Customer service and support functions are multi channel

Digital customer service

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Why do modern customer service and support functions need to be multi-channel — and what does the business case for channel expansion look like when customers increasingly expect to get help through messaging apps, social media, and chat rather than just picking up the phone?

What does it mean when a company's customer service and support functions are multi channel?

Businesses can provide customer service through several different channels. For example, customers can call, chat, email, post a comment on social media, use FAQs on a website, and more when they need help with an issue. If a company's customer service and support functions are multi channel, that simply means they offer more than one channel of support.

Multi channel customer service and support functions are a step in the right direction towards meeting consumer demands. People want options for how they interact with businesses, and multi channel support provides these options. However, the term "multi channel" has a very specific meaning in the world of customer service, and it means that the multiple channels aren't integrated with each other.

When channels aren't integrated, customers can't move across them seamlessly. For example, if a customer calls about an issue on Monday and then sends a follow-up email about the issue on Wednesday, the email agent very likely won't know about Monday's phone call or have access to its transcript. This is a major drawback when customer service and support functions are multi channel, because 93% of consumers expect a seamless omnichannel experience.

What is omnichannel customer service? It takes all an organization's support channels and integrates them so that a customer's history, including previous support contacts, is accessible and can be used for future interactions regardless of what channel a customer uses. Essentially, omnichannel takes a situation in which customer service and support functions are multi channel, and elevates it a couple of levels to meet customer expectations of seamless experience.

Transitioning from multi channel to omnichannel customer service is a significant undertaking. There are technology, process, staffing, and cultural implications. Just about every aspect of a contact center will be touched in some way, from workforce management tools to agent training to management techniques and priorities. The increase in customer satisfaction and loyalty, and the associated revenue, justify the effort and expense.

Any digital channel

Your customers are trying to reach you for service on digital channels – even if you’re not there yet. How many SMS text messages go to your call center phone number with no response? Who’s trying to find you on Facebook, Twitter, or WhatsApp and not finding you? Now with CXone it is easy to provide digital-first omnichannel service in all the channels your customers expect.

  • Personalized digital interactions: deliver native experiences in each of 30+ messaging channels, such as rich media, emojis, and other collaboration tools.
  • Simple to Activate: pre-integrated channels make it easy to offer to customers and agents.
  • Easy to Say “Yes”: simple packaging removes barriers to offering all channels to customers and agents.

Empowered agents

CXone empowers all your agents to deliver a true digital-first omnichannel customer experience by simultaneously combining all customer interactions in one intelligent inbox across multiple digital channels and voice for agents to select ("pull"), while dynamically prioritizing the most time-sensitive or real-time interactions according to service levels ("push"). All delivered in a single application – complete with full customer context, journey history, and sentiment.

  • Single Interface: one inbox for all digital messaging and real-time (voice/chat) channels – retaining native experience of each messaging platform.
  • Agents in Control: ‘pulling’ work in natural flow, while dynamic prioritization maintains SLAs – and prevents ‘cherry picking’.
  • Customer Card: full customer context, journey and conversation history, plus sentiment.

Holistic management

With CXone, omnichannel interactions are managed holistically, from agents to supervisors and beyond. Integrated workforce optimization, analytics, automation and artificial intelligence across digital and voice interactions ensure complete management across contact center operations.

How NiCE can help businesses reap the rewards of omnichannel customer service.

Unlock the power of omnichannel customer experience with NiCE CXone. CXone, the world’s #1 cloud customer experience platform, transforms your call center software – empowering exceptional agent and customer experiences: every channel, every time. NiCE CXone Omnichannel Routing is a contact routing and interaction management suite that empowers your agents to positively and productively interact with customers in digital and voice channels. Watch our video, True Omnichannel Fulfills Changing Customer Expectations, to learn more about the benefits of omnichannel customer experience.

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