Omnichannel customer service solutions

Your Guide to Next-Level Customer Service Solutions

Omnichannel customer service is quickly becoming the standard. Anyone looking to the future of customer service will tell you that it is going to be essential to your strategy moving forward. However, to fully embrace the omnichannel experience and all that it has to offer, you need to understand exactly what you’re getting into. In this guide, we’ll define omnichannel for you, discuss why it matters, and help you create a strategy for the future of your customer service department and your brand as a whole.

Omnichannel defined

Omnichannel can refer to several things: marketing, customer service, eCommerce, and so forth. What they all have in common is the fundamental definition of “omnichannel”:

The integration of multiple channels or resources to deliver a consistent customer experience and interaction for customers with personalized resources and engagement at critical touchpoints in the buying journey.

This might sound like a mouthful, but it’s not as complex as it seems. While multichannel marketing and service used to reign supreme, their focus was on putting the brand at the center of things. Switching to omnichannel simply means switching the focus to put the customer at the center of the conversation, which is exactly how it should be.

It’s more than a buzzword

Thanks to COVID-19, people are more ready for agile solutions than ever before. When the pandemic hit, we were thrust into a world where everyone was scrambling to adapt and find a better way. For the consumer, that often meant being left to their own devices when it came to marketing and customer service. The brands that succeeded at keeping those customers are the ones that were able to adapt an omnichannel experience that gives people the solutions that they need in the format that they prefer.

Omnichannel is just a word that refers to creating an integrated journey that creates a seamless customer interactions and experiences across every touchpoint, regardless of the medium involved or the channels used to access your brand. Because today’s consumers are savvier about helping themselves and finding what they need online, brands need to make sure that they're keeping up and delivering the resources that the informed, self-serving consumer demands.

Omnichannel is the preferred solution because it offers personalization at a level like never before. When your brand integrates a platform like NICE CXone, it is easy to integrate personalized touchpoints and create a truly connected experience for every user who comes your way.

Omnichannel vs. multichannel marketing and customer service

One of the biggest confusions for those who are new to the world of omnichannel is the fact that some brands and marketing professionals are still using the word “multichannel” to describe what is needed, or using the term interchangeably. Essentially, these words do mean the same thing, and it may just be a matter of semantics.

However, it’s also a consideration between choosing from the multiple options or using all the options. Omnichannel refers to the latter, and you need to have an integrated strategy with as many connections as possible for the best experience. The most significant difference is fairly fundamental:

Omnichannel customer service strategy focuses on creating a personalized, consistent experience across all channels, devices, and mediums.

Multichannel customer service is focused on reaching customers via several channels in a more static approach, although usually as part of a greater marketing strategy integration.

To simplify it even further, think of omnichannel as a web, while multichannel is more of a tree. The difference is in the interconnectivity of the various elements and channels involved.

Omnichannel customer support is the way of the future, and it’s what you need to be focused on. It’s also how the NICE CXone platform delivers powerful customer engagement support. We’ll get to more on that later. For now, let’s take a look at the benefits of this type of engagement in service, marketing, and other aspects of your business.

The benefits of Omnichannel Customer Service

Now that you understand more about what omnichannel means in terms of service, support, and customer engagement, it’s helpful to learn about some of the benefits. If you upgrade your customer experience and utilize platforms like NICE CXone to assist with customer service and engagement, you’ll enjoy several perks. Some of the most valuable ones are listed below.

Reach more audiences in their preferred content stream

When you use an integrated omnichannel approach, you will be able to get your brand on every platform and in every type of content that matters to your audience. Some of your customers will prefer social media, while others will come to your website. Still more might find you through a directory listing or your app that they’ve downloaded. People are going to want to find you in whatever way is most convenient for them. When you use this type of strategy, you’re giving them exactly that.

You can use this strategy in marketing and customer service alike. It should just be an overall approach to your customer engagement and experience—making sure that your entire presence is omnichannel and available to customers as they need you, not as you want to be found.

Higher purchase rates and transaction amounts

Here’s a staggering statistic: brands that use at least three different channels to communicate with customers will have a purchase rate that is as much as 287% higher than that of those who use fewer channels or don’t have a solid omnichannel strategy in place. That’s quite an impressive increase, and all just for having a more robust, dynamic online presence. When you consider that you can do all of this without much effort simply by integrating a solution like NICE CXone, you’ll quickly realize the benefits for your brand, including increased profits and more completed transactions.

Customers are also likely to spend more with brands that have an omnichannel campaign in place. Studies have shown that when campaigns are run across at least three channels, customers will spend as much as 13% more. That means that when you choose this strategy, your customers are buying more, and more often, helping increase your bottom line in multiple ways.

Increased Opportunities for Brand Visibility

The more channels you are on, the more visible your brand is. It’s as simple as that. Today’s consumer is inundated with brands, ads, and online promises that don’t have much substance. As such, they’re looking for the reliable, consistent brands that they see again and again. If your brand is one of them, it will be easy for you to get their attention. The more channels that your brand is visible on, the more it will stick in people’s minds. They will remember your name when they need something, and they will feel that your brand is more reputable because of its omnipresent nature.

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, brand visibility is paramount to your success. Your omnichannel strategy will allow you to align all the departments within your organization for the single goal of creating a strong brand image that is visible and dominates the online market. When you use software solutions like the platform from NICE CXone to create that strategy and implement your efforts, it will be easy to measure your progress and track your success.

You’ll be able to see which channels are working well, which ones need improvement, and if any customer engagement issues have arisen on the various channels that need to be addressed. Being able to have a comprehensive look at your entire strategy and online existence can change the way that your brand operates and gives customers that engaged customer-first experience that they demand.

Increased brand loyalty

Recent research shows that incorporating this type of strategy can increase retention rates by as much as 90% compared to the customer retention found in single-channel customer service and marketing. It’s easier and more affordable to maintain loyal customers than to source new ones, and loyalty is a good indicator of brand success. Therefore, this should be something that’s high on your list of priorities and that’s what makes it one of the biggest benefits to consider.

When you create loyal customers, you’ll be able to let your brand start selling itself. Eventually, you might be fortunate enough to end up like the major brands who use marketing as a supplement, but know that people will come. That kind of brand loyalty is hard to come by in today’s fickle and competitive market, but it can be done with the right tools and solutions, including the integrated customer support and contact center platform that is CXone from NICE .

Accessibility for customers that will keep them coming back

Customers today want personalized support and experience from start to finish. They want to know that you’re a brand that has thousands of satisfied customers, but that you’re considerate enough to treat them like they are the most important ones. When you take advantage of a robust omnichannel strategy, you will show customers that you are giving them the ultimate accessibility to your brand, no matter what they need or where they are. They can reach you through mobile, and digital channels like your website, social media, and various other mediums, giving them the control and engagement that they crave.

If the pandemic has taught people anything, it is how to take care of themselves. Although there is still a time and a place when people will need your interaction, creating an omnichannel strategy with a focus on self-service is going to be the solution that your brand needs.

Tips for getting started

Of course, becoming successful at this strategy isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s going to take time and a proper plan. Keep the following tips in mind when you are creating your strategy and trying to improve your omnichannel efforts.

• Find out which users prefer which channels and target your messages accordingly. Targeted messaging and communications are always going to garner more attention than generic efforts.
• Utilize customer data, analytics, and even customer feedback to help create your omnichannel strategy. If you are listening, the people will tell you exactly what they want, thus meeting customer expectations.
• Make sure that your entire team and organization are on board. You can’t create an integrated experience for the customer if your business itself is disjointed and running as separate entities.
• Test everything and test it often. If you are new to omnichannel, you have to figure out what works for your audience. If something isn’t working, change it. Thanks to the integrated analytics and customer service software solutions available with the NICE CXone platform, brands can gather information in near real-time and make instant changes to create faster results.
• Make sure that your products, marketing, sales, and customer support teams are all aligned and on the same page when going into an omnichannel approach. If the strategy is there, but the team is disjointed, it won’t work.
• Make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. We’d go as far as to tell you that you need to take a mobile-first approach in every aspect of your online marketing, sales, and service. People are mobile, and they want resources that are mobile with them.
• Map the customer journey and find out which channels your customers use most frequently. Determine which of those you could stand to improve and then figure out how you can improve them to provide an integrated, more cohesive customer experience.

Of course, the most important tip here is to choose a reputable, well-designed contact center solution for omnichannel customer service that will integrate with marketing and all other aspects of your business operations. NICE CXone is a customizable platform that will allow your brand to create a strategy for omnichannel interaction at every level and in every capacity to ensure total customer satisfaction and engagement across the board.

The Top 10 omnichannel brands right now

To inspire you to create your own success, here are some of the brands that are doing an outstanding job of providing that integrated, seamless, omnichannel experience for customers. Feel free to check out what they’re doing and take notes while building your own strategy.

1. Disney
2. Virgin Atlantic
3. Bank of America
4. Oasis
5. REI
6. Starbucks
7. Chipotle
8. Timberland
9. Orvis
10. VIP.com

These brands all have their own methods and strategies, but they all have one thing in common: their main goal is to deliver a robust omnichannel experience for the customer using as many avenues and resources as possible. They know that people crave that personalized, connected buying experience when they shop online, and they are doing their part to stay ahead of the trends when it comes to delivery.

They are constantly searching for new ways to level up their existence and connect with customers as if their only competition is themselves. That, perchance, could be the key here—you can create a successful experience for the modern customer if you are willing to outdo yourself at every step and milestone along the way.

Invest in your tech stack

Your technology stack is going to be the basis of your entire omnichannel experience. You cannot build a successful campaign without the right tools, after all. You will need to choose a robust customer support and contact center platform that streamlines your operations and gives you the chance to create a custom interaction for your audience from start to finish. You will also want to make sure that you have things like:

• A powerful, dynamic website that is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate
• Email marketing tools and software that can integrate with other marketing mediums and platforms
• Analytics software that helps track campaigns and adopt changes as needed
• A robust marketing and customer service solution that includes integrated features to create the best customer journey and experience from their very first contact through every single touchpoint throughout the customer lifetime.

The CXone platform from NICE offers all of this and so much more. You will have access to features like omnichannel routing and support to give customers around-the-clock access to the things that they need. This will also extend the role of your human agents and help create a better agent experience, helping further your brand and its future in the world of modern customer service.

Going digital also gives you the advantage of improved productivity for your agents, cost savings, reduced customer turnover, and access to more targeted segments, and better chances for segmentation than you may find elsewhere. With the CXone platform, omnichannel is just one way that we’re helping you take the customer experience to the next level.

Take your contact center operations to the next level with omnichannel solutions

When you work with NICE CXone, you can enjoy several benefits of the omnichannel customer service and marketing solutions. We also use omnichannel routing, ensuring that customers reach the ideal agent at the ideal time and in the right forum. Through the use of AI and other technologies, we have integrated so many digital solutions for contact centers and customer service teams.

We designed software that will give your company the competitive advantage that it deserves. Contact us now to discuss your needs or get additional information. We can help you create the perfect omnichannel solution for your brand, no matter what you need.