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Difference Between Multichannel and Omni-channel Contact Centre
Summary: Multichannel contact centres are customer service centres that work with multiple communication channels to engage with consumers. With the help of diverse channels or mediums, such as telephonic calls, both inbound and outbound, businesses can connect with their end-users. Omnichannel contact centres operate all over the communication channels such as email, calls, or chats with the data community. In multichannel contact centres, information flows through a single place and offers better customer engagement. Omni channel centres are also convenient and easy to operate and help to develop prolific customer loyalty and bonds.
When it comes to channel diversification in any contact centre, there are two ways - multichannel and omnichannel contact centres. Understanding the two will give you a fair clarity about the difference between omnichannel and multichannel contact centres.
Knowing the concept and debate of omnichannel vs multichannel is important in marketing. “Multi” implies that you can access the support function from multiple channels. This means that in the multi-based contact centres, the customer support function (inbound calls) or even the sales function or the outbound calls work across different channels, including phone calls, emails, or web/app-based chats.
On the other hand, “Omni” means all, which further implies the experience you get through this option is consistent across all the channels. Thus, you can define omnichannel contact centres as any customer support or sales function (both inbound and outbound) that operates all over the communication channels like email, calls or chats with the data community over these platforms; thus, the customers give all the information just once. Now you might have an idea of their concept and how they differ.
What is a Multichannel Contact Centre?
Multichannel contact centres are customer service centres that employ numerous communication channels to communicate with consumers. It helps businesses engage with their customers using diverse mediums. These contact centres deal with both the outbound and inbound communications with the customers. The sole purpose of these contact centres is to offer customers a wide range of options to communicate with businesses only to make communication simpler and faster. With this, you can easily understand the difference between omnichannel and multichannel.
Benefits of Multichannel Contact Centres
Multichannel contact centres have several benefits that attract businesses to adopt them in their day-to-day business operations. Some of the major benefits of the same are as follows:
- Enhances Personalisation: It relies on a blend of software programs, including customer data or CMS systems, to gather all the customer data from different communication channels and store them in a central repository. This helps marketers to send personalised messages to customers using automated tools.
- Offers Convenience: It allows customers to interact with businesses with channels of their choice. It also allows them to switch between different communication channels during their journey with the business.
- Develops strong customer loyalty: It helps businesses offer good customer support using different channels, thus resulting in good customer loyalty.
- Enhances inventory management: This system helps businesses gather behavioural data through different channels, including e-commerce websites and social media. This data helps businesses improve their inventory management strategies.
Differences Between Multichannel and Omni-channel Contact Centres
We have seen a good evolution of contact centres, making them vibrant platforms for customer engagement. The transition to multichannel and omnichannel contact centres has added a revolution in customer support and has affected the call centre KPIs in a positive way. However, there is a difference between omnichannel and multichannel, which goes as follows:
Integration Level
When you compare omnichannel vs multichannel, there is a completely integrated system across all the communication channels for multichannel, whereas, for the Omnichannel contact centres, we see Silos between different channels.
Customer Experience
Multichannel contact centres enhance flexibility in customer communication using numerous channels. However, there is a lack of data continuity between communication channels as they operate in silos. On the other hand, the omni-channel contact centre, CX, is unified over all the platforms and channels. Customers can easily switch from one channel to another in the same interaction.
Data Management
In multichannel contact centres, data management is siloed, giving agents access to the data. Customers are required to repeat the information when switching channels. In Omni-channel contact centres, the data is integrated and centralised, and thus, customers are not required to repeat the information while switching channels.
Agent Efficiency
In multichannel centres, the agents are specialists; they have to perform better as they know they cannot switch easily. They can be less digitally active and even rank lesser than omni-channel agents. On the other hand, Omni-channel centre agents are highly skilled professionals who know the best practices when dealing with their integrated customer data system.
Integration Complexity
Implementation is easy in multichannel contact centres, as the channels function independently. There is no need for high-end integration, making a simple setup that is easy to manage. On the other hand, Omni-channel systems are complex to manage as they have advanced integration systems across the channels.
Conclusion
Customer communication has evolved significantly. Multichannel and omnichannel contact centres are now prevalent options for businesses seeking to enhance customer engagement. If you are looking for call centre jobs in Jamaica then do considered applying at HGS, where we have a wonderful culture and a space for you to grow in your career.
