Omnichannel Versus Multichannel Contact Center 

Let’s take a look at your day so far. Odds are that you have scrolled through the daily news on your phone, checked and sent work emails on your PC, chatted on a messaging platform, made a call to someone on your team or to book a service, gone through your grocery cart on your favorite shopping app and maybe if you had the time checked out a travel deal or two on a booking portal. All while browsing through a social media platform or two, of course. 

There is no denying that most of us use multiple devices, multiple applications, and multiple communication channels in a day. And the way people communicate and work with businesses is bound to reflect this. 

Omnichannel communications are an evolving customer expectation 

Studies suggest that 66% of consumers use more than three touchpoints to communicate with their preferred brands. *

We scroll, search, and communicate through a myriad of platforms, both with and without ever using our voices…to connect, gather information, solve a problem and so much more! The customer of today is a savvy one, and an exacting one as well. The advent of digitalization, further compounded by a worldwide pandemic, has transformed the way businesses communicate with and connect to their customers to meet new and evolving expectations. 

An ever-rising demand for efficient, convenient and personalized service and service channels are driving companies to think way beyond the traditional call centers to provide assistance and service. 

Here is a snapshot of what the customers today look for when it comes to communication with brands:

• Easy and quick resolutions for complaints or queries
• Access to brands via multiple preferred service channels 
• Self-service options for easy resolutions 
• Personalized and high-quality customer journeys
• Data protection, security and privacy
• Faster response times 

The need of the hour is meeting your customers on channels of their preference, at a time they want, and in a way that they understand – seamlessly! This is where omnichannel communication comes in. 

The advent of the Omnichannel

Omnichannel customers spend 4% more in-store and 10% more online than single-channel customers. 

Much like a multichannel contact center, omnichannel offers customers multiple touchpoints of communication. However, one of the major (and it’s a big one) differences is that omnichannel contact center solutions offer customers a seamless experience from one platform to the next. It provides a unified customer journey, with easy integrations. 

Omnichannel vs. Multichannel Contact Center Solutions: 

The Context for better Customer Experiences (CX) 

There are few things quite as annoying as having to repeat yourself and your concerns to customer service representatives over and over again. We have all been there…it feels like a total waste of time and energy. Why omnichannel support works better is because it provides the relevant context to each and every interaction with each and every customer. This empowers agents to create and maintain seamless conversations and improves the customer experience.

Context also helps reduce resolution time. Less effort for customers, means better customer retention and improvement in sales! With CX being such a major factor in business sales, customer loyalty and growth today, this context can be a goldmine. 

The cornerstone for Omnichannel experiences – Low Code API Integrations 

Omnichannel contact center solutions help ensure personalized and automated communication at varied customer touchpoints. Integration without disruption is key, as is the provision for comprehensive yet easy to use dashboards for agents with the access to all relevant data. 

Pioneering solution providers in the contact center space, like the CaaS powered Ozonetel, are built on an open architecture, making them easy to integrate with almost any other business tool and allow for changes to back-end systems without affecting front-end applications. 

Open API integrations are critical for creating omnichannel experiences and ensuring speed, flexibility, consistency and scalability –  to meet both business and customer needs. 

Use Cases

Ozonetel has been a part of multiple success stories, by empowering businesses to manage end-to-end communications on a single platform, across a variety of activities. A sampling of the use cases: 

• Management of missed inbound and outbound call campaigns
• Interactive surveys via Bots and IVR
• Seamless and unique integrations with leading CRMs
• Advanced agent training
• Hyper accelerated lead generation
• Automating touchpoints while simplifying backend operations 

Conclusion 

It was found that 64% of consumers expect real-time responses from companies. And a staggering 7 out of 10 of customers expect the customer service reps to be aware of their history and issues. **

Creating smart, personalized experiences for your customer is pivotal for business growth and success. Engaged and relevant interactions also advance customer conversions and customer retention. Omnichannel contact solutions help make it all possible, while allowing for evolving customer preferences – one of the most solid ways to future-proof a business!