Why make your business omnichannel?

How likely are potential clients to keep calling Simon all day long? Who has the patience to hold on the line forever enjoying the earwarm tone — keeping in mind there's Peter, who's much easier to reach?

The conclusion is quite obvious: the more communication channels your company offers, the more potential customers it can get. 

Omnichannel client support does not merely provide various communication channels — it merges them all to a consolidated customer experience. 

Above is an example of omnichanneling — combining both online and offline services in one: website, mobile application, social media, chat, physical store or office. Few people like to spend a lot of time and effort on shopping, which makes it necessary to make products available from any platform that could finally get them sold. For instance, it is very important to include such options as booking products on website, returning them by any means convenient to client, trying them before buying (when delivered), pickup, payment preferences, etc. In addition, it is worthwhile to think about client identification for further requests and automated payments via online banking. 

Customers don't care about your company hierarchy of departments and responsibilities. They assume their issues can be solved by anyone — as long as the company has contact details. Allowing clients to manage their accounts all on their own (check balance or order/delivery/request status) is nice, but not always convenient: a client might have a question digressing from the algorithms proposed. Such cases require consulting with experts. Or, for instance, a client had already made an order online, but later decided to add a few more products to it and called a sales rep. Lucky you are, if this client's details are still stored somewhere on the website; if not — it can simply take forever. Omnichanneling makes it possible to access all client interaction history, regardless of the communication channels used, and provide for the best customer experience your clients are expecting. 

The major advantage of omnichanneling is making shopping easier by means of introducing various channels, which eventually results in client loyalty. 

The disadvantage is the need to involve more manpower, larger budgets and infrastructure. 

Not only. If you have APRO CRM — you can also enjoy all the benefits of omnichanneling. 

1. You can synchronize CRM and messengers to send and receive messages. 

Your clients prefer messengers to emails because: 

What messengers are worth integrating?

First, identify the ones most popular with your clients. To collect statistics, set up accounts with different social media platforms and monitor their activity during a certain period (for example, one month). This is how you will see, which ones your customers prefer. 

Second, prioritize functions, as different messenger platforms support specific functions. For example, Facebook supports feedback widgets, while WhatsApp allows you to create voice messages. 

2. You can use online chat, callbacks or live chat — everything will be processed and stored in your CRM. 

3. CRM analyses data and helps you identify clients in order to create special offers for customer groups and assign supervisors for them. Each time a client from a certain group will contact your company, your CRM will identify the special offer that brought them to you.