The contact center and omni-channel communications

The contact center and omni-channel communications

We’ve talked in other blogs about the value of contact centers over traditional, one - dimensional call centers, but we haven't talked yet about the need for contact centers to be designed on the omni-channel model. This blog explains what omni-channel means and why this is a critical part of the contact center design.

Omni-channel refers to a specific model of multi-channel communications. We already know a contact center makes use of many different modes of communications in order to best meet all of your customers wherever they choose to be. But we haven’t talked about the fact that contact centers need to be omni-channel. In the omni-channel model, all of the channels are integrated. The idea here is to allow for cross channel “communication” so that the information and customer data that is accumulated on one channel is immediately communicated to all the other extant channels. The goal: whenever a customer connects on any touchpoint, they pick up right where they left off at the last interaction. Ideally, the channels could be used simultaneously - for example, speaking to a service rep on the phone to make a change to an order while watching on a website order page the change being made in real-time.

Why is this omni-channel aspect so critical to the success of a contact center? The answer is that customers have come to expect that this will happen. It isn't enough to be able to communicate with customers on many different, separated channels. That only partially meets today’s expectations. To be very practical, there isn't much value to being able to use several channels to communicate if the information you provide then resides in separate silos, depending on what data you provided on which channel. Without the omni-channel aspect, you are leaving the customer open to being unsure of their status. For instance, take this very simple example. If I place an order by phone, I immediately receive an email that the order has been placed, yet go to the website an hour later and find no information about the order, I’m going to feel pretty frustrated and unsure of my order. And as we know, a frustrated customer is unlikely to be a repeat customer. To conclude, it is important to be aware that a successful contact center has to be built on the omni-channel model. Multiple siloed channels aren't much use to anyone.

Comments

Four ways unified communications can improve productivity Part II

Four ways unified communications can improve productivity Part II In our last blog we suggested that unified communications has value to an organization's efforts to increase productivity. It can facilitate smoother, more efficient collaboration in a 24/7 workspace. Unified communications can Improve the functionality of our 24/7 workplace - The reality of 24/7 availability has been around for a while, and learning to place constraints on that is for another e-guide. However, unified communications can play a role on the 24/7 expectation problem. For one thing, with a single portal to an individual’s multiple communication channels, an employee can more easily communicate across those channels that they are not available and therefore limit expectations for an immediate or timely response when that is not possible. Also, with a unified portal, responding to different channels in off times can be easier and therefore less time-intrusive. Improve client satisfaction - Nothin

Five Ways Your Business Can Improve Its Search Engine Rankings

In an age where most business happens online, not showing up in Google search results can really hurt you. While there’s no real shortcut to showing up consistently on web searches, there are a few quick fixes to get your site to show up on your potential customer’s search results... 1. HTML tags - Important HTML tags include the title tag, meta description and meta keywords. Make sure each page of your website has appropriate HTML tags. The title tag of each page should be unique and relevant to that particular page. 2. Alternative text images - Ensure that most of the images on your website have alternative text tags. Alt tags are basically descriptions for images. By adding relevant alternative tags to images, you are allowing search engines to recognize them, which will improve the likelihood of your page showing up in search results. 3. File hierarchy - How simple is your HTML file hierarchy? Check to see if your website’s pages are logically situated and avoid too many

Has Your Website Been Optimized for Mobile Users?

Did you know that this year there will be more mobile web surfers than stationary ones? That means more prospects are accessing your business website more through their smart phones, tablets or other mobile devices than with a laptop or PC. If you thought you had time to make the switch this year, you may want to reconsider in light of new research. A recent study revealed that around 40% of prospects move on to a competitor if they have a poor mobile experience. How prepared is your business for this change? Well, if you are just starting out, the following checklist will help... 1. Make sure your mobile site is different from your regular website - While you must stick to your branding standards, your mobile website should be simpler than your web version. The reason being is that complicated designs that load well and look good on computers are often distorted when accessed through a mobile device. Plus, mobile surfers don’t really have the time to sift through a lot of conte

OptiNet Blog