Does your business struggle with designing an unforgettable post-purchase customer experience? Indeed, this might be because your customers are reaching out through various communication channels and you are not there. So, it’s important to view your customers as a connected customer. The solution? Commit to building an omnichannel contact center experience to bridge the gap with your customers. In this article, I’ll identify the compelling reasons why businesses absolutely need omnichannel customer communications. Also, I will share with you 6 crucial capabilities you can use to harness the power of technology to improve data interoperability and better connect with your valued customers.

Is Your Business Connected to Your Customers?

Are you missing out on effectively engaging with your customers and providing them a superior post-purchase experience? Is this because your systems, people and processes are all disconnected? Thus, leading to broken data, broken processes and a lack of strategy to keep your customers happy. Moreover, customers are more connected than ever before, and they expect your business to keep up!

Below are 6 things to understand about this new, connected customer from SalesForce’s The State of the Connected Customer Report.

The Connected Customer

1. Customer Experience Is Just As Important as The Product Or Service. 80% of customers agree that their shopping experience matters just as much as the product.
2. Most Customers Change Companies Easier. Nearly four out of five customers claim it is now simpler to switch to a different company.
3. Most Customers Share Their Good And Bad Experiences With Businesses. 72% tell others about positive customer experiences, while 62% do the same for negative experiences.
4. B2B Customers Expect The Same Quality Of Service As B2C Customers. Not surprisingly, Business-To-Consumer (B2C) customer service standards are influencing the Business-To-Business (B2B) space. Businesses want a positive customer experience as well.
5. Customers Want Both Personalization and Privacy. Further customers are willing to share their data for a better experience, but with respect for their privacy.
6. After-Purchase Experience Matters. Lastly, customers’ experience doesn’t end when they buy something. Specifically, package delivery experience is just as critical as well as how well inbound call centers solve customer issues.

For more details on the state of connected customer, see ConvinceAndConvert’s State of the Connected Customer Report.

The Connected Customer And The Need For Actionable Intelligence.

A Data Centric Business: The Best Way To Agility, One Truth, Simplicity, Technology Innovation

In today’s ecommerce world, customers expect businesses to not just deliver, but also anticipate their needs and wants. So without actionable and up-to-date data, how can your employees effectively meet customer demands? Hence, all businesses need actionable intelligence across multiple channels, both external and internal, to succeed.

Thus, to ensure that your customers have a seamless omnichannel experience, all your team members should have access to the same information. Specifically, this includes a comprehensive history of the customer’s order to include purchase history and shipment status to final delivery. Also for the best results, this data should be updated in real-time, giving everyone a “source of truth” to refer to. Indeed, one way to do this is for your business to start taking on a data-centric mindset. For more information, see my article, A Data Centric Business: The Best Way To Agility, One Truth, Simplicity, Technology Innovation.

6 Critical Capabilities of an Omnichannel Contact Center That Serves Their Connected Customers.

So to connect with customers and provide the best customer service, you need a multichannel/omnichannel contact center. Specifically, multichannel capabilities include voice, chat, and more. Thus, an omnichannel contact center enables internal coordination across departments and provides a unified view of customers’ history. Here are the six key capabilities of an omnichannel contact center:

1. Effective Multi-Channel Customer Support For Better Customer Experience.

First, it is key that businesses have the ability to support customers over multiple channels. As an example, effective solutions include such capabilities as in-app chat and real-time social media interaction. Also, you need to be thinking of your call center as a contact center with multiple communications channels. Moreover, you need to leverage software so that you can seamlessly communicate with your customer over multiple communications channels. For more details, see my article, A Spectacular Call Center Experience – Technology Applied The Right Way.

A Spectacular Call Center Experience – Technology Applied The Right Way

2. Unified View of Data.

Here, call center agents and sales need to have access to the same order status information, without having to look in multiple places. Hence, business need to eliminate data silos. For more details on how to integrate data across the enterprise, see my article, Want To Integrate Data For Better Business Visibility? Here’s How To Do It. Also, for more ideas on how to unify your data and achieve data interoperability across the supply chain, see my article, Let’s Breakthrough The Data Interoperability Nightmare: It Is The Best Way To Unlock Supply Chain Innovation.

Want To Integrate Data For Better Business Visibility? Here’s How To Do It

3. Leverage AI Chatbot And Self-Help Technology Across Multiple Channels.

For example, this can include in-app chat, interactive voice response systems, and self-help video for customer training and troubleshooting. However, human-led chat, while often helpful, can be too expensive to be a viable option. On the other hand, conversational AI systems are maturing fast. So, AI chatbots with a unified data view can be a better option. BotPenguin provides an example of this. Also, customer training and troubleshooting videos are quite effective.

Positively, any attempt to automate customer support is doomed to fail without a unified data view. See my article, AI Chatbot Technology – Its Staggering Benefits And How To Best Use for more information on AI Chatbot technology. Indeed, AI chatbots are likely to supersede rule-based customer service applications in the near future.

AI Chatbot Technology – Its Staggering Benefits And How To Best Use

4. Transparent Customer Order Status.

Positively, customers want to know the status of their orders and to receive them on time. Amazon is a great example of a company that provides accurate information and efficient delivery for the products they warehouse. For more discussion and ideas on intelligent tracking, see my article, The Way To Better Supply Chain Analytics: Overcome Data Interoperability With Intelligent Tracking Status.

5. Integrate Data From Supply Chain Partners.

Here businesses need to make sure 3rd party logistics (3PL) and other supply chain vendors data is available to the call center. For best ways to integrate with supply chain partners, see my article, The Best Ways To Access Data – Tech Solutions To Unlock Your Data Silos.

6. Integrate Shipment Delivery Status From Delivery Carriers.

Is Your Customer Delivery Experience In A Tailspin? – Know The 6 Steps For More Delighted Customers

Also, it is critical that businesses make sure that their transportation carriers and last mile delivery carriers’ shipment status is available to the call center staff and to the customer. See Turvo’s The Importance of Order Visibility in Supply Chain Planning & Execution for more information on ideas and software capabilities to support call centers and enable supply chain visibility.

More References.

Also, for more ideas to unify your data and achieve data interoperability across the supply chain, see my article, Let’s Breakthrough The Data Interoperability Nightmare: It Is The Best Way To Unlock Supply Chain Innovation.

Additionally, for more from SC Tech Insights, see the latest on Customer Experience and Interoperability.

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