Does The Customer See Your Business In The Same View As You?

I was in London for a couple of meetings with market influencers recently.
 

As always, it was a great learning exercise about several topics including how companies see themselves, and how customers see them (the inside-out, and outside-in perspectives).
 

One very interesting comments was: “Businesses say that they deliver omnichannel functionalities. But in fact, they just do multichannel.“
 

So why is this the case?
 

Of course, businesses deliver multiple interaction channels to customers and those customers can choose their preferred channel to interact with this business. But when it comes to cross channel conversations and analytics, there is still a lack of information transfer.
 

A constant experience most customers can relate to is providing the same information they previously provided to the IVR, in the chat, or during a call with a live agent. This experience is caused when the different channels are siloed and information is not making it to the next channel – which leads to repeating the information. This is time consuming and drives customer frustration.
 

Just like you, I am a customer for many companies and I totally agree: I am personally really frustrated when I have such an experience and honestly, I most likely would cancel my contract with this business (or would not do any business with them at all) and move on to one of the competitors, one with a better experience.
 

We are a generation of always-on consumers and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, which allow us to interact with friends, family and businesses whenever we want. So a cross channel service that is available around the clock and helps us fast and seamlessly is key. Customer service excellence will include:
 

• Eliminating siloes between the communication channels
• Eliminating silos within the customer service department
• Knowing and remembering the customer
• Transferring information across the channels
• Have the customer history available even before the consumer is transferred to the agent
   

Serving a customer should revolve around an unlocked customer journey that helps customers solve their issues, drives satisfaction and loyalty, as well as help the business increase revenue.