4 Signs Omni-Channel Customer Service Is Broken — and How to Fix It

1. Customers complain about how hard it is to get service on their preferred channels.
2. Customers are stuck on hold and then have to repeat themselves.
3. Agents are getting burned out.
4. Contact center productivity falls and the business suffers.

When customers have a question or need to solve a problem, they want answers fast — and they want to use the communication channel that makes the most sense for them at any given moment. When it takes too much time and effort for your customers to connect, you have a problem. High customer effort leads to frustration and low CSAT.

To get to the heart of service and grow lifelong customers, you need to offer the channels that customers want to use to solve their issues — whether voice, email, text, chat, or more. You also need to be able to seamlessly guide customers to the most helpful channel for their issue, so they don’t have to navigate across channels on their own. The goal is to make the customer journey effortless, rather than one that feels like work. A fast, seamless service experience is a business priority across both existing and emerging digital channels.

Conversations in person are continuous. Why are they not the same when a customer reaches out to a company? All too many of us can relate to the customer service experience of getting bounced around from agent to chatbot, from SMS to voice, having to repeat the same basic information.

Fragmented service happens when companies have disconnected systems and siloed channels that stand in the way of a continuous, seamless experience. All your channels need to be connected and work as one.

When customers are frustrated by long waits and the need to repeat information, they’re likely to take their anger out on the agent. This, combined with other challenges agents often face — such as being forced to engage in a lot of manual steps and toggle between screens to find the information they need to help a customer — is leaving agents stressed and overworked.

Businesses need to give agents the right tools and training so they can see the full customer journey and do their jobs with ease. This ensures that agents will be happier, leading to higher retention and less burnout. And when agents are happy, customers get better service and are happier, too.

Service is the backbone of the brand experience. If the customer service experience is poor from the start, your brand, and your business, will suffer. When contact center productivity falls, it has a ripple effect, impacting first call resolution, average handle time, abandonment rates, customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, your bottom-line costs and revenue.

To ensure a complete, connected service experience that benefits your customers and your business, you need to deploy all the tools at your disposal to make it easy for customers to engage with your brand, whether they are seeking answers through self-service or via an interaction with an agent.

• Give customers instant access to what they need on their preferred channels.
• Help customers get answers, complete tasks, and get on with their day with as little effort as possible.
• Automate common requests with AI-powered chatbots and self-service, taking the pressure off agents to handle every step, and speeding up customer service.
• Support agents with tools and training so they have everything they need to help customers at their fingertips.
• Connect all your service touchpoints on a single platform. Make hand-offs between channels seamless, so customers don’t have to repeat information.
• Deliver a consistent and efficient service experience that delights your customers. Quickly scale to add channels as new business needs emerge.