Omnichannel Customer Support: Definition & Strategies

Omnichannel customer support: Definition, strategies, benefits

April 18, 2023

Not all that long ago, customer support was pretty cut and dried. If people had a problem or a question, they typically had two routes to choose from:

Today, customers have seemingly endless options to contact businesses and get their questions answered. There are still phone calls and in-store visits, but there are also emails, SMS text messages, web chatbots, social media platforms, and even forums and message boards.

Customers can opt for a variety of different communication channels to get the support they need. When they do, they expect a cohesive and consistent experience when moving between those various channels.

According to a Salesforce report, 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is just as important as its products and services. So, omnichannel customer support is no longer a competitive differentiator — it’s table stakes.

What is omnichannel customer support?

Omnichannel support means using all of your available channels — email, chats, social media, phone calls, and more — to provide support to your customers. However, these channels aren’t their own little siloes or islands. An omnichannel approach integrates all of your channels to provide a far more seamless experience and consistent customer journey.

What is an example of an omnichannel customer experience?

Imagine that a customer comments on a brand’s Facebook post with a question or issue. The brand responds with a templated comment directing the customer to their other customer service touchpoints or self-service options.

The customer follows the link and sends a live web chat — and, when doing so, needs to recap the entire problem all over again. After some back and forth via chat (whether it’s with a chatbot or a live support agent), they’re told someone will reach out to them via phone or email.

When that happens? They start all over again — repeating the issue that they’ve explained twice already.

That’s multichannel customer service. It gets the job done, but each touchpoint requires that the customer starts back at square one. Omnichannel customer service cuts out those redundancies. All of the support channels are seamlessly connected so that consumers (and agents) can move between them with all of the information and context they need.

When that customer moves from Facebook to a live chat, the agent will already have an overview of the issue (likely in their customer service software) and be able to jump right in with targeted support. It’s far less frustrating for customers and far more efficient for businesses.

Omnichannel vs. multichannel customer support: What’s the difference?

The above example clued you in on the major difference between omnichannel and multichannel support: multichannel uses various channels across the customer experience, but omnichannel connects those channels.

Both approaches rely on various channels to provide support (which is likely why they’re often confused). However, with multichannel customer support, those touchpoints all stand on their own — there isn’t any strategic overlapping between them.

In contrast, true omnichannel support looks at all of the channels as a connected part of the whole so that customers can seamlessly move between channels without redundancies, repetition, confusion, or frustration.

The benefits of implementing an omnichannel customer support strategy

As customer expectations continue to evolve and increase, an omnichannel experience has quickly moved from being a competitive advantage to a non-negotiable requirement.

And brands are taking notice. According to a recent Gartner report, improving the customer experience was the top priority for customer service leaders in 2024 — and an omnichannel approach is a key piece of that. Here are a few of the compelling benefits of omnichannel customer service.

1. Improved customer loyalty and reduced customer churn

A customer support experience that lacks any cohesion and consistency is infuriating for customers, which can seriously hurt your customer retention. According to Zendesk research, 50% of customers will switch to a competitor after just one bad support experience.

And today’s customers don’t just want positive support interactions — they want personalized ones, with McKinsey research concluding that 71% of customers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions.

That level of personalization is difficult to achieve with disparate and disconnected channels. In contrast, with an omnichannel approach, customer service agents can handle those support interactions with all of the information they need — identifying information, purchase history, and past conversations — to facilitate a highly targeted and specific conversation.

2. Boosted agent productivity

It might feel like customers are the main beneficiaries of omnichannel customer support, but support teams stand to gain plenty too — especially in terms of efficiency.

Offering omnichannel customer service typically requires that support teams consolidate their tech stack. That alone saves support agents time and stress as they don’t need to navigate between so many different apps and tools that offer different functionality.

3. Enhanced analytics and insight

Companies with an omnichannel contact center also benefit from a better understanding of customer behavior. Rather than looking at individual channels and having to piece things together, you get a far more holistic view of all of your customer interactions.

What are the challenges of an omnichannel customer support strategy?

There’s no doubt that having an omnichannel customer service strategy is the best way forward. So why doesn’t every single company do it? The reality is that it can be somewhat daunting and challenging to pull off.

1. Choosing the right technology partner

Managing so many channels requires a lot of tools, and most customer support teams have a huge array of apps and software at their disposal, including:

2. Training and empowering customer service representatives

For companies that have separate and siloed customer service channels (and, as a result, team members), omnichannel support will come with a bit of a learning curve. Agents will need to develop their cross-channel proficiency, as well as an understanding of any new tools that are implemented in an omnichannel contact center.

3. Maintaining consistency

With or without omnichannel support, people expect a connected, cohesive, and seamless customer experience across multiple touchpoints. Yet, that level of consistency can be hard to guarantee on preferred channels.

How to implement and optimize omnichannel customer support

Looking at the above three challenges of rolling out omnichannel support highlights three of the major steps companies need to take to implement an omnichannel approach:

1. Establish your success metrics

How will you know when you’re not only doing omnichannel support but doing it well? Setting goals and attaching quantifiable metrics is essential to identify success.

2. Regularly review and update channel offerings

Omnichannel support doesn’t mean that you can’t ever go beyond the whole picture and zone in on a specific channel. It’s worth regularly taking inventory of all of your channels to adjust your approach.

3. Implement customer feedback loops

Customer feedback is important for understanding how well your omnichannel support is addressing customer needs and expectations.

4. Leverage AI and automation to enhance customer support

AI can help agents deliver personalized interactions and proactive support without replacing them.

5. Enable self-serve customer service options

Ensure that self-serve options, like a knowledge base or help page, are integrated and tailored to customer needs.

Start your omnichannel customer support strategy today

Not that long ago, customers had two options when they needed help: a phone call or in-person support. But today’s customers have seemingly endless choices when they want to get in touch — and they expect a seamless experience regardless of which route they choose.