It's time to throw OMNI from your vocabulary.
If you are still talking about OMNI channel you are far behind in your digital transformation. But - you are not alone; many companies are stuck in making the antiquated process and systems work for the new digital reality. Your customers have moved on. What you considered yesterday a transformation has become the reality for most users.
A few years ago, the word OMNI was the buzz ( it still is for some ) , the path to fully digital certainly traversed thru OMNi channel, that state where all channels happily needed to coexist in their existing form (and systems). It made sense for organization to make use of all the investments they had made in employee facing systems over decades - how could they all throw that investments away ? Of course, the reality that digital- the web end mobile couldn’t really do everything, the agent facing systems that can accomplish what digital could not were a necessity.
We live in a different world now. This is 2018, your customers have moved on and expect everything on the mobile app, everything they could do previously by calling your call centers or visiting physical stores , they want to do thru the app. Most progressive companies have kept the pace with customer expectations in building the capabilities but at the same time they still struggle in transforming their work force to the new reality.
The challenges could be many, from training the workers for the new reality, to the ripping off the antiquated front-ends or simply protection of the turf. Whatever is the cause - the reality is upon us.
The role of the support employees and systems must evolve to help the customers accomplish a task using what they have on their mobile or web app.
Your sales staff need to evolve to be advisors of your products than the order entry agents.
Your field force need to become those cool geeks that help a customer learn a new product.
Your agents need to have the same systems your customers do - on their mobile app and on the web. If you are truly going to serve your customers and your front line agents - how would you not give them both the same capabilities ? Anything less is suboptimal.
You should throw the word OMNI channel from the vocabulary of how business is done, there is only one channel the customer channel, everything and everyone should be there to support the customer to accomplish that - preferably themselves but at times with a friendly help from your front line employees. And for those moments you have your call centers, your physical stores and your field reps - after all they are the ambassadors of your digital brand.
“Your agents need to have the same systems your customers do - on their mobile app and on the web. If you are truly going to serve your customers and your front line agents - how would you not give them both the same capabilities ? Anything less is suboptimal.” This sentence brings context to the whole article. I suggest you highlight it.
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5 年"Channel Dissolution", that might become the next buzz (hindered only by the organization structures & P&L constructs). Each channel evolved as a unique mechanism to satisfy the customer. Followed by the inside out need to view the customer and his activities (AKA journies) across channels. soon someone will realize that the customer has specific preferences for specific interactions over specific channels -- then there will be processes designd to leverage best of channel experience to wow the customer. Channels will, in the longer run, will be reduced to components of preferred interaction modes for specific types of transactions. The journey will evolve to be architected through customer desire/preference to interactions.
Experienced Call Center Supervisor, Verizon Technical Support
6 年Agreed, after all, it is all about the customer and the experience they receive! #customerservice
Head of Engineering -Leading Digital Engineering & Transformation teams using MERN,ERP, Cloud, Data & AI Platforms(Analytics & Cognitive Automation Technologies) : Driving Business Excellence from GCC/GIC's
6 年Great Artcle Ashok... Now we need start thinking about the orhestation layer for customer channels to keep the seamless customer experience as we are now having new channels like WhatsApp, Skype , Chatbot customer Assist...etc... Integration becomes complex and customers demand most of the services in all channels and the want do it as per their convenience....
Vice President at Amdocs. Telecom executive advising service providers worldwide | 5G | Enterprise ? Business & Technology Strategy | Transformation ? Leadership
6 年Very well said. Removing the complexity (of process/system) while helping them understand the products are some of the most important aspects of Telco's digital strategy (them = both the customer and sales/support staff).?Cases in point......one of my European customers' Product Management Head said their sales people were not able to sell certain B2B products as they didn't understand them well. On the other hand, a large Latin American operator wanted to build their digital channels by "replicating call center applications" because they thought they are building "multi-channel" capabilities :(? I like the way you phrased "only one channel the customer channel, everything and everyone should be there to support the customer to accomplish that"?