As today’s customers come to expect complete control over interactions with their service providers, organizations across industry and government are shifting focus towards customer experiences, requiring a reevaluation of their customer engagement strategies.
Today’s customer wants to engage with you as their service provider at a time that is convenient for them in a channel suits that them and expects you to provide consistent, responsive service in all channels. Intimidated yet? No worries, we’re here to help!
Developments in mobile and web technologies coupled with increasing adoption of those technologies across customer bases present organizations with an opportunity to simultaneously increase operational efficiencies and improve the customer experience. A well-executed omni-channel customer engagement strategy ensures that these benefits are realized.
Omnichannel engagement leverages a multi-channel approach to provide customers with a seamless experience. Whether customers are engaging with you online in a self-service channel, through a live representative in a synchronous (think chat) or asynchronous (think email or secure messaging) manner from a desktop or mobile device or even in a face to face or phone interactions, customers should have a consistent experience.
So, naturally you’re asking, how do I get from where I am today to where I need to be as an omnichannel service organization? Here’s the 30 second crash course:
Step 1: Commit to serving your customers where they are and treating them as if your world revolves around them (this is the easy part).
Step 2: Know your customer better than they know themselves. Talk to your customers, observe their behaviors and make informed decisions based on data. Just because your customer asks for something doesn’t mean they really need or want it and just because they don’t ask for something doesn’t mean they don’t want it, they may just not know what to ask for.
Step 3: Know yourself. What are your organization’s biggest customer service challenges? How ready is your organization and workforce for a shift in customer engagement? What kind of changes will make the most immediate impact?
Step 4: Prioritize the strategies and activities that will become your roadmap for change.
Step 5: Transform your organization!
About Digital Forge
Digital Forge, LLC advances digital design and transformation of enterprises into world-class, high performing organizations ready to take on the challenges associated with an ever-accelerating emergence of new technologies and increasingly hard to meet customer expectations. Our integrated digital design and transformation framework encompasses a holistic digital strategy combined with low-code/no-code application platforms and state-of-the-art networking capabilities to ensure your business outperforms competitors and pleases customers for years to come. With decades of experience in strategy, management and IT consulting experience, our highly skilled experts partner with clients to achieve new levels of success.
About the author
Chris Kao is the oracle of all things Omni-Channel at Digital Forge. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or directly via email at chris.kao@digital-forge.io