How complete self-service models improve CX, boost revenue per customer and deliver on personalization
Create better customer service by understanding your customer’s journey and recognizing patterns in the way they seek to support
Over the past few years, there has been a tremendous push towards more customer-centric marketing and other business channels. This has been in part influenced by the continuously growing online market, making it easy for customers to be pickier with which companies they do business with. This also helps as the constantly evolving and advancing technology makes customers more knowledgeable about businesses, products, and services than they have been in the past.
Because of this increased importance of the customer experience more than simply a sale or marketing campaign, many businesses are facing a need to adopt new technologies and systems that allow them to offer their customers the great experience they are looking for. One of the most effective ways to do this for a business is to implement a consistent omni-channel experience for your business. What exactly is omni-channel communication? First, it is important to establish that omnichannel and multichannel communication are similar, but not the same. An omni-channel communication platform creates a unified and integrated experience for customers, whereas a multichannel platform does not.
We can see the rise of the omnichannel customer journey in businesses of all sizes and industries and today it is becoming the norm. As customers continue to experience this much more unified and effective digital experience in more and more of their favorite businesses, they are beginning to expect it from all businesses. They want a seamless and pleasant experience with your brand, no matter what device they are using, what time it is, where they are, and in whatever language they want to communicate. Now, if you have not already begun implementing an omnichannel approach to customer communications, you may be falling behind your competition. Luckily, there are omnichannel support software solutions that can help you to implement and maintain an effective and pleasant omnichannel customer experience for all of your customers — on whatever device they want to use.
The term “omnichannel” is not a new term. Essentially, omnichannel is a portmanteau that describes the business strategy of using multiple channels to approach sales and customer service in a seamless experience. In other words, it is an integration of multiple channels into a single experience that is consistent for customers.
Omni-channel communication, meaning the use of multiple channels in a unified and integrated network that provides a consistent and seamless experience for customers and employees to use, has continued to rise in popularity over the past few years and it is likely to continue to rise as more and more customers are showing preferences for this approach. Because customer opinions are becoming more and more influential in how businesses run their organizations, it is no surprise that more businesses are finding themselves in need of adopting software solutions or other systems that help them to create and offer these more unified and seamless experiences for their customers. After all, as the online market continues to get more crowded, appealing to customers is one of the best ways for businesses to ensure that they don’t lose their customers to their competitors.
Numerous omnichannel customer experience statistics show that omnichannel business approaches are more profitable in today’s society than non-omnichannel approaches. For example, omnichannel customers spend on average 4-10% more than single-channel customers and 23% of omnichannel customers become returning customers. As it becomes more and more important for businesses to adopt an omnichannel strategy for their customer service and experience practices, there have been more omnichannel tools popping up. Businesses can use these to implement this more consistent approach to managing their information and customer interactions. After all, it can be incredibly difficult for a business to shift over all of their information that is stored in separate locations into one accurate and up-to-date source of information on their own.
Luckily, with a platform like Zoomin, you do not have to do this on your own. Zoomin’s platform constantly takes in information from all sources across your business and updates one consistent and easy-to-access information source that both your employees and your customers can use to get the personalized answers that they are looking for at any time. Not only does Zoomin help you to create a seamless and unified source of information for your business that is always up-to-date with the most recent product information, but it also helps you to offer your customers an omnichannel self-service experience that allows them to find the answers to their own questions without having to contact customer service as well.
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You can find tons of omnichannel customer experience examples that highlight how this approach to customer experience helps build trust with your customers as well as providing them with the up-to-date and accurate knowledge that they are looking for and a personalized experience that helps them to find the answers they are looking for. There are many tips and strategies — such as devising 5 ways to improve omnichannel customer experience by looking at the 5 factors that show omnichannel customers are more profitable than single-channel customers — that you can use to figure out how to improve omnichannel customer experience, but one of the most effective ways to do this is to adopt a platform or software solution, like Zoomin, that helps you to create this unified source of information that can be accessed seamlessly from anywhere, at any time, and from any device.
When it comes to providing self-service options for your customers, you want to ensure that the self-service options you are offering are actually useful and help your customers — not make finding information more difficult. How can you do this? Well, the first step to improving your customer service experience is to ensure that your customers have access to accurate and up-to-date information about your products and services. Without accurate information, they are not going to be able to find the solutions to their problems and then they will get frustrated and their experience with your brand will be less than ideal.
So, to combat this, it is important to ensure that you have a consistent and unified information source that is accessible by both customers and employees so that everyone can be on the same page. Zoomin’s platform can help you create this omnichannel solution that empowers customers to find their own solutions with an intuitive and personalized customer self-service experience. This experience can also include omnichannel automated messages and “help bots” that can aid your customers in finding the information they are looking for, as well as suggesting other relevant information and solutions.
In today’s world, it is easier than ever to find statistics, studies, and surveys that detail the pros and cons of different types of business strategies — such as omnichannel customer service. To find reliable statistics about the omnichannel approach, you can look for statistics from reliable sources, for example, the Harvard Business Review.
For example, if you were to look for Harvard Business Review statistics on omnichannel customers, you may see that omnichannel customers spend more on average (4-10% more) than single-channel customers. Another type of statistic that is important to look for is customer self-service statistics. These are important because they can help you to determine the advantages and disadvantages of offering self-service options for your customers. In general, self-service has been continuing to rise in popularity and 56% of customers report that they prefer self-service methods of customer support when they are considering a product or service and 48% of customers still prefer self-service options after they’ve purchased a product or service.
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