Smart Customer Service Along the Omnichannel Journey
A cloud contact center integrates channels while analytics can identify opportunities to improve support.
Customers expect to have easy experiences with companies, regardless of the channel or channels they use. Customers also count on companies to know who they are and have the competence to follow the thread of their omnichannel journeys. So if a customer has already chatted with an agent online and then decides to call the contact center for additional help, the agent on each individual interaction should have a full contextual understanding of everything that has already happened with that consumer.
Unfortunately, too many companies fail to have a comprehensive view of their cross-channel customers. It’s not due to a lack of data – it’s the result of poor integration between support channels, CRM systems, and other customer technologies.
Such shortcomings can have a dramatic effect on customer experience execution and business performance. A recent study by Aberdeen Group finds that companies with contact center and CRM integration far outpaced their peers in critical performance measurements such as customer retention, customer satisfaction, first contact resolution rates, and customer lifetime value.
CRM systems are an invaluable tool for aggregating customer data compiled from interactions across all channels. An intelligent integration between the CRM and contact center platform is critical in enabling agents to deliver a personalized and consistent experience. Integrated screen pops and data feeds result in an improved agent experience, allowing agents to immediately meet the customer’s needs and facilitate a better overall customer experience.
A cloud contact center can enable companies to obtain a complete picture of individual customers by connecting the full spectrum of technologies used to support customers and manage relationships with them. A cloud contact center platform can provide businesses with the flexibility and agility to keep pace with customer requests by enabling them to synthesize, analyze, and act on customer insights across a variety of channels.
When companies have a comprehensive view of customers, agents are able to deliver a truly integrated customer experience that is contextual, timely, and relevant. Providing customers with intelligent support boosts the customer experience, leading to long-term loyalty and customer lifetime value.
Analytics: A gateway to deeper customer insights
While a cloud contact center can assemble the full stream of information regarding each customer’s omnichannel interactions, the use of data analytics against this information can provide agents and supervisors with rich insights into customers’ behaviors and needs.
The use of speech and text analytics tools can improve the customer experience in several ways. For starters, speech analytics tools can be applied against calls into the contact center to identify common challenges being cited by customers (e.g., difficulty finding specific information on a company’s website) which then can be acted on. These types of insights can be used to make changes to improve the customer experience while reducing contact center call volume.
Meanwhile, analytics tools can also be used by contact center associates to better understand and cater to individual customers based on the full breadth of their omnichannel interactions.
The use of analytics can also enable contact centers to identify opportunities for operational improvements. Contact center leaders can use analytics to drill down on a recent downturn in customer satisfaction rates for a particular agent or team to identify opportunities for agent coaching and training. By responding quickly to customer issues, contact centers can improve the quality of their operations while strengthening the customer experience. 
inContact is the cloud contact center software leader, helping organizations around the globe create high quality customer experiences. For more information, visit www.inContact.com or call 1-866-965-SaaS.
