Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

The Importance of Omni-Channel in Customer Engagement

November 22, 2017

In customer communications there’s no channel like omni-channel. The modern, digital consumer expects companies to support this growing trend, and engage on customers’ preferred channels – be it SMS, live chat, self-service, voice, etc. Recent survey results highlight exactly how important this is.


Recent research from Silicon Valley’s FICO illustrated that consumers in the United States expect a mix of live and automated communications with creditors. In optimizing the engagement process, lenders improve response rates and can make better use of contact center resources to provide more promising results.

Mobile apps are not the preferred method for consumers to make late payments, but SMS is gaining traction, as more than 30 percent of those surveyed note SMS as the preferred channel for payment reminders, yet only slightly more than 10 percent of consumers receive SMS notifications.

Additional insight the from the report highlighted that social media channels are inappropriate for late payment communications, as less than 10 percent of respondents feel comfortable receiving those notifications on social media chat apps.  Currently, email is the most commonly used late payment reminder channel, as it is the channel most customers are used to. Additionally, when it comes to making payments, online portals and websites are far and away the preferred method at 31 percent, with phones calls coming in second at 17 percent.

"Today's mobile-first, digitally savvy borrowers expect friendly and helpful services from lenders on every channel," said Tim VanTassel, vice president of FICO's credit lifecycle business line. "US lenders have to strike a fine balance between automating their customer communications effectively without losing sight of the importance of live contacts for select borrowers to take action in order to boost repayments.”

The digital age delivers a cornucopia of communications options for the modern cloud-based contact center. Riding the wings of innovation, customer engagement is evolving. From call recording and workforce optimization, to omni-channel support and data-driven insight change is in the air for customer service; are your contact center operations evolving? 




Edited by Mandi Nowitz



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