We are no longer limited to communicating through phone calls or emails; we now have a wide array of communication channels, such as real-time chats, social media posts, or instant messaging, among others. And just as individuals use these channels, so can businesses. Indeed, these channels provide companies with the opportunity to engage and connect with their customers in real-time and in a closer, more personal, and direct manner, resulting in an unparalleled customer experience.
However, not everything that glitters is gold; this diversification also presents challenges in terms of management and coordination for frictionless interaction.
Multiply the Channels
Having a presence in various communication channels is practically a requirement to engage with customers. Nowadays, it’s rare to find a customer who doesn’t use multiple channels almost simultaneously. However, to avoid wasting efforts, you need a precise understanding of the buying habits of your target audience and which channels they typically use to be effective and adapt channel selection for each campaign and/or customer segment.
Furthermore, by multiplying the channels, you maximize impact, visibility, and presence in the consumer’s mind. In other words, multiplying channels means expanding your company’s presence across multiple touchpoints with customers and implementing frictionless interaction. This can be achieved through the implementation of various tools and strategies, such as virtual assistants, social media, email, and other communication methods, the choice of which will depend on the channels your customers, or potential customers, use most frequently.
Let’s take an example. If your target audience is young and, therefore, quite active on social media, where do you think your company should have a presence to reach them effectively? That’s right, on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, among others. Additionally, your audience is young and they are the most impatient when it comes to obtaining information, so incorporating a virtual assistant on your website allows your company to provide immediate answers and, consequently, enhance the user experience.
Combine Channels
Channel combination is about multiplying and connecting touchpoints coherently and efficiently. It’s not just about being present in multiple places, but ensuring that information flows smoothly through all these channels.
If a customer initiates a conversation through the chat on your website but then prefers to continue it through a voice or video conversation because it’s more convenient or they need to show something, your company can facilitate that transition as long as it follows a suitable strategy for channel combination. This way, your customer support team can pick up the conversation where it left off, without losing the previous information. All of this creates a frictionless interaction experience for the customer, thereby increasing their satisfaction.
To better understand these two terminologies —channel multiplication and combination— n practice, let’s look at the following example:
Example: Women’s Fashion Brand
You are the CEO of a women’s fashion company with both physical and online presence. In the online mode, the customer service is lacking due to its exclusive focus on phone calls, limiting contact options and causing some dissatisfaction among users. Indeed, especially nowadays, users prefer sending a message over having a phone conversation.
Multiply Your Channels:
Live Chat: Your customers can interact with your company through a multilingual chat service accessible from their PC or mobile browser. You can automate part of the interaction with a virtual agent and then transfer the communication to a human agent if needed.
Phone Line: Keep the phone channel always available with both virtual and trained human agents to attentively listen to customers, understand their needs or concerns, and provide clear answers and appropriate solutions in any language.
Email: Offer customers the option to inquire via email with just one click. This is useful for matters where customers prefer a detailed response.
Social Media: Use platforms like WhatsApp, TikTok, or Instagram for continuous interaction with customers. Agents should post updates about offers or products and respond to customer questions or concerns promptly.
Channel Combination:
WebRTC Technology: Hire a WebRTC telephony service. WebRTC technology can be used from any device, ensuring that your customers are assisted no matter where they are. This service allows multi-device communication through any voice, video, or chat channel, all managed from the same platform, thus increasing agent and company productivity.
Trans-Channel Capability: Enable your customers to start a conversation on one channel, like chat, and seamlessly continue it on another channel, such as voice, within the same browser, without repeating information.
Unified Customer Record: Establish a unified record system that tracks all customer interactions across different communication channels. This ensures that customer support agents have access to a complete history of past interactions.
Automation of Frequently Asked Questions: Delegate responses to frequently asked questions to virtual agents to free up human support agents to address more complex issues.
This approach ensures that customers can communicate with your company in the way they prefer and receive fast and efficient responses across all channels.
The Solution: Fonvirtual
Fonvirtual’s virtual PBX solutions allow you to multiply and combine channels for improved and establish frictionless interaction. Fonvirtual offers an effective way to implement this strategy and harness the full potential of artificial intelligence. Indeed, Fonvirtual leverages AI to provide a more personalized and effective customer service. Virtual assistants can handle common queries, while human agents can step in when a more personal touch is needed, ensuring a seamless interaction that saves time for both your company and your customers.
