Evolving Your Omnichannel Strategy

James Hughes of Sabio discusses how traditional on-premise platforms can leave you at a disadvantage when it comes to building true end-to-end customer engagement strategies.

I was recently asked how omnichannel contact centre technology can evolve to support today’s evolving customer engagement preferences – particularly as more and more interactions are conducted on mobiles.

Certainly when it comes to shifting customer buying and contact requirements, traditional omnichannel contact centre technology can be at a disadvantage.

Also, if you’re relying on an on-premise platform that was purchased and is being run on the basis of predictable volumes across traditional channels, then you’re probably going to suffer from a lack of agility and increasing operating costs.

That’s probably because omnichannel contact centres are now well-established, having been around for 15–20 years.

Designed to support channels such as email and SMS, many older platforms are being swamped by digital innovations such as virtual assistants, chatbots and robotic processes.

In addition, with the Generation Z demographic having grown up with a digital-first approach to their lives, organizations are having to come to terms with the need to support on-demand engagement, instant availability and active social media integration.

So supporting Generation Z will need to feature in your customer engagement approach; however, truly integrated customer journeys will need to be much smarter.

It’s this requirement for much greater complexity that is leading some to question the use of the omnichannel approach, with retailers particularly suggesting that great customer experiences have never been about being across all channels and being everything to everybody.

Instead, what matters is being available in the most appropriate way at each stage of the customer journey.

For example, if you’re a utility company and you’ve recently sent out a bill or an update digitally then it’s reasonable to assume that when a customer calls up within an hour then it’s likely to be related to that event.

Offering this kind of contextual awareness will matter for all customers, not just Generation Z.

Today’s leaders know that if they get their CX right, there will be an impact not just on revenues but also customer retention and renewals. However, they also know that, whether it’s omnichannel or other aspects of CX, there aren’t any magic bullets.

Each organization has its own distinct propositions and customer demographic, and getting CX right takes both investment and ongoing effort to make it work.

However, evolving towards a more flexible cloud-based approach can give your organization the agility you need to focus on delivering the kind of consistent and frictionless service your customers are looking for.

The goal is to achieve the right mix of solutions, digital capabilities and customer insight so that you can work continuously to optimize service delivery.

By maintaining a focus on customer feedback, you’ll achieve the right blend between digital and traditional channels.

Also, by introducing new self-service capabilities, you’ll also find that you can optimize the total number of cloud user licences required for your CX platform.

That can make a significant difference as self-service increasingly removes some of the engagement load from the contact centre.