Did you know more than two-thirds of all purchases are being made with some digital device? Consumers browse products through their smartphones and buy in-store, from a desktop, or their smartwatch. They want to shop from their preferred channel as and when they like.
Harvard Business Review conducted research and observed the shopping behaviors of 46,000 consumers. They found out that 73% of consumers prefer shopping through multiple channels. The remaining 7% of consumers are online-only shoppers, while 20% only shop through brick-and-mortar stores.
Another research shows that companies that embrace omnichannel customer engagement can retain 89% of their customers. On the other hand, companies with weak omnichannel strategies only have a customer retention rate of 33%.
Omnichannel customer service is no longer a luxury
Modern customers want a personalized and delightful brand experience, and you could be at a loss if you don’t meet customer needs or address their queries at the right time and through the right channel. Omnichannel support hence is no longer an option, it’s a requirement.
A survey revealed that two-thirds of consumers are less likely to buy from a brand with no integrated omnichannel experience. 59% of the respondents from the same survey said they would choose from a competitor that promises a more seamless customer experience if given a choice.
How to create an omnichannel customer service strategy?
Today’s customers are becoming increasingly demanding, and they don’t want to settle for mediocre service. In addition, it’s evident that they don’t mind paying more for a superior customer experience. To elevate the service standard, retailers and eCommerce businesses must plan on a successful omnichannel customer service strategy.
These tips will help you kickstart your customer service as you take the omnichannel approach:
Determine your customer’s preferred channels
Customers enjoy the freedom and flexibility of choosing their preferred channel when reaching out to a business. But this doesn’t mean you can jump on every channel available. Instead, your focus must be investing in channels your target audience uses.
To identify the right channel, you must understand your customers better. Then, based on your findings, target the best suited for your omnichannel strategy.
Recognize customer pain points
Happy customers don’t surface by accident; they are won with conscious effort backed by a data-driven, well-thought strategy.
Successful businesses are the ones that understand customers’ problem before it escalates and becomes a grievance. These pain points could be related to customer support, product/service, process, or financials. You must take steps to identify the pain points and try fixing them as and when they arise. One thing that makes businesses stand different from their rival brands is their proactive approach toward gauging customer sentiments for their brand and taking necessary steps to bridge operations/service gaps (if any).
Here are some tips for recognizing customers’ problems:
- Map out the customer journey to get insights into the customer pain points
- Listen actively to customer complaints and feedback
- Watch for patterns in customer queries and feedback
- Conduct surveys and focus groups to gather specific information
- Analyze customer behavior and interactions with your product or service.
- Look for gaps in your product or service offerings
- Use social media listening tools to monitor mentions of your brand and industry
- Constantly seek feedback and implement changes accordingly
Offer self-service as an extended feature of customer support
Most customers prefer to handle things independently before initiating a call center interaction. Omnichannel self-service that leverages knowledge banks and AI-powered chatbots can give customers immediate answers to their inquiries and can satisfy them on the spot. In case their query doesn’t get resolved there and then, customers’ interaction history gets recorded in a central database, and from that point call center agent takes up the matter and addresses the concern. Avoiding the hassle and frustration of starting the process from scratch. Forrester’s thought leadership paper titled “The Case for Omnichannel Self-Service” mentions that 74% of decision-makers agree that personalized self-service interactions are important for building customer relationships.
With self-service support in place, your support agents will have more time to focus on tasks having greater importance. They will have the opportunity to leave a better impact on the resolution of the customer’s issue and improve the overall customer experience. In other words, self-service could be a part of the larger customer experience.
