In a recent article, Murph Krajewski points out that omni-channel customer service can greatly improve the customer experience/journey. However, there are some contact centers that don’t provide omni-channel services to a high-quality level and may actually be hurting the customer experience. He goes on to discuss the following four mistakes contact centers make when providing an omni-channel experience:
Having siloed channels (e.g., there should be a seamless transition from channel to channel, but many omni-channel contact centers don’t allow fluid consistency).- Not utilizing AI and chatbots to assist contact center agents and streamline the queue.
- Providing poor training due to only covering one or a few channels while ignoring training on other channels, or due to improperly preparing agents for every scenario.
- Failing to track the proper KPIs to ensure all channels are performing up to customers’ standards.
The Significance of Consistency in Omni-Channel Contact Centers
Krajewski’s article addresses numerous important issues contact centers have when providing omni-channel customer experiences. However, the one we’d like to focus on is the first: inconsistency across channels. One of the most irritating things a customer can experience is inconsistency from a brand, especially if they get certain information from one channel while other channels don’t support or verify that information. If we were to relate it to brick-and-mortar stores, it would be like going into a chain store in one city and then going to a store from the same chain and finding completely different stores hours, organization, pricing, or service quality. Likewise, if a customer sees a company’s Facebook, but then the company’s website doesn’t align with it in terms of branding and language, there will be unnecessary frustration that could lead to customers leaving for competitors.
Contact centers need to ensure that they’re maintaining the same quality standards for each channel their clients utilize. People are growing more and more demanding for seamless experiences in every facet of life. Everything is done digitally and integrated in customer’s day-to-day lives, so their needs as customers reflect this reality. Whether the customers are contacting a brand through traditional phone calls, social media, live chat support, email, or any other channel, the level of service needs to be the same quality level with the same information available.
This blog post is based on an article from CustomerThink. To read the original article, please click the link below:
Four Omni-channel Mistakes Killing the Customer Experience – Murph Krajewski
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