While contact centers are thinking about which channels to add, customers have already moved on — to omnichannel — meaning that they expect to interact with your brand through every single channel they are using. Today’s customers are impatient and demanding. A recent study found that more than 57 percent of online consumers said they had unsatisfactory experiences in the previous 12 months! And when they’re disappointed, they walk. Billions of dollars are at stake here for every brand, including yours.
Brands are aware and are trying, but recognizing the need for omnichannel options and getting there are two different things entirely. Customers want omnichannel support, but more importantly, they also expect integrated, cross-touch point experiences. They expect you to know they are hopping from one channel to the next and to provide a seamless experience across all channels.
This is a tall order for any brand and presents some real challenges for even the best organizations. There are legitimate speed bumps and road blocks that are often rooted in organizational structure and culture. Governance, silos, limited budgets and even lack of buy-in by the C-suite can all be factors that are preventing contact centers from providing truly exceptional customer experiences.
Contact centers as a group are collecting a wealth of data, including VoC (voice of the customer), but are not always putting this data to use in ways that optimally support their agents and continually drive better results. Many are still operating within cultures that aren’t fully customer-centric. Stakeholders and touch points are often siloed and not integrated. The list of potential barriers is long and can seem formidable.
However, challenges breed solutions. Superior customer service doesn't just happen at random, and there are specific steps for effectively creating an omnichannel environment. This will be explored in-depth on September 16 in Phoenix where Forrester Research’s Vice President, Principal Analyst Art Schoeller will serve as our guest workshop leader for Reaching Omnichannel Success in Your Contact Center. This is an interactive workshop and lunch, all complimentary, to help contact center professionals develop a plan for their own omnichannel journey.
Years of research at Forrester has resulted in the defining of a framework for evaluating customer experience maturity level through 40 essential practices across six disciplines1:
From there, you can successfully navigate the landscape — internal, external, technology — and begin to connect the dots for delivering exceptional, omnichannel support to your customers. In today’s world, you can’t afford not to.
We hope to see you there!
1Customer Experience Defined, Forrester Research, Inc., January 21, 2014
Join us! REGISTER NOW
Reaching Omnichannel Success in Your Contact Center
Workshop & Luncheon
September 16, 2014
Registration begins at 8:00 a.m.
8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Arizona Biltmore
Phoenix, Az
Guest workshop leader Art Schoeller, Forrester Research
