In today’s highly competitive marketplace, the experience your customers get when they interact with your business and your brand is the foundation for success.
It helps in differentiating yourself and achieving more loyal and engaged customers. Conversely, a single bad experience can ruin the relationship and turn your customer into a die-hard detractor.
For this reason, brands try to improve the customer experience in every interaction. In this endeavor, communications play a crucial role, as it is where most of the friction points between the user and the company occur.
The goal is to make all interactions as smooth, simple, and frictionless as possible. Intelligent use of technology, using omnichannel communications solutions, help provide customers with the service and assistance they expect when they require you.
Omnichannel communications
Today, you can use multiple communication systems to improve the relationship with the customer, depending on their preferences and the needs of each interaction.
While some customers prefer a more immediate, personal, and direct contact, others feel more comfortable with more impersonal communication. Similarly, some situations call for real-time communication, such as an urgent incident, but others require a longer process, such as some sales processes.
Below, we list some of the most common options for companies, which in many cases combine to offer omnichannel service:
Telephony and call centers
Chat and chatbots
Email
Social media
Video
Other media
Telephony and call centers
It is undoubtedly one of the most used methods for incoming and outgoing calls. It provides fast, direct, and personal communication.
Advanced telephony systems, based on PBXs, help to improve communication with functions such as:
Automatic answering system
Interactive voice response systems (IVR)
Call forwarding and routing, including forwarding to mobile devices
Voicemail
Integration with other systems, like CRMs.
Click-to-call functions allow your customers to establish a call directly by clicking on a link on your website.
VoIP solutions for SMEs
A few years ago, PBX systems were only available to large companies. Still, now they are accessible to SMEs and freelancers thanks to VoIP PBX solutions in the cloud. Small businesses can use VoIP to provide their customers with the same telephone service as large companies. They are inexpensive and straightforward solutions that require no investment. They only need a computer and an internet connection to start sending and receiving calls in minutes.
Chat and chatbots
Increasingly widespread, it is a simple, convenient, accessible, and quick form of communication that allows direct and personal contact, but within a certain distance, which many customers prefer. The use of chatbots can be helpful, although their abuse can make your customers desperate, so use them with care.
Instant messaging
Solutions such as Whatsapp facilitate interaction using a tool known and commonly used by your customers, providing a greater degree of closeness.
Email is still essential for communication with your customers. It allows you to receive and manage queries properly, especially when you don’t have a dedicated team to answer the phone or attend the chat. It is also helpful for incorporating other elements to communication, such as sending documentation, additional information, etc.
Social media
With frequent changes depending on fashions and the emergence and decline of platforms, social networks are a fundamental element of communication, whether direct or indirect. They also allow you to experiment with other alternatives, such as online events.
Video
Video calls have gained much prominence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a Webhelp report, 70% of European customers now prefer to communicate with companies via video calls.
Video calls can be an excellent option for solving more complex problems that can be difficult to explain via mail or call. They are handy for sharing visual content, resolving practical doubts, and improving non-verbal communication.
Other media
We must not forget other traditional or indirect communication channels, including personal interaction if you have a customer service office, your website, or your YouTube channel.
Remember to maintain a consistent communication style across all your channels and a smooth and homogeneous experience for your customers. You can also incorporate collaborative tools, or CRMs, that your agents can use to avoid the customer having to provide the same information repeatedly and streamline the processes of resolving their queries or problems.
Read more:
The importance of communications to improve customer experience
