On June 4th, Bright Pattern joined Frost and Sullivan’s Global Vice President of Digital Transformation, Alpa Shah, for a webinar on achieving excellence in CX with AI and omnichannel quality management. Alph shared that in their most recent survey, improving customer experience and satisfaction was the #1 business goal for 2020 with digital transformation as a primary means for achieving CX success. End-user priorities for customer engagement have shifted over the years, and channels like chat, messengers, and other digital channels have become table stakes.
“By 2022, we expect the majority of contact centers will have deployed chatbots,” said Shah. “Other big investments will include messaging bots and virtual assistants. AI will allow for automation of more complex tasks, but will not substantially replace humans. On the contrary, live agents will build relationships with customers.”
Although companies are adopting new digital channels, many of them have siloed technologies that impede an effortless customer and employee experience. We asked the webinar attendees “How omnichannel are you?” and discovered that only 19% of companies have technology that allows agents to see every step in a customer’s journey on all channels.
View the full on-demand recording of the Frost and Sullivan webinar.
This aligns with recent research sponsored by Bright Pattern earlier this year that showed around 20% of companies currently had omnichannel platforms. Frost & Sullivan’s research shows that the number of companies with true omnichannel is actually closer to around 4% of companies in the US (as shown in the graph below).
So how can companies achieve digital transformation without creating silos and a disjointed and frustrating customer journey?
Senior Vice President of Marketing at Bright Pattern, Ted Hunting, joined Shah on the webinar to explain how companies can achieve CX success with an omnichannel approach.
Ted explained the importance of communicating with customers on digital channels of today and tomorrow. Most companies have a platform for traditional channels like voice, text, email, and chat, but emerging and digital channels are becoming necessary to provide effortless support to customers. These channels include bots, conversation IVRs, video chat, and social messengers like WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, KakaoTalk, Facebook Messenger, and Twitter. The world has become more and more digital and with the recent pandemic, there is an even higher need for companies to communicate with customers over digital channels.
There is also a need for asynchronous communications channels. Customers are often on the go, and asynchronous channels allow customers to initiate a conversation, go on about their busy day, and come back to the conversation at a time that works best for them. Many of the newer digital channels allow for easier asynchronous conversations as well as the ability to have conversations on the go.
Ted reminds the webinar attendees that the key here is to make sure you are not adding new silos when adopting new channels in your contact center. The best way to provide an effortless and seamless customer experience is by providing your agents with omnichannel technology that displays the entire customer journey and all relevant customer information. For Ted’s top ten tips for creating and measuring omnichannel customer journeys, read his latest ebook!
Bright Pattern’s omnichannel contact center provides agents with a unified omnichannel desktop putting the most critical customer data at their fingertips. No more need to scroll through pages of information or hop between multiple siloes platforms. Empower your agents with the tools they need to provide an exceptional customer experience today!
