Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Article

Part of a company’s success in customer support is the ability to anticipate what their customers want. This is true when it comes to modern omni-channel customer support: different customers will want different things, so it’s important for a company to understand that’s expected of them. While older generations of Americans liked speaking to live agents over the telephone, there is evidence that with the Millennial generation – today’s young Americans – live telephone support is something to be avoided, not embraced.

A recent study released by Aspect (News - Alert) that examined the generational and technological divergence between consumer groups and their perceptions and preferences when it comes to customer support found that 65 percent of all customers and 69 percent of Millennial customers stated that they felt good about themselves and a company when they resolved a problem without speaking to live customer support agents. The same study found that nearly three out of four consumers prefer to solve their customer service issues on their own. According to Aspect, this will help set the stage for big changes in the consumer experience landscape.

Forbes contributor Blake Morgan wrote recently that technology can either make life much easier for the customer or much harder.

“Not having a seamless multichannel experience is the equivalent of going to a DMV in 1940,” wrote Morgan. “Today’s modern company is always one step ahead of the multichannel customer. The companies that value customer experience go above and beyond to make themselves easily accessible to the customer on the customer’s preferred channel.”

One of the biggest determinants today for a great customer experience is how easy a company makes it for customers. It’s not only a great customer strategy, it’s a great business strategy. A recent customer experience study conducted by McKinsey that surveyed 27,000 US consumers across 44 industries revealed that companies that strive to offer a high quality yet low effort experience to customers realized a 10 to 15 percent increase in revenue growth and a 20 percent increase in customer satisfaction.

This means that it makes sense for companies to build up – or rebuild – their self-service efforts, and make them mobile friendly. Aspect notes that self-service programs have the advantage of quick and convenient access to information when needed for the customer, as well as quick ROI for businesses that can leave their live contact center staff to focus on more elaborate inquiries.

And while self-service is important to get right, it’s also critical to note that it won’t eliminate the need for live help, according to Aspect.

“The need for live assistance from knowledgeable staff will not go away; only certain types of inquiries are self-serviceable,” wrote the company. “Customers will continue to reach out for human help for complex account inquiries or to understand a company's business processes. For simple inquiries, however, self-service is now usually preferred.”

Customers today won’t jump through hoops to do business with you, no matter how exciting a product or service you’re selling. If you have a fixed amount of time and money to spend on improving the quality of your customer support (and who doesn’t?) spend it reducing the time and effort it takes for customers to interact with your organization.