Today, customer service can take place across multiple touchpoints, and it is important to have a multichannel contact center solution that can integrate multiple channels and provide seamless customer service. Contact centers have seen a significant transformation thanks to the digital revolution. While we used to refer to these as “call centers,” the majority of firms have made the move to “contact centers”. Call centers only handle phone calls, whereas contact centers also use SMS and live chat as additional forms of communication. These are the first steps towards providing a better customer experience, and they are also known as multichannel contact centers.
What is a multichannel contact center?
A software platform known as a multichannel contact center incorporates several forms of communication, such as audio, text, and social media. A multichannel contact center is essentially the same as call center software, with the exception that it enables your staff to communicate with clients in a variety of ways. No matter how customers choose to contact you, multichannel contact centers let you swiftly communicate with them from a single software platform, which ultimately helps to increase business efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Essential channels for multichannel contact center
Every multichannel contact center utilizes some channels for communication that are:
Voice
In a multichannel platform, voice calls are still essential. The same cannot be said for all voice-calling tools. By using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology, the contact center platform solution from Dialer360 allows users to place phone calls via the internet as opposed to a conventional phone network. This makes it quick and simple to put up new contact center agents and manage their phone numbers.
Email is a significant method of business communication and streamlines business processes. Because it requires no effort and doesn’t need waiting by phone or computer for a response, email is still a popular method for communicating with businesses. Include this channel in your small business contact center as well.
Web Chat
By offering live chat, you give clients a way to contact you right when they have inquiries or issues that they are unable to resolve on their own. This is considerably more satisfying than emailing a support team because you never know when you’ll hear back from them.
Social media
Of course, social networking was a must consider. Through direct messages and public posts, customers are contacting businesses on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platforms.
SMS
The modern method of communicating with people is SMS or text messaging. If your dentist texts you to remind you of an upcoming appointment, so will a contact center team be texting a client. In the same location where you conduct phone calls and participate in video meetings, Dialer360 desktop applications let you send SMS messages from any business number you choose.
Difference between omnichannel and multichannel contact center
Omnichannel and Multichannel are two buzzwords that are frequently used interchangeably. Both Omni and Multi-use a variety of channels for communication, but what makes one different from the other and why does it matter?
An omnichannel contact center is described as inbound or outbound customer support or sales operation that uses call, email, chat on mobile apps, chat on websites, and social media with data continuity across these platforms so that the customer never or hardly ever needs to enter the same information twice.
A multichannel contact center, on the other hand, is one where the customer support function (inbound) or a sales function (outbound) operates across call, email, mobile app-based chat, website-based chat, and social media, with agents specializing in a specific channel and handling that channel’s interactions independently of customer interactions on other channels.
Why multichannel contact center
Companies are moving towards multichannel contact centers for their businesses, it is important to understand why companies prefer this. Some of the key benefits of using multichannel contact centers are:
Boost brand image
Contact centers no longer only serve to answer incoming calls from clients. It is essential to be accessible on all the channels that your consumers commonly used to develop a brand image of a customer-friendly firm that is genuinely interested in what the customers have to say. A brand image that you want for your company can be created by promptly responding to consumer remarks at all touch points and being aware of changes in customer attitude.
Customer engagement
No corporate guiding principle is more important than the development of exceptional customer interaction, and IT leaders will need to innovate to engage customers across all channels.” All firms have effective customer involvement as their top objective. The first step to gaining your consumers’ engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty is to open up all lines of communication with them and actively participate in the conversation. A multi-channel customer care contact center is the only way to accomplish this.
Quick support
Impatience and the need for rapid gratification are two characteristics that distinguish today’s multi-channel clients. They transition between channels rather easily, and they anticipate that corporations will do the same. Businesses may ensure they can prevent the majority of customer concerns by being accessible at all client touchpoints. They can provide expert responses on social media platforms, respond to emails more quickly, and provide immediate help through live chat, among other services.
Maximum Performance of Agents
To respond to consumer inquiries, a single employee can sort among numerous channels. Most of the time, issues are resolved through internet-based communication methods like social media or chat, which reduces the workload for voice operators. In a multi-channel contact center, everything takes place through a single application, and there is only one version of the client’s data. This makes it simpler for the agents to multitask and move as quickly among channels as the consumer does.
Dialer360’s multichannel contact center strategy
Cover all the channels a client might use to contact you when you’re planning the next stage of your contact center solution (or might use). You can replace over a dozen apps with one enterprise-grade customer communication platform, which supports phone, email, social media, text, and even video. When investigating a new multichannel or omnichannel solution, keep things as straightforward as possible. When the team is prepared, connecting channels to your customer care team will be simple. A feature-rich cloud contact center will help you meet customer needs. Achieve unified reporting across all channels to monitor your success. Join Dialer360 for Simple channel management for both inbound and outbound traffic, sync up your contact center and telephone system, automate your employees to increase efficiency, and get 24-hour customer support.
