As operators embrace digital channels to enhance customer experience (CX) and meet evolving consumer engagement preferences and trends, the omnichannel contact centre has become the established benchmark for service delivery.
By Dion Millson, Head of AI Strategy at Connect.
Unlocking omnichannel capabilities allows contact centres to meet the customer in the channel of their choice.
Customers connect with the contact centre based on their preferences, whether that is voice, e-mail, chat, SMS or social media. A trend has arisen to use omnichannel strategies to then drive the customer towards lower cost channels.
From omni to opti
While omnichannel strategies focus on integrating multiple communication channels into a seamless ecosystem, opti-channel strategies advance the concept by leveraging emerging technologies, AI and customer data to automatically identify the most effective and appropriate channel for each interaction or part thereof – meeting the customer in the channel of their choice and then assisting them in the channels that are likely to give them the best possible customer experience.
The challenge of rising customer expectations around speed and simplicity, coupled with a need for businesses to control costs, cater to rising volumes and improve operational efficiencies, is driving businesses to embrace new advances in technology to deliver channel optimisation at scale and unlock the next evolution in CX – opti-channel engagement.
Seamless routing across channels
Technology advances in AI are allowing operators to re-imagine process flows and redesign customer journeys by serving customers on the most appropriate channel for their requirement, improving CX while still saving costs and creating efficiencies.
It’s more than simply automating existing processes or replicating old manual flows in digital channels.
Opti-channel strategies play to each channel’s unique strengths:
- Helping the customer in alternative channels of engagement.
- Predicting their needs using AI for intent recognition, enterprise data and past interactions.
- Leveraging the scalability of voice-based assistants with 24/7 availability to handle high volume, predictable or straightforward inquiries.
- Directing engagements to asynchronous digital channels where appropriate, such as when non-text data such as photos or locations are required or where the caller just wants to respond in their own time.
- Allocating complex issues to human agents who bring greater empathy, decision-making and persuasiveness to conversations.
Often a single journey can shift across channels to best serve the customer. Data analytics tools leverage smart routing, steering queries to the right agents or channels instantly, with bots and self-service options available to support more traffic on digital channels. Opti-channel strategies also blend channels effectively based on urgency or operational efficiency.
Redefining CX with opti-channel
Harness opti-channel to meet rising expectations, reduce costs and scale smarter.
Real world applications
A great example is the triaging required when a client calls in for roadside assistance – a voice AI agent can determine if the customer is injured or unsafe. In these instances, it will immediately escalate the call to a human agent.
Alternatively, the digital agent will verify the client using calling line identification (CLI) and determine the cellphone location using the telecommunication provider, or send a WhatsApp message to confirm their location using live location sharing. This halves the time required to identify and locate a caller – critical in these situations.
After the call, the digital agent continues to update the caller on text-based channels, sharing the estimated arrival time of the support or emergency service vendor. These automated channels also provide information on who is coming and the vehicle they are driving to create a high level of comfort to the caller without requiring scarce human resources.
Similar applications emerge in sales-based outbound campaigns, where the human agent, who is more effective at selling and persuasion, can offload the administratively heavy wrap-up processes, like sharing the terms and conditions and meeting compliance requirements, to automated digital channels.
This efficiency allows sales agents to spend more time selling and less time on the administratively onerous processes that don’t boost revenue or add value. These capabilities also help to streamline customer onboarding and can make the entire experience more enjoyable for consumers.
The technology foundation
This seamless transfer of information and caller context between the most optimal channel to address the caller’s or contact centre’s need in the moment is the true essence of opti-channel engagement.
The solution automatically determines how best to service the customer during each stage of the call to deliver the most functional benefit, seamlessly moving them across channels to where they are best served.
This functionality requires seamless integration into client back-end systems to surface client data, transaction histories and open service tickets, with the ability for digital channels to access this information or share it with agents to provide full context without a loss of relevance or momentum.
Beyond automation: Strategic channel optimisation
Opti-channel strategies extend beyond end-to-end automation. They focus on understanding where technology can improve engagements at each point in the customer journey.
This is where an experienced opti-channel services provider with expertise in AI and automation offers the greatest value, identifying where investment is needed to unlock these capabilities, with the solutions to craft true opti-channel engagement.
The evolution from omnichannel to opti-channel represents more than a technological upgrade – it’s a fundamental shift towards intelligent, data-driven customer engagement.
By automatically routing interactions to the most effective channels and seamlessly blending human expertise with AI capabilities, businesses can deliver superior CX while improving operational efficiency.
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