The crucial connectors for omnichannel customer service

Nov 01, 2024

Omnichannel is often seen as a problem of data and platforms. That might be the least inspiring first sentence of an article that I have ever written. So before you fall off your seat out of boredom, let me reassure you that the rest of this article covers the most interesting, and often overlooked, aspects of omnichannel - the connectors.

Connectors are the parts that customers interact with whilst they are transitioning from one channel to another. They play an important role in making sure the transition feels seamless, secure and low-effort for customers.

A non-exhaustive selection of some of the most effective omnichannel connectors is set out in this table:

Click-to-call / click-to-chat

Digital to contact centre

By reducing friction for customers to get help, click-to-call reduces handling times and even contact volumes over time. This seems counterintuitive, so let me explain.

Click-to-call enables a customer to get help from a contact centre directly from an app or website. Instead of going to a separate “contact us” page, the customer simply clicks at the area where they need help. For example, if they have a question about a charge on that statement, they simply click (or press) on that charge and select the option to get help.

At that point the customer can be helped by a bot, or by a human Customer Service Representative (CSR), or both. They don’t need to spend extra time validating their identity, or explaining their need, because that has already been recorded. It’s a much better experience than picking up the phone and dialling a contact centre directly.

Because it’s a better experience, over time, more customers get into the habit of going to the app, rather than calling the contact centre, to get help. I have worked with a telecoms company that signed up an additional 4 million customers to online services by offering click-to-call, and in time this helped them to reduce call volumes.

QR codes

Digital to physical
Physical to digital

QR codes form an effective bridge between the physical and digital world because you can encode a lot of information into the codes themselves. This enables highly personalised journeys even if the data is not joined up between channels in the back-end Two example journeys:

A customer loses their bank card and goes online to order a new one. They want to pick up the replacement card at a local branch, so are sent a QR code which works as a security key when they visit the branch.
A customer receives a paper bill from their utility provider. Instead of the bill showing a phone number to call, instead it displays a personalised QR code that provides a direct link to online services where the customer can get help with their bill

Conversational IVR

Contact centre to digital
Contact centre to physical

As well as being useful self-service tools in their own right, Conversational IVRs (CIVR) can also be a window to other channels.

To route a customer to digital, CIVRs can send a text message with a link to the relevant section of the website or app where the customer can continue their journey.

To route a customer to a resolution in the physical world, CIVRs are an effective tool for appointment booking, whether that is for a customer to visit a store or branch, or for a service engineer to visit the customer at their home or workplace.

Video Booth

Physical to contact centre

Bank branches, airports and shops selling higher-value goods are places where queues can quickly cause customer frustration. To relieve these queues, some companies have installed telephone booths where a customer can interact with a remote specialist in a contact centre. Some of the best customer experiences happen when this is a video call, enabling an interaction that is as close as possible to face-to-face.

Connecting the connectors

These connectors should be tested and used carefully, with the objective of minimising friction when customers need to get help from more than one channel. In doing this, customer behaviours and preferences need to be taken into account – and these may be different for different customer segments. Used wisely, the connectors can be built into unique experiences that surprise customers with their simplicity and neatness.

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