A new report based on a survey of contact centre professionals lets you benchmark yourself against your competitors. It also explores why so many contact centres are failing when it comes to multichannel strategies and explains how you can deliver value and convenience with a truly joined-up strategy. This is a preview only, to view the full report visit http://www.evaluagent.net/resources/multichannel-maze-report/

1. Are your customers lost in the
multichannel maze?
Understanding the multichannel customer journey
An industry benchmark report
A series of industry reports on the issues of today from EvaluAgent
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2. EvaluAgent | www.evaluagent.net2
Contents
Executive summary 3
How multichannel is your contact centre? 4
How are you measuring performance? 6
How joined up is your multichannel contact centre? 7
Do you understand the customer journey? 8
Are you empowering your agents? 9
Are you delivering customer insight to your organisation? 10
Conclusion 11
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3. EvaluAgent | www.evaluagent.net3
The contact centre industry has been talking about the benefits of integrated communications for
years. ‘Multichannel’ and ‘omnichannel’ have become the latest industry buzzwords and it can seem
as if every vendor is encouraging you to jump on the bandwagon. Simply invest in the right technology
and bingo you will be in customer experience nirvana. Throw in a ‘voice of the customer’ programme
and help transform your contact centre into a customer-centric strategic asset to your organisation.
That’s the theory anyway. In reality we know it’s not always that easy.
Executive summary
This report, based on a
survey of contact centre
professionals confirms that
multichannel is a reality in
today’s contact centre, but
the industry still has a long
way to go.
We wanted to start a new kind of conversation with our customers, a
conversation that recognises the limitations of technology and does
not shy away from the many real challenges they face. The journey
from call centre to a true multichannel contact centre is not an easy
one, but it is one that the industry needs to take.
Consumer uptake of new communication channels has put pressure
on companies to include digital channels as part of their customer
service strategy. But be warned. Simply adding new channels without
a coherent and integrated set of metrics or customer feedback
mechanism will lead to a chaotic and uncontrolled experience for
customers.
We set out to find out whether contact centres are simply adding
new channels or implementing a genuine multichannel strategy. This
report, based on a survey of contact centre professionals confirms
that multichannel is a reality in today’s contact centre, but the
industry still has a long way to go.
Currently many channels lack metrics and customer feedback is
not captured. And only a small minority of contact centres have
an integrated strategy in place to deliver a seamless customer
experience. For many, the opposite is true; most have a limited
understanding of the customer journey and do not understand
whether individual channels are fit for purpose, or how they relate to
one another.
Read on to discover why contact centres are failing when it comes to
multichannel strategies. And discover steps you can take to ensure
your strategy will have a sustained impact on customer engagement
and satisfaction, and deliver ROI for your business.
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There is no doubt that the multichannel contact centre is a
reality. The vast majority (90%), of organisations are offering
more than three channels and just under half (42%) offer more
than six.
While email and telephone remain the most widely offered
channels, offered by 91% and 93% respectively, web and IVR self-
service channels are competing for third place at 64.5% and 65%
and over half (56%) of contact centres offer social media in some
guise. Interestingly, a similar number still offer a postal service
channel.
In the same way that voice and email channels were originally
introduced to provide lower cost and faster versions of
traditional face-to-face and postal contact, the rationale behind
newer self-service channels was to improve customer access
and reduce cost by lowering volume impacts on voice and email
channels. However, in reality when self-service channels fail, the
fall back is voice and email, defeating their purpose and pushing
up organisational costs in the form of repeat contacts and
increasing customer frustration.
Similarly customers are likely to resort to social media and chat
only when their query has not been resolved after repeated
attempts via other channels.
How multichannel is your contact centre?
In the last few years the variety of available contact channels has expanded dramatically and consumers
expect to use their channel of choice to communicate with brands. Within the contact centre the
shift to newer contact channels has been driven by a desire to increase customer access and reduce
organisational costs. However, this strategy can easily backfire, leading to an increase in repeat contacts
and rising customer frustration. Before contact centres introduce newer channels they need to consider
how to meet rising customer expectations and provide a joined up experience on these channels.
Key takeaways
• 90% of organisations are offering customers
more than three channels, with 42% offering
more than six.
• Consumer self-service is becoming a
bigger trend within the contact centre as
organisations seek to reduce call and email
volumes, but there is a danger that this
strategy can backfire leading to more — not
less — repeat contacts.
• Over half of organisations offer social media
in some guise but interestingly over half still
offer a postal service channel.
• The rise of social media and chat as a
contact channel could be viewed either
as an increasing need for immediacy,
or alternatively due to failings in other
channels.
100%
Email Telephone
Agent
Telephone
IVR /
Automated
Services
Web Self-
Service
Post Social Media
e.g. Facebook,
Twitter
SMS Chat Face-to-Face
Contact
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Service channels offered
Visit
http://www.evaluagent.net/resources/multichannel-maze-report/
to access the full 12 page report

5. EvaluAgent | www.evaluagent.net5
Visit
http://www.evaluagent.net/resources/multichannel-maze-report/
to access the full 12 page report

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