, with many people, process, and technology considerations.
One of the biggest issues is failing to offer the appropriate omnichannel call center training.
Thankfully, the following three-step process may offer some excellent guidance.
Step 1: Have a Plan
To prepare live customer service agents for omnichannel, businesses first need a solid understanding of what contact reasons drive most demand, and which channels are best suited to those queries?
If one query takes one minute on the phone, but 15 on chat, relay that to agents. With this information, they can offer to shift channels, serve customers faster, and help the contact center hit its service level targets.
For this plan to work, align the channels in a way that supports better productivity and efficiency. Agents should be able to view all the information they need about a customer and check previous conversations with the client in the same environment.