Omnichannel Communication: 5 Benefits for Enterprises

Thirty years ago, customers primarily communicated with brands through just two channels: phone and mail. Today, consumers don’t think twice about using a combination of channels for communication, including sending an email, SMS messaging, phone calls, chat, and social media.

Ninety-eight percent of Americans switch between multiple devices throughout the day. An additional 35 percent expect to be able to communicate with the same customer service representative on multiple channels, such as phone, email, and chat messages.

Companies that offer omnichannel customer service experience 90 percent higher customer retention than their competitors.

Providing multiple avenues for seamless customer communications, or omnichannel communications, is not only a cloud contact center best practice, but it’s a highly effective tactic for enterprise organizations as well.

In this article, we will discuss why omnichannel communications are critical for enterprises:

1. Timely, Proactive Communications
2. Centralized Technology & Data Insights
3. Better Employee Experience
4. Customer Convenience & Satisfaction
5. Insights-Driven Business Strategy
   
   

Multichannel vs. Omnichannel Communication

Before we begin our discussion let’s first establish the difference between multichannel and omnichannel communications.

Multichannel communications refer to the practice of using multiple channels of communication to reach your customer. These channels might include email, social media, print, and more. 

Omnichannel communications align all company channels to present a unified face and consistent way of doing business, setting them apart from multichannel communications.

Channels typically include:

• Email
• Phone
• Customer support channels
• SMS messaging
• Website chat
• Social media
• Brick-and-mortar locations

The Risks of Falling Behind

Modern enterprises are faced with real challenges when it comes to meeting and exceeding the expectations of today’s customers. Without a single, unified approach to personalized customer service, you risk falling behind competitors who offer seamless customer service interactions using unified communications.

Globally, enterprise organizations are starting to realize the value of omnichannel communications with their customers. From a customer experience (CX) perspective, this approach simply makes sense for what customers want from brands.

• 67 percent of customers prefer self-service over talking to a sales team member or customer representative. (Zendesk)
• 91 percent of customers said they had an interest in using an online knowledge base to solve their problems and answer their questions. (Zendesk)
• 57 percent of customers won’t recommend a business if their website offers a poor experience on mobile. (SWEOR)

While omnichannel communications is a relatively new concept, it’s quickly taking over the business world.

Several years ago, brands like Amazon were among the first to dip their toes into offering a truly unified customer service experience with personalized product recommendations and multichannel support. Today, unified communications are within reach for virtually all enterprise organizations.

5 Advantages of Omnichannel Communications

Let's discuss some key advantages, as well as use cases of why these concepts matter to your organization.

1. Timely, Proactive Communications

Today’s customers may book their plane tickets from a restaurant while they’re waiting for their mission-style burrito to be delivered. Others may research mortgages or insurance while they’re commuting to work.

Information is available on-demand, which has changed the way people think about their pre-purchase research. According to Google, these "micro-moments" are important because they are :

"Moments when consumers act on a need, e.g., to learn something, do something, discover something, watch something or buy something. They are intent-rich moments where decisions are being made and preferences shaped.”

If it’s easier to purchase from your competitor than it is to get an answer about your re-ordering process, why would a modern consumer buy from you?

The age of micro-moments has given rise to highly-personalized communications. Brands are discovering the value of emails, push notifications, SMS messaging, and phone calls that meet their customers in a moment of need, based on behavioral triggers, such as searching for answers on your company website.

Related Read: Unified Communication and Collaboration Tools: Make the Cloud Work For You

With omnichannel communications, your brand can move towards the future of customer communications. Examples of omnichannel communications at work include:

• Customer service representatives can access a customer’s multi-year history with your organization, product purchase history, and communication preferences from the moment of contact.     
• A customer service experience that feels unified and seamless, regardless of whether a customer is chatting with a customer service rep (CSR) or interacting with an employee in your businesses’ brick-and-mortar location.
• Personalized, behaviorally-triggered offers via mobile, email, and other channels that reward customers for loyalty and entice repeat purchases through special deals.
  
  

2. Centralized Technology & Data Insights

Behind every omnichannel communications strategy is a backbone of technology.

For many enterprises, cloud-based unified communication tools like Atlantech Online CCaaS can offer the advantage of ease-of-implementation, mobility, and centralized data insights. Our Hosted PBX ecosystem is an advanced communications and collaboration solution that integrates with your existing business infrastructure and can quickly scale to meet the growing needs of your workforce.

By integrating cloud-based communication tools with customer relationship management (CRM) software, your employees benefit from the convenience of centralized insights and a single point-of-truth.

Your business also benefits from superior data insights, including:

1. Enriched customer data, including a single source for all relevant client details and interactions with your organization across multiple channels.
2. Instantaneous access to the full history and context of your customer relationship, including auto-population of firmographic details.
3. Automated alerts and warnings based on behavioral data, such as frustrated chat messages or repeated calls to customer support for proactive relationship management.
4. Insight into your customer’s preferred channels for communications.
5. Behaviorally-based insights, including the intelligence necessary for automatically-triggered, personalized outbound communications via email, mobile push notification, or mail.
6. Smarter allocation of your customer service resources based on customer data insights, including contact center staffing and technology investments.
   
   

3. Better Employee Experience

Did you know that 70 percent of employees would rather work for a small or mid-sized organization (SMB) over a large enterprise?

Why? Because they perceive smaller companies have simpler communications and better collaboration.

An additional 91 percent of workers say that communication bottlenecks negatively affect their productivity in the workplace.

Your employees want the tools necessary to communicate with clients and colleagues effectively and deliver superior customer service. An angry customer who’s explaining a return request for the fourth time is experiencing a negative brand interaction. But, these experiences also frustrate your CSRs who don’t have the communication history necessary on the client to understand why the situation has escalated.

Omnichannel communications tools make it easy for your customer-facing employees to understand your clients and deliver superior service the first time.

4. Customer Convenience and Satisfaction

Convenience has always been essential to offering quality service to your customers, but in recent years it has become even more important. A study conducted by the National Retail Federation indicates that 83% of consumers value convenience more now than they did five years ago. According to the same survey, 97% of consumers have abandoned a purchase or left a brand because of inconvenience. 

Customers have more options than ever, and if you want to obtain and retain customers, offering consistent, convenient service is vital. Omnichannel communications give your business the ability to deliver appropriate messaging to your customers—and to your employees—via the appropriate channel every time. This consistency makes your internal and customer-facing operations more efficient, delivering a more satisfying experience for your customers. 

Omnichannel communications give your customers and employees a major upgrade to the convenience of communication.

5. Insights-Driven Business Strategy

As organizations begin to understand how their leads and existing customers interact with their brand across channels, they can adjust their customer communications for improved sales, customer retention, and satisfaction.

Here are a few ways omnichannel communication technologies can support business strategy include:

• Using customer insights to inform better-targeted “push notification” touchpoints via mobile apps.
• Improved mobile or web design to reduce “friction” in the online buying experience.
• The introduction of new products and offers for more satisfied customers, such as the release of cost savings for people who choose paperless-only billing.

Real-World Examples of Omnichannel Communications

We've talked about concepts to this point, so let's discuss a few examples of what omnichannel communications could look like at an enterprise level.

Example 1: Regional Hospital System

Scenario: A regional hospital system serves thousands of patients across multiple facilities. They need a robust communication solution to manage appointment scheduling, prescription reminders, patient follow-ups, and telemedicine consultations while maintaining HIPAA compliance.

Omnichannel Solution: the hospital system implements a UCaaS platform that integrates SMS, email, secure messaging apps, and phone services across their various departments.

• Patient Onboarding: New patients receive welcome emails with appointment scheduling links. Those who miss appointments automatically receive SMS reminders.
• Telemedicine Consultations: Video calls for telehealth services are conducted through a secure in-app messaging platform, allowing doctors to share test results and follow-up instructions without compromising patient privacy.
• Prescription Alerts: When a prescription is ready for pickup, patients receive SMS notifications. Patients can also use a chatbot on the hospital's app to schedule prescription deliveries and ask questions about medication.
• Customer Support: A live chat option on their website connects patients with billing or support staff, streamlining inquiries and ensuring swift resolution.

Potential Results: The omnichannel approach reduces missed appointments by 30%, increases patient satisfaction by 25%, and ensures a seamless, compliant communication flow between patients and healthcare providers.

Example 2: An Accounting Firm

A small accounting firm provides tax preparation, bookkeeping, and financial advisory services for local businesses and individuals. As they scale, they need a more efficient communication strategy to manage client interactions and ensure timely service, especially during busy tax seasons.

Omnichannel Solution: Evergreen Accounting implements an omnichannel communication strategy to streamline client communication and service delivery across email, SMS, a client portal, and phone calls.

• Client Engagement: Clients can reach out to through the firm’s website contact form, which integrates directly into their CRM, automatically creating client records. Clients receive SMS reminders about upcoming deadlines, appointment confirmations, and document submission requirements.
• Document Submission and Management: Clients upload tax documents through a secure client portal, and receive notifications via email and SMS to confirm receipt of documents. Follow-ups are handled via phone calls or live chat.
• Support and Follow-up: Evergreen provides ongoing financial advice through email newsletters, live virtual consultations, and SMS alerts for regulatory changes affecting small businesses. Clients appreciate the flexibility to interact via their preferred communication channels, whether it's quick questions via SMS or more in-depth consultations via video chat. 

Potential Results: this omnichannel approach increases retention by 25%, reduces administrative time by 30%, and reduces turnaround times for tax preparation and bookkeeping by 20%, enabling the firm to handle more clients during busy periods like tax season.

Unifying Your Communication Tools for an Omnichannel Customer Experience

Relying solely on phone-based customer service disadvantages your organization. Without omnichannel options like chat, email, mobile apps, and self-serve portals, you risk frustrating clients, leading to lower satisfaction, reduced retention, and lost revenue.

Adopting an omnichannel communication strategy that leverages a UCaaS platform to seamlessly integrate these digital channels not only elevates the customer experience but also enhances operational efficiency, enabling your team to respond more swiftly and effectively.

For over two decades, Atlantech Online has empowered enterprises in the greater Washington D.C. metro area with advanced communication solutions. Our UCaaS offering gives your employees the tools they need to work efficiently AND offers more channels for customer communications.