What Is Omnichannel Customer Service? [+ Benefits & Best Practices]

When customers have endless choices, how can your brand stand out from competitors? Omnichannel customer service is the key. 

Imagine driving on a busy highway that’s suddenly down to one lane during rush hour. Frustrating, right? That’s what it feels like for customers when they lack options to connect with your business for support.

Customer experiences (CX) need to be convenient and effortless. They might start the interaction on social media, continue via email, and finish with a phone call. No matter the channel, the context and information should flow seamlessly among touchpoints until they receive a resolution.

A five-lane highway — that’s omnichannel customer service. 

Let’s explore what omnichannel customer service is, learn how it benefits your customers and your business, and review the best practices to implement this strategy.

Omnichannel vs. Multichannel Customer Service

First, let’s clear up a common misconception of multichannel vs. omnichannel customer service.

Multichannel customer service means offering support through multiple channels (phone, email, social media, etc.). However, multichannel support falls short regarding cohesion, context, and synchronization. These channels operate independently, like parallel roads that never intersect.

Omnichannel customer service creates a unified and seamless customer journey, where every interaction, regardless of the chosen device or communication channel, feels like a seamless continuation of the previous one. 

In an omnichannel environment, a support agent can access every in-person and digital interaction customers have with your business. In-store purchases sync with emails, WhatsApp messages, transcripts from prior phone calls, and more. This seamless integration across multiple channels is the cornerstone of omnichannel customer service.

Benefits of Omnichannel for Your Customers

Your customers aren’t a collection of isolated help tickets — they’re your business’s lifeline. An omnichannel customer service strategy empowers you to take better care of them, prove your customer-first commitment, and deliver the service they expect.

Seamless experience across multiple channels

Gone are the days of siloed support experiences where phone calls were on one track, emails were on another, and social media interactions felt like shouting into the void. 

Customers want cohesive, seamless service that transcends individual channels. They might start their research on social media channels, like Instagram or Facebook, then switch to live chat for a quick question or place a call for more complex issues. An omnichannel approach to customer support ensures your support team is there at every touchpoint.

Omnichannel customer service delivers on your customers’ expectations by unifying multichannel support experiences into a single, interconnected ecosystem.

Personalized service

Customers expect personalized support with each interaction, making that a customer service standard. Advances in technology have made personalized customer service easier to provide with businesses investing in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and advanced customer data analytics. 

Leveraging this tech provides you with a 360-degree view of customer needs and preferences. This helps teams better predict, anticipate, and meet consumer needs for personalized experiences. With a complete, readily available picture of each customer, they can:

• Address customers by name to instantly build rapport
• Reference previous purchases and requests
• Tailor their support based on individual customer needs, preferences, and past interactions
• Offer relevant, personalized solutions
• Resolve issues more effectively

In an omnichannel ecosystem, agents provide support tailored to each customer. They know everything from past interactions and purchase history to goals, interests, and sentiments. Customers feel more valued, seen, heard, and understood when they feel brands care about helping them rather than resolving another ticket. 

Convenience

Failing to meet customers where it’s most convenient for them will increase churn. 

Give them the flexibility to reach your support team on their preferred channel — whether it’s a quick text message, a detailed email, or an Instagram shoutout — to best suit their needs and situation. Make it easy to find these options, and you’ll start every inquiry on the right foot.

Faster service

No one likes waiting on hold, getting the call-transfer runaround, or repeating the same information to different agents. 

Omnichannel streamlines all communication to eliminate these dreaded pitfalls of customer support. Since reps can access all relevant user data, customers get the help they need faster and with less hassle. 

Issues are resolved quickly, accurately, and efficiently, saving customers valuable time and reducing frustration.

Transparency

Customers get frustrated when agents lack the right information. In a multichannel system, a customer may make the first contact via email and follow up with a call. But, if the second agent has no idea what transpired during the initial inquiry, the customer loses trust in the company’s ability to handle their concerns effectively.

Omnichannel rewrites the script here. It offers a fully transparent ecosystem where customer interactions are recorded and synced across different channels. Agents can track the resolution’s progress from start to finish, boosting customer confidence and trust.

Benefits of Omnichannel Customer Service for Your Business

It’s not just your customers who win with omnichannel. Implementing omnichannel customer service is an investment that positively impacts your business’s bottom line.

Improves customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention

Customers don’t want the added challenge of connecting with your customer service team when they need support. A convenient, effortless omnichannel customer support experience allows customers to reach support agents quickly and easily on their preferred channel. This improves customer retention, satisfaction, and loyalty, increasing their chances of sticking with your brand over competitors.

Omnichannel helps your customer service team:

• Cultivate positive experiences that turn one-time buyers into repeat customers
• Forge stronger customer relationships
• Boost customer engagement
• Foster loyal brand advocates
• Raise net promoter score (NPS) and customer referrals

Increases sales and conversions

Seamless omnichannel customer support removes friction from the customer journey. For example, when a customer browsing your website has a question, making it easy for them to switch to live chat for a quick answer can remove the roadblock hindering the purchase. Easy omnichannel communication across customer touchpoints makes the experience smooth, boosting conversions.

Greater agent productivity

Businesses with omnichannel customer service strategies can reduce call volumes and operating costs. Providing customer service agents with the right tools, unified customer data, and context at their fingertips helps them resolve issues quickly and efficiently, resulting in shorter response times, increased inquiry capacity, and skyrocketing agent productivity. 

Plus, empowering support teams with all the intel they need to do their jobs effectively frees them up to resolve complex issues and improves their agent experience scores. 

Improved brand reputation

More than 30% of consumers would walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience. That underscores the value of a reputation built on stellar customer service experiences. 

Your team can leverage omnichannel customer service to solidify your brand’s reputation, elevate your brand image, boost your Net Promoter Score® (NPS), and demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction. 

Data-driven insights

Omnichannel platforms connect the dots between interactions throughout the entire customer lifecycle. These platforms collect and provide valuable data and insights into your customer’s behavior, preferences, and sentiments.

With these omnichannel customer support tools, your business can leverage this intel to:

• Gain a deeper understanding of your customer base
• Identify customers most likely to churn
• Determine areas for improvement
• Personalize marketing efforts
• Tweak your customer service approach
• Make more informed, data-driven decisions

Having a complete picture of past inquiries and preferences means they can address customers where they are in their journey, avoid making customers repeat information, and fast-track resolutions. You can see which channels they prefer, what pain paints or issues they commonly face, and how long they typically wait for support. This creates a data-driven decision-making process that helps you continuously improve your customer service strategy.

The Challenges of Omnichannel Customer Support (and How to Solve Them)

While omnichannel support offers many benefits, implementing it smoothly requires overcoming a few hurdles.

Providing consistent experiences across channels

Customers switching between channels expect consistent service and access to their history. The challenge lies in ensuring all agents, regardless of channel, have the information and training to deliver a unified customer experience.

💲Invest in an omnichannel ticketing system like Nextiva that provides a complete view of customer interactions. Standardize service procedures and offer comprehensive training for agents across all channels.

Breaking down data silos across departments

Without the right CRM or customer experience software, customer data can be trapped in silos making collaboration between departments — like sales and support — difficult. Fragmented data between systems makes it difficult to personalize interactions and understand the complete omnichannel customer journey.

📊 Implement Nextiva’s centralized customer data platform (CDP) that unifies data from all departments. This allows for a holistic view of the customer, facilitates targeted support based on their needs, and enhances collaboration between departments.

Ensuring seamless handoffs between teams

A seamless handoff is crucial when a customer’s issue needs to be escalated to a manager, transferred to the right department, or from an AI agent to a human agent. Without proper handoffs, information can get lost, increasing customer frustrations.

🤝 Nextiva’s omnichannel call center software allows for seamless handoffs between AI agents and human agents. Our software allows agents to easily share customer context and history during transfers, ensuring a smooth transition.

Omnichannel Customer Support Tools

Providing your team with the right tools is crucial for successful omnichannel support experiences. Here are some key tools to consider in your omnichannel contact center.

AI and automation 

AI chatbots and intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) can provide 24/7 support, answer common questions, troubleshoot issues, and personalize product recommendations. This frees up agents for complex inquiries while offering customers self-service channels, which can reduce wait times and improve overall satisfaction.

Live chat and messaging

Live chat and messaging platforms allow for real-time conversations directly on your website or social media. Customers get immediate assistance from human or conversational AI agents, creating positive customer experiences. 

Omnichannel contact center software

The right customer service contact center consolidates customer interactions from all channels — like phone, email, live chat, or social media — into a single workspace. Agents can access customer history, manage tickets efficiently, and collaborate seamlessly across teams, leading to faster resolutions and improved agent productivity.

Reporting and analytics

Advanced reporting tools provide valuable insights into customer behavior and support performance. By tracking metrics like resolution rates and customer satisfaction across channels, businesses can identify areas for improvement and optimize their omnichannel strategy, ensuring they’re meeting customer needs and maximizing the return on their investment.

Omnichannel Customer Service Examples and Use Cases 

Businesses across industries can improve customer experiences and internal operations using omnichannel communication solutions. For example, the Florida Panthers, an NHL team, upgraded to Nextiva’s platform to engage fans across various channels and improve internal workflows, overcoming the limitations of their old system. 

Believe, Ltd. needed an omnichannel customer support platform that could unify communications across its four global brands. Their legacy customer support system couldn’t meet their business needs, causing delays, manual ticket processing, and providing inaccurate data. 

Switching to Nextiva’s platform streamlined their operations by consolidating over 50 support channels into one central dashboard, automating responses, and prioritizing complex requests. This improved productivity enabled 24/7 customer support and allowed the team to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Omnichannel Customer Service Best Practices

Implementing a successful omnichannel customer support strategy can be easier than you think. Here are some best practices to get you started:

1. Understand your customer journey

⭐ Map out the different touchpoints your customers have with your brand, from awareness to purchase to post-sale support. 

Building stronger, deeper connections with customers starts by understanding the customer journey. Omnichannel places the right support channels at the right touchpoints, ensuring customers can reach you where and how they need or prefer for smoother, more satisfying experiences. 

⭐ Identify which channels they prefer for different stages of their journey.

Analyze website, email, and mobile app analytics to determine which inquiries drive traffic to your support channels. For an e-commerce brand, that might look like a self-service FAQ for shipping timeframes, a chatbot to answer sizing questions, etc. 

⭐ Analyze current pain points and frustrations in the user experience. 

Browsing history or shopping carts not syncing between mobile devices? Long call waiting times? Check customer service data and gather feedback via surveys and social media mentions to identify recurring issues and frustrations at each touchpoint.

Related: What Is Omnichannel E-commerce? A Strategy Guide for 2024

2. Focus on consistency and context

⭐ Ensure clear and consistent brand messaging across all channels. 

Maintain your brand’s voice, language, tone, emoji usage, and design elements to foster brand recognition and trust across channels. You don’t want your customers to feel like they’re interacting with an outsourced contact center.

⭐ Train agents to access and leverage customer history, relevant details, and context across channels. 

Your agents should know how to access this intel in real time, regardless of the interaction point or channel.

⭐ Implement a centralized knowledge base accessible to both agents and customers. 

Create comprehensive and searchable self-service options — FAQs, tutorials, troubleshooting guides, etc. — for customers. Add workflows for agents to quickly reference during calls to maintain consistent CX.

3. Start small and prioritize 

⭐ Begin by offering customer service on two to three major channels based on usage and preference.

Don’t try to conquer every channel at once — you’ll wind up with a lack of focus, slow progress, and enormous expenses. Omnichannel customer engagement allows you to prioritize channels with the highest engagement and the ones typically used first.

⭐ Consider live chat or social media for quick inquiries, email for complex issues, and phone calls or texts for personalized support. 

Live chat and social media offer real-time interactions for quick questions and troubleshooting. Email allows for detailed communication and file attachments. Calls provide a personalized, human touch that is valuable for upselling and in-depth discussions.

⭐ Gradually expand channels based on success and feedback. 

Focus implementation and resource allocation on channels that demonstrate value early on. Encourage customers to leave feedback about their preferred channels after each interaction. Set up listening tools in your social media management platform to monitor new channels gaining traction. 

4. Explore new technology 

⭐ Explore affordable CX platforms for customer service that scale well with your business needs. 

Prioritize omnichannel customer support software that integrates with your cloud-based contact center and CRM, uses automation and AI-powered intelligent routing, unifies and integrates customer data, gathers feedback and customer sentiments, offers easy-to-read reporting tools, and monitors for key issues before they escalate. Compare pricing structures and features relevant to your growth goals.

⭐ Implement an internal communication platform for seamless agent collaboration. 

Keep all your customer service agents on the same page, even as they work from home. Look for platforms that allow teams to thread customer conversations in a single view, add notes to contact profiles (with auto-transcription or AI-created summaries), and notify agents of important updates. These will enable reps to share intel, pool knowledge, ask questions, improve customer interactions, and support each other.

5. Emphasize employee training

Train agents to use various channels and tools effectively. 

Your agents are the heart of your customer service efforts. Train them on each new digital channel, tool, and communication strategy involved in your omnichannel approach. Coach them on each channel’s functionalities, best practices, etiquette, and troubleshooting techniques to guarantee they feel comfortable and confident. 

Equip them with cross-channel communication skills. 

Teach them the nuances of communicating via different channels so they can tailor their approach while maintaining a consistent brand voice. For example, they can use approved emojis via chat and write complete sentences (with spell check!) when responding to emails.

Encourage empathy, active listening, and personalized problem-solving. 

To leave customers feeling heard and appreciated, agents should build rapport, demonstrate genuine concern, listen quietly and attentively, summarize and repeat customer inquiries, and respond with compassion. When they understand the customer’s needs, they should deploy creative problem-solving skills to identify the root cause of the issue and collaborate with customers to explore various resolutions.

6. Measure and iterate

Track key metrics like first contact resolution rates, customer satisfaction, average resolution time, and individual channel usage. 

According to our State of Customer Experience Report, less than 25% of companies track first contact resolution rates, creating a CX blind spot. Additionally, tracking KPIs related to CX on mobile channels can provide actionable insights into the effectiveness of your agents and omnichannel strategy.

Analyze feedback from customers and agents to identify areas for improvement. 

Omnichannel CX is an ongoing journey, not a destination. Customer feedback reveals areas or channels falling short of your goals. Agent feedback highlights challenges they face and areas where additional training, tools, or resources are needed. The best CX software automates feedback collection via surveys, reviews, and ratings to simplify this task. 

Signs Your Business Needs Omnichannel Customer Support 

Not sure if your business needs omnichannel customer support? Here are a few tell-tale signs that you need it.

💡Customers are reaching out through multiple channels: If your customers are connecting with you through phone, email, social media, and live chat, it can quickly become overwhelming to manage these interactions separately. This often results in a fragmented and inconsistent customer experience.

💡Customers are frustrated by repeating themselves: When customers have to repeat their issue every time they switch between channels, it’s a clear sign that your system isn’t integrated. An omnichannel approach can eliminate this frustration by ensuring smooth transitions across all touchpoints.

💡Your customer data is all over the place: If your customer information is scattered across different systems, it becomes tough to provide personalized service. Omnichannel support pulls everything together, giving you a complete view of your customers’ journey.

💡Customer expectations are rising: These days, customers want fast, personalized service no matter how they reach out. If your current setup isn’t cutting it, an omnichannel solution can help streamline and meet these growing expectations.

💡Trouble keeping track of customer preferences: If you’re finding it difficult to keep tabs on customer preferences, purchase history, or past interactions, an omnichannel system can help build a unified customer profile that keeps everyone on the same page.

💡Customer satisfaction is slipping: When satisfaction scores are dropping or there’s an uptick in unresolved issues, it might be time to rethink your approach. Omnichannel support can improve responsiveness and help boost satisfaction rates by delivering a more seamless experience.

Consolidate Service Channels With Nextiva

Omnichannel customer service offers numerous benefits for your customers and business, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. The specific channels and features you offer will depend on your unique business and customer base.

Nextiva’s AI-powered contact center solutions can help you consolidate your support channels, gain valuable insights, and personalize the customer journey. Let Nextiva help you unlock the full potential of omnichannel customer service today.

Omnichannel Customer Service FAQ

If you want to dive deeper into the world of omnichannel support, look no further. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions.