Omnichannel Cloud Contact Center Benefits

It’s no longer enough to be “customer-friendly.” Buyers have more choices than ever, which is why they value “customer centricity.”

Therefore, everything your organization does should focus on making the customer experience as seamless as possible. However, research reveals that organizations often have a hard time doing that because of functional silos, missing technology, and support teams not having what they need to manage customer issues.

How can you separate from the pack with a more customer-centric service experience? Learn what an omnichannel cloud contact center is and how it elevates the attention you can provide to your clients.

Key Takeaways:

• An omnichannel cloud contact center is software that allows your inbound and outbound customer-facing teams to interact seamlessly with clients across channels.
• The advanced features of the software allow your team to offer an enhanced customer experience.
• Follow best practices for optimization, automation, and data collection to get the most out of your cloud contact center.
• Consistently refining your omnichannel strategy helps your team stay customer-centric.

What Is an Omnichannel Cloud Contact Center?

An omnichannel cloud contact center is a customer service team that can seamlessly handle a high volume of customer interactions across various communications channels. The system uses cloud-based software to enable agents and their managers to do this work from any location they can get online. 

The foundation of an omnichannel contact center is usually interacting through phone calls. However, addressing customer issues through email, video, and text is also common. AI chatbots are another channel that is gaining in popularity on these systems.

How Does Omnichannel Differ From Multichannel?

Omnichannel cloud contact centers are distinct from multichannel setups. While both systems connect with customers across different communications channels, the difference lies in how those channels integrate.

Multichannel

Multichannel contact centers have separate teams for each type of communication. These teams are in distinct silos and do not mix for the most part. 

As a result, if a customer wants to engage with your company on one channel and wishes to continue receiving assistance through a different channel, the support process may have to start over from the beginning. This can be frustrating for the customer and your agents.

Omnichannel

All channels integrate together in an omnichannel cloud contact center. Any agent can pick up a customer support ticket or interaction and continue offering seamless service. Therefore, omnichannel systems are typically superior to multichannel ones.

Furthermore, the additional fluidity makes call routing more efficient between departments. It’s also easier for you to upskill your teams for better service.

What Best Practices Help You Get the Most out of Your Omnichannel Cloud Contact Center?

An omnichannel cloud contact center is a powerful tool. Like any other productivity and collaboration tool, it does not automatically turn your team into customer service rockstars. 

You have to deploy it correctly, and agents have to learn how to use the system properly. Implement the following best practices for your contact center:

• Automate as much as you reasonably can. Customers have become more comfortable with chatbots and IVR systems, especially as advances in AI permit more natural conversations. These tools can collect a lot of data and handle interactions that take the load off of your agents and boost your efficiency.
• Optimize everything for mobile. Of course, customers will get phone support on mobile devices. However, also make sure they can just as easily use a chatbot, read articles, and have a video conference on small devices.
• Gather and streamline customer and agent data. Omnichannel cloud contact centers make collecting data about interactions easier than ever. Utilize built-in analytics, scheduled reports, and business app integrations to measure team performance and learn how to create more personalized interactions.

Fortunately, when you set up an omnichannel contact center with Intermedia, we’ll assist you. We provide a comprehensive onboarding process that shows you how to get the most out of your service. 

How Do You Create an Omnichannel Customer Service Strategy?

Implementing an omnichannel cloud contact center means you have to juggle a lot of moving parts as a leadership team. However, you can succeed at this if you develop and refine an omnichannel customer service strategy.

Map the Customer Journey

Start by studying and mapping the customer journey of your client base. Focus on which channels they prefer and at what part of the marketing funnel they prefer them.

Unify Your Team on Your Strategy

Next, make sure you’ve aligned your customer experience strategies across all departments, especially customer-facing roles. Maintain consistent brand messaging. Also, share which key performance indicators are most important for agents to succeed in.

Regularly Train Your Agents

You should then invest the time and energy into agent training. Weekly skills training is ideal, even after the initial onboarding period. 

Role-playing scenarios help agents prepare for challenging situations. You must also solicit feedback about what things agents find to be most and least effective to refine your systems and processes.

Get the Right Software

Last but not least, procure customer experience software that will help you improve. At the top of the list will be your omnichannel cloud contact center itself from a reliable provider. 

Then, uncover which app integrations you’ll need for your industry. That could include customer relationship management, sales, marketing, and product software to simplify workflows and deliver a top-tier customer experience.

Just as customer service has always evolved, it will continue to do so. Keep looking for how you can enhance your team, and stay tuned for improvements in contact center software that help you continue to create a more customer-centric experience.

Are You Ready To Start Operating Your Own Customer-Centric Omnichannel Cloud Contact Center?

Nothing needs to stand in the way of you managing an omnichannel cloud contact center that elevates the customer experience to new heights. Intermedia can help you set up your system in no time and assist with onboarding your team.

Reach out to us today to schedule a callback. You’ll quickly see why over 135,000 businesses rely on us to connect better from wherever, whenever.

Rob Oscanyan

Robert Oscanyan is a Senior Director of Product Marketing at Intermedia, where he focuses on helping businesses improve their customer experience using Intermedia's award-winning cloud communications solutions. Rob has over a decade of experience spanning market research, messaging, and elevating the voice of the customer. In his free time, he constantly creating new adventures with his wife, seven kids, and a small army of pets.