Global unified communications and contact centre leader, RingCentral recently conducted some research with the UK Contact Centre Forum, that showed how contact centres were not prepared to meet today’s customer’s expectations. Surveying 100 UK contact centres, the research titled “The state of omnichannel in the UK Contact centre: a myth or reality?” reveals some key learnings regarding omnichannel contact centres in the UK.
Omnichannel usage
Unsurprisingly, the study showed that customers are using an increased range of channels to communicate, but a low percentage of contact centres are able to service these needs:
- 60% of UK contact centres support contact via web chat
- 41% of UK contact centres supports SMS
- Social media is on the rise – 57% of UK contact centres support Twitter
- Only 20% of UK contact centres support LinkedIn
- 30% of organisations know who is making contact in the business and automatically route them to the best resource
- 28% of UK contact centres cross skill agents for multiple channels
- 15% of contact centres use some form of artificial intelligence to support customer service
Customer experience
In an era where know that customer experience is everything, contact centres cannot afford to ignore the channels which their clients operate. Customer expectations from a business have changed. As consumers, the technology in the palm of their hand is sufficient to run a business, so why shouldn’t it be enough to contact another business?
Customers expect to be able to interact with a company at anytime, anywhere, on any device – and furthermore, using any app within that device. If these growing standards are not met – or not met well – you can be sure that your nearest competitor has already started work on getting it right. “Getting it right” ensures not only new client interactions and sales, but facilitates client retention. If your customers are being serviced through the mode of their choosing – and often this isn’t a conscious choice, just habit – they are more likely to continue interacting with your business.
The Aberdeen Group suggests that organisations with the best omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain around 89% of clients, compared to only 33% retention for brands with weak omnichannel strategies.
What’s the hold up?
The RingCentral and UK Contact Centre Forum research revealed several blockers to adoption of a full omnichannel strategy. Respondents reported problems like the lack of integration across channels and lack of advisor training. 34% of organisations felt that they did not have the technology required to support multichannel or omnichannel.
In the view of the UK Contact Centre Forum,a lack of integration, training and technology can no longer be used as an excuse. UK contact centres need to act now before it’s too late.
“Within five years, new media channels such as web chat, video and social media will all be regarded as just another channel option”.
Offering web chat and social media today should not be the focus of an omnichannel strategy. Finding out the channels where your customer is trying to contact your is crucial. Failure to service in the channels where your customers want to be is failing to service your customers.
For more information and the full statistics, download the full research.
