It's not all about Sales. Customer Service Needs to Adapt to Omni-channel as well

I was doing my morning reading when I came across this article on 1 to 1 marketing. It it is a shallow dive piece on customer service in the omni-channel marketplace, but it raised some interesting points and got me thinking about a few things.

Number one, was that despite the near ubiquity of the internet in developed countries, management still thinks the customer is too dumb to Google their issue or question.

Just 9 percent of managers believe that customers use the web frequently before reaching out to the contact center. 

Nine percent?

Really?

While I understand that not every customer is as fiercely independent as me (I hate having to deal with sales and customer support!) I think you'd be pretty blind to think that they didn't try to solve their own problem first. Most customers have the internet in the palm of their hand after all.

The article also pointed out that many customer service systems aren't equipped with the ability to track users across various interaction with the help desk. This is more of an issue in process and I think the companies that address the ability to see customers across channels in the service department will see a huge edge in the next few years.

Beyond systems, training of the support team to maintain an even temperament and manage the conversation with the client is also key.

If an agent is unable to find the information they need to support a customer quickly and easily, they're going to be frustrated. And that frustration is going to transfer over into the experience that the customer receives.

This is very true and could easily turn your customer away from the idea of making return purchases. A frustrated or irritable customer service rep is going to pass that attitude over to your customer who will be more than happy to share it with their friends. This could easily spill over to social media and amplify further.