The importance of providing excellent customer service is something that every brand, at the very least, recognizes. Great customer service not only results in satisfied first-hand customers but it also becomes a reason for retaining them and attracting more leads through the reputation and trust earned, widening the customer base, and ultimately raising the revenue manyfold.
In this day and age, the bar of good customer service is already set quite high. Customers are savvier than ever before and they are aware of how they deserve to be treated. Gone are the days when people were able to connect with businesses to a limited extent only and they also didn’t think too high in terms of the customer service they were offered. Nowadays, customers expect honesty, transparency, and promptness whenever they need help and they readily form opinions and biases on the basis of the quality of customer service by a brand.
Today, people are also eager to share their experiences with others, not just through word-of-mouth but also through various digital channels to which they’re connected. This is where a digital marketing services can step in and facilitate the larger audience in making better buying decisions by publicly sharing the feedback of other customers. This is a great way by which people’s trust can be earned and the reach can be expanded effectively.
A Bit about Omnichannel Service
The customer behaviors and expectations have evolved over the years – people expect swift responses from the brand they want to make a deal with, irrespective of the time or place. They also have numerous means available such as live chat, text, tweet, etc. through which they can communicate their points of concern to a brand, not just a call or an email. The answer to these overwhelming expectations is the ‘omnichannel service’, a concept that entails providing consistent and seamless customer service across different channels.
The omnichannel service takes into consideration the modern-day consumer demands and represents a shift in how brands and customers engage with each other. The prefix ‘omni’ means all, and the term implies an active presence of a company or a brand across multiple digital channels. This seems to be an effective solution for brands to build valuable customer relationships in this digital age and use their strong online presence and availability in order to grow.
The omnichannel service has now almost become a basic need in digital marketing, where not offering it can even cause a company to suffer. A report by Salesforce indicated that up to 73% of customers were likely to switch their service provider or brand if they experienced irregular services from it at any point in time. According to another research, US companies can experience losses of up to $41 billion a year due to substandard customer service.
The Advantages of Omnichannel Approach
When we look at the various techniques through which brands successfully build meaningful bonds with their clients, we find out that other methods have also been used for this purpose. One such method is the multichannel approach, in which a brand uses one strategy across different platforms in order to widen the opportunities to engage with the customers. One channel may yield a number of potential customers, but more channels open the doors to gaining even more customers through increased engagement.
The omnichannel method leverages the multichannel approach and optimizes it by tapping into the customer service aspect. Hence, it results in not only an array of touchpoints for a brand but also these communication points being optimized in terms of smooth and efficient customer experience.
Other benefits of an omnichannel service include open and efficient communication with the customers over multiple channels and a more diverse sort of engagement where they can keep moving forward with the communication without continuously going back to where they started.
What does Omnichannel Feedback Imply?
As discussed earlier, the more the communication channels, the more the touchpoints and the higher will be the customers’ expectations from a brand over these channels. Modern-day customers also expect top-notch support from brands and also the ability to share their feedback with others. Omnichannel feedback refers to enabling customers to share their valuable feedback consistently across the many channels of communication.
How Customer Feedback Optimizes Omni-Channel Experiences?
For a business to flourish, it must give priority to the expectations and needs of its target audience. Brands are now more customer-centric than ever before; businesses, big or small, have come to know the importance of valuing their customers’ opinions, and they express this by providing open feedback channels. Without holding the sentiments of the customers in high regard and directing the strategies to cater to customer needs, a brand will not be able to make its mark.
Omnichannel feedback allows brands to give priority to the ‘voice of the customer’ by enabling them to give feedback on various platforms. People love to be heard and acknowledged, and when they see a brand encouraging them to share their experiences and allowing openness and transparency regarding its image, this can potentially take customer loyalty to a whole new level. Through this, companies can also increase their reach to a larger number of people and strengthen their relationships with their following by opening up more communication channels.
Voice of the Customer Programs
The solution to a better omnichannel customer experience lies in creating a Voice of the Customer (VoC) program. Essentially, you need to equip your company with the right devices to maintain customer satisfaction. This, however, cannot be done single-handedly by any one entity – the entire company needs to be involved at different levels and everything needs to be working in coherence to devise a customer experience initiative to keep track of the customers’ preferences and gain insights from various touchpoints. Different feedback technologies and CRM solutions can be utilized for this purpose.
With the help of VoC tools like social media and email, you can monitor the patterns of customer experience and identify which areas need to be addressed to fix any problems before they transform into bigger issues. By taking into account the VoC, you can work on solutions by learning about the customers’ perspectives, improve your products, and be more informed about the needs of the customers.
Other VoC Tools for Improving the CX
Insights gathered from customer feedback is a key factor for a better CX and a VoC program focuses on gathering this valuable information. There are a number of VoC tools that can help you in collecting data including live chat widgets, web analytics, and intelligent feedback technology. CRM solutions can help you in tracking and analyzing customer activity, and other automation solutions that come under the digital marketing umbrella can enhance customer engagement and improve connectivity.
How a VoC Program will Help?
When a business loses connection with its customers, it no longer is in sync with them and this is where problems start to arise. With no track of the customers’ needs and preferences, the products will not be in accordance with the demand, the customer support will be weak, and the business will not be able to sustain as it’s not precisely identifying the pain points affecting the CX
A VoC program helps in spotting these pain points and correctly identifying why your number of customers and engagement is low. Thereafter, you can optimize your strategy to work according to the best interest of your business. So, if VoC feedback suggests that your mobile app has a glitch that needs to be fixed, or that certain functionality of your website is frustrating to deal with, you will focus on those areas because your business is directly being affected by them.
Wrapping Up
With so many channels of communication open all the time, businesses are in a good position to display their loyalty to customers, but they must take the first step. By making intelligent use of your customers’ feedback and considering this as a huge opportunity to build trust among your following, you can create a great experience for your customers.
