7 Ways omnichannel customer support benefits your business

As your business competes for the most valuable space called the customer’s mind, you want to make sure you’re not leaving out anything. This is why you wish to deliver omnichannel customer service. That’s because to drive growth and ring in revenue, your business needs to serve customers at every junction, every touchpoint possible. 

Outside of your physical location, customer support service provides the customer a chance to interact with your business. If yours is an online business, customer support provides brand recognition and credibility for your brand, because there’s a good chance your customers will never get to see you in person.

Omnichannel support, or the ability of your business to provide a unified, integrated customer support experience, has been gaining popularity for the past few years. And the global pandemic that forced a lot of people to stay away from each other has accustomed your customers to engaging with your brand over whatever platform suits them best.

Here are the top 7 benefits of an omnichannel customer service platform:

1. No siloed conversations anymore 

Perhaps the biggest benefit is that there are no broken conversations any longer. You don’t need to be told how frustrating it is for the customer to begin anew every time they shift from one device to another or one platform to another. 

With omnichannel support services, your customers and your advisors can move on from where exactly they had last left. Your customers will have the same great experience, irrespective of the channel.

2. The customer’s favorite channel

When you force a customer to engage on a particular channel just because you aren’t available elsewhere, it is basically punishing the customer for your absence on the other platforms. Your presence on multiple channels, on the other hand, enables the customer to pick up a channel they’re most comfortable with at that point in time. 

A seamless switching over from one interaction space to another allows customers to talk to you using their preferred channel. And by placing their convenience above everything else, you are delighting your customer.

3. A unified brand experience

Omnichannel customer service dovetails everything, from phone calls to email and text to social media and messaging. As a result, your brand experience isn’t at the mercy of the platform. On every channel, your customer gets the same great experience.

Your customers are confident that no matter how they reach out to you, your support team will always be there to listen, understand and resolve. This not only translates to improved customer satisfaction but also contributes greatly to your brand equity. 

4. Improved retention

Surely you know selling to existing customers is a great deal easier – and less expensive – than to sell to a prospect. This is why businesses go to great lengths to retain existing customers.

Your ability to communicate with your customers across multiple channels slashes the chances of you losing customers. Because you’re available for them at every step, they know they’re being heard, cared for, and served. That raises the customer satisfaction levels and the overall customer retention rates. 

After all, you’re not providing them any reason to leave you, so why should your customer go through the hassles of starting all over again by buying from your competitor?

5. Faster issue resolution

Consider your customer raises a ticket over email in the morning, before leaving for work. On the way home, he visits Facebook and notices your brand. This reminds him about the ticket he raised in the morning.

Can he continue the conversation over FB messenger? Did you connect your CRM with popular social media platforms? Is there a way to quickly identify the customer without getting into the rigmarole of security checks again? And most importantly can he get the resolution or at least a timeline indicating how long should he wait before the issue gets resolved?

Its answers to questions like these ensure a faster resolution of issues. An answer from a situation as such is only possible when a comprehensive support system works in totality. Such a system lets your teams be present and prepared at all touchpoints.

6. More opportunities to engage

Your marketing and sales teams know how difficult it is to get the customer (or a prospect) to engage. Any time your customer is ready to speak to you, it’s an opportunity.

Omnichannel, by the virtue of being omnipresent, gives you multiple opportunities to speak to the customer. 

Beneath this all-around support is the fact that the more you speak to and engage with customers, the more brand loyalty you develop. Your presence across different channels reinforces your brand image. Needless to add, whenever the customer is ready to make a purchase, you’re at the top of their mind.

7. Better data collection

Dialogue with customers on different platforms lets you collect extremely valuable data..

Tracing the footprints of engaged customers over multiple channels gives you rich insights for a variety of reasons. For example, a customer will likely be in a different frame of mind when they’re browsing Facebook and in a different frame of mind when they’re on a phone call with you.

Observing how they articulate their requirements in different formats gives you a larger window to their world. You get a bigger and a better picture of their aspirations, helping you frame your communications, offers, and solutions in a more targeted manner.

Closing remarks

Omnichannel customer support delivers great dividends. From helping build a stronger brand connection to providing better data, it empowers your growth marketing initiatives. 

That said, it also takes expertise and bandwidth to be efficiently present on different platforms. That’s one of the many reasons an increasing number of businesses are outsourcing their customer support function. An outsourcing company that has the complete suit of services and technology can deliver a better job. Their trained and experienced advisors have a deep understanding of what works best on which platform.

An increasing number of businesses are choosing the outsourcing option to go omnichannel in order to provide an integrated experience to customers. That’s because placing the customer at the center of everything is the key to business success. Being present over multiple platforms tells your customers that you care for them and are willing to go the extra mile.