Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Article

Delivering a good customer experience is about more than just technology; it starts with a changed customer service outlook on the part of businesses.

With the proliferation of communication channels, the burden on meeting the customer’s needs has risen. Customers now expect to reach businesses via chat, social media and SMS in addition to phone and email.

The natural response from businesses is to meet these needs with technology. Without the right planning and businesses processes in place, however, throwing technology at the problem does little.

The first step is understanding what the desired outcomes are of a new technology; there needs to be clear justification for the use of a new technology, not just the use of the technology because other businesses are using it.

A third important step is understanding the customer journey. Delivering superior customer service means anticipating customer needs and then fulfilling those needs. This, of course, takes a deep understanding of the customer first. Before a business pours money into a new technology, it needs to know the customer pain points and how this technology can solve them. Otherwise, the technology investment might not actually make much impact in terms of customer service.

Only when these steps have been taken can a business confidently take advantage of technology to meet the growing needs of its customers. Technology investment without the proper due diligence in understanding why and how it should be used is a recipe for over-expenditure and ineffective initiatives.

Sure, technology plays a key role in making sure the customer is happy. But first there needs to be a clear plan. Far too many businesses jump right to the technology buy without this planning.