There’s a new goal in the customer support industry, and it correlates directly to an improved customer experience: reducing “customer effort.” The conventional wisdom here is that the less effort a customer has to put into resolving a problem, the happier he or she will be, and the less likely to churn.

While it certainly makes sense, many contact centers today seem to go out of their way to raise customer effort. They require customers to repeat their names, addresses and account numbers three or more times per call, they are unaware of any transactions customers engaged in recently, and don’t even know if a customer called on the same issue last week, yesterday or five minutes ago.

Many contact centers pride themselves on being “multichannel.” But the truth is that this term isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. These same companies may be calling themselves multichannel since they built a Web site and added an [email protected] Web site back in the 1990s (never mind that the last time anyone checked that inbox was 2002).

The word of the day is “omnichannel,” and it turns multichannel on its ear. Multichannel often refers to several contact media – the phone, the Web, email and self-service – that reside side-by-side, but these channels never really touch because they were never properly integrated. “Omnichannel,” as the name implies, mean that all routes into a contact center, regardless of media, will result in the same high-quality, high-information and delightful (not to mention low-effort) customer experience.

The omnichannel contact center performs all its functions in sync with all channels: this might mean scheduling and forecasting, tracking service levels, measuring key performance indicators and managing quality. No contacts are “lost,” and when a customer logs off one channel and initiates contact via another, the company is aware of this, because it counts as a single transaction.

It’s not for the faint of heart, and it’s unlikely that companies can master it with their existing technology, particularly if it’s outdated. It is, however, absolutely necessary for survival today, when customer expectations are higher than ever, and their loyalty is more fickle than ever.

On Wednesday, February 12th at 11:00 am EST/8:00 am PST, TMCnet will present a Webinar entitled, “Enabling Customers to Talk, Type and Tap to Get Personalized Answers in Any Channel.” The Webinar will feature Johan Jacobs, Former Gartner (News - Alert) Research Director, and Richard Simons, CEO of Creative Virtual USA. It will cover the difference between a multichannel and an omnichannel strategy; key strategies for reducing customer effort; what new tools are available to provide “smart help” to the savvy consumer; and information about the omnichannel and the rise of mobile usage.

For more information or to register, visit TMCnet.