Multi-Channel Support: The Future of Customer Service

Posted by Priyanka Thakur

Organisations, regardless of the fact whether they are multinational business organisations or small or medium sized enterprises, have been outsourcing their business processes for a long time. Over all these years these organisations have not only seen a significant upsurge in their sales and revenues, but they have also been able to expand their base of loyal customers. Call centre outsourcing has proved to be a medium through which business organisations can not only get their work accomplished by professionals, but can also save time, money and resources that can be further used in recognising all the changes that are necessary for the betterment of the organisations and implement them to ensure better customer support and optimal business growth.

When a business owner or entrepreneur decides to set up a new business, his main motto is to expand his business as quickly as possible and earn profits. In the nascent phase of business, organisations mostly rely on their in-house departments and staffs to accomplished desired results. During the initial phase, as organisations have a strict budget to follow and have restricted revenues, they consider in-house operations to be cost efficient and effective. However, contrary to this popular believe recent researches and studies have proved that outsourcing some specific business functions like customer support services actually help organisations save their precious time, valued money and other treasured resources.

No organisation, irrespective of its size and the industry it operates in, can exist without customers. It no longer remains a secret that organisations are striving hard to improve their customer experience and satisfaction level. In today’s competitive business world, it is imperative for organisations to provide impeccable customer support and call centre services to build their brand reputation in market, organisations that fail to do are bound to doom. Average customer support services not only compel customers to opt for services offered by competitors, but also have a negative effect on the market image and reputation of the organisation. As a result, the organisation experiences a significant decrease in number of loyal customers and revenue generation opportunities.

An easy and cost efficient way to ensure better customer support is to opt for call centre outsourcing. Traditionally, organisations used to focus on providing customer support via the medium of telephone; however, technical advancements of modern world have compelled them to facilitate their customers with different means through which they can reach out to an organisation swiftly. Today, when customers can access internet instantly over their smartphones, they don’t want to wait in long telephone queues to get their voice heard or get their issues resolved. They are using mediums like online chat support and social media platforms to get connected with the business representative and get their questions answered and issues resolved.

Outsourcing companies that offer call centre services and multi-channel support services allow organisations to serve their customers on different platforms. This enables organisations to deliver customer support services via different platforms like 24 hour telephone answering service, e-mail, web chat/live chat and different social media platforms. While organisations have been using telephone, e-mail and online chat support functions for long, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others have recently emerged out as the preferred medium to provide customer support. With the help of 24-hour customer support services offered by call centre outsourcing companies, organisations can ensure round-the-clock care and support services to their customers. This advantage of outsourcing empowers the customers to reach out their preferred brand at their preferred time and too via their preferred medium of interaction. Multi-channel 24-hour support services not only give customers the freedom to reach a business when the need arises, but also helps businesses improve their customer experience and satisfaction level, which plays a crucial role in customer retention.

The benefit of using multi-channel support services that take care of telephone support, e-mail and online-chat support and social media platforms is that it offers load sharing, which help businesses to relieve the excess burden of a channel and distribute it equally over multiple channels.

An organisation can offer a best-in-class product, but if it fails to be available at the time when customers need it, then it is destined to lose. We live in an extremely dynamic world which is driven by technology. No customer would take the pain of picking up the phone and wait in the long lines to get his queries resolved. This has led to the birth of multi-channel support which is the future of customer service.

Tags: Call centre outsourcing Call centre services 24 hour telephone answering service