Defining Omnichannel Customer Support and Multichannel Customer Support

In the fight for brand loyalty, exemplary customer support is the ultimate trump card. Modern businesses are scrambling to keep up with the growing needs of empowered customers everywhere. What exactly it means to provide outstanding customer support continues to evolve and while we can’t form your customer service strategy for you, but we can at least help define the difference between omnichannel and multichannel support.

There is a great deal of advice out there about how to differentiate your company’s support. (Some brands even round up customer service excellence tips once a week!) There are many lists of best customer service companies. There are even B2B companies that offer customer service consulting.

With so many choices and conflicting notions, it’s hard to know what direction to take your company in. Sometimes, it’s difficult to even figure out the terminology.

What’s the difference between omnichannel and multichannel customer support?

Both of these terms have a nice ring to them. They sound kind of powerful and all-encompassing. But first things first…

What’s a support channel?

A support channel is a medium through which you can communicate with customers. Popular support channels include telephone, email, social media, live chat, video, forums and self-service knowledge bases.

What is multichannel customer support?

Multichannel customer support is customer support provided across more than two channels. A company that has multichannel support offers customers multiple different ways to interact with them. This enables businesses to meet customers on their own level.

What’s omnichannel customer support?

Omnichannel customer support means seamlessly meeting customers on the channel or channels that they prefer at every level of interaction with your organization. Omnichannel support, like it’s multichannel counterpart, involves companies offering customers numerous ways to interact. The innovation is that omnichannel customer support takes a holistic view by attempting to create a seamless customer experience across channels.

Why is it important to provide more than one support channel?

Each individual support channel offers a specific type of customer communication. There are many unique instances in which phone is preferable to text, when self-service is more useful than live chat and so on. This makes it difficult to provide adequate service to all customers at all times if your company only leverages one support channel.

Multiple channel offerings show customers that you care about giving them options for how to interact.

What are the downsides of a multichannel approach?

Multichannel support is still a tremendous advantage, regardless of the drawbacks. The problem with multichannel support is that support teams can become siloed. The phone support team isn’t in great communication with the email support team, so customers may get a totally different experience when they interact with each team. This can be jarring and present a disjointed front to customers.

An omnichannel customer support strategy allows for a cohesive, positive customer experience. Not only can customers meet you on your own level, they can expect exemplary customer support no matter where, when or how they reach out.

As far as customer support advice goes, “Choose omnichannel” is a tip that’s not going to go out of style. If you are struggling to implement an omnichannel customer service strategy in your contact center, we’d love to help! Request a personalized demo of Talkdesk Contact Center Software today!