Research has already begun to prove a clear return on investment (ROI) for companies who are willing to speak to their customers through omni-channel engagement solutions.

If you're still questioning the importance of an omni-channel strategy for your business, the following 7 benefits could be enough to sway your decision.

1. Omni-Channel Solutions are

Profitable

We know that omni-channel solutions improve customer experience by giving them access to the connectivity options they'd prefer to use, but what does that consumer satisfaction mean for your business bottom line?

The simple answer is that a happy customer is a more profitable customer. Over the years, we've begun to learn that modern customers prefer to have options available to them when they're speaking to a brand. Even if your client ends up calling your service agents over the phone, they want to know that there are other solutions available too, like self-service chatbots, SMS messages, or even social media representatives.

Ultimately, the reason for this is that the modern consumer doesn't like to be restricted. The more you show that you're willing to adapt to their preferences, the more you'll earn their loyalty and respect. In fact, Worldpay research indicates that omni-channel shoppers spend as much as 300% more than their traditional counterparts.

Omni-channel shoppers spend up to 300% more than their traditional counterparts

With an omni-channel engagement strategy, you give your customers the power to choose how and when they want to respond to you. In return, your clients respond with a greater dedication to your brand - something that shows in the form of stronger interactions, increased revenue, and enhanced long-term sales.

2. Omni-Channel Solutions

Deliver Differentiation

15 years ago, your average customer would only use two touch-points to connect with a brand when buying an item. Today, we're dealing with customers who maintain an average of 6 touch-points at any given time. If you're not available on every platform, then your client will happily look for another brand who is.

Customers maintain an average of 6 touch-points

at any given time

Omni-channel contact centre solutions give you a point of differentiation that ensures you're ready and available to engage with your customers through any mode or method they choose. Since 87% of customers say that they feel companies should put more effort into delivering seamless experiences, this is more important than you might think.

Companies with omni-channel services give their customers what they want, and this makes it much easier for them to stand out in the marketplace. You might even find that your ability to offer both live chat and voice calling is the reason your client chooses you over another business.

3. Omni-Channel SolutionsImprove Agent Productivity

Knowing that your customers are active on different communication channels doesn't automatically mean that your business is prepared to interact with them wherever they are. As technology continues to evolve, and agents are expected to deliver exceptional experiences on every environment, the only way to get ahead of the game is to simplify the communication experience for your professionals.

Statistics tell us that 64% of customers feel that they should be able to get real-time assistance from a contact centre agent - no matter what service channel they're using. It would be impossible for your agents to offer the same high level of care on every platform if they had to constantly switch between apps and programs to manage each customer.

An omni-channel solution gives your people access to a single-pane-of-glass solution that keeps all their contact strategies in one easy-to-use location.

4. Omni-Channel SolutionsImprove Customer Retention

When call centre agents aren't constantly struggling to keep track of all the different platforms they need to manage, they have more time to deliver a simple, effective experience to their customers. Many of today's contact centre solutions for the omni-channel world even offer things like contextual analysis that allow professionals to bring information about a customer up on-screen when they're in the middle of a conversation.

Since one of the biggest frustrations that today's customers have to deal with when messaging or speaking to an agent is repeating their problem time and time again, a

single-pane-of-glass omni-channel solution could mean that it's easier for your business to deliver the personalised service your customer is looking for.

Omni-channel strategies result in 91 % year-over-year

retention

Since there's less strain on your agents, you don't have to worry as much about employee churn in the workforce, while the increased focus on personalisation also means that your customers stick around for longer. In fact, businesses with omni-channel strategies receive 91 % better year-over-year retention for their clients than businesses with a single channel contact centre solution.

5. Omni-Channel SolutionsSimplify PerformanceManagement

A simple omni-channel solution for the contact centre makes it easier for customer service agents to excel at their jobs. It's much easier to deliver the seamless interactions that 90% of customers are looking for across channels when everything you need to communicate with a client is located in the same user interface.

At the same time, managing performance is easier for executives in the contact centre too. You can use your system to monitor how well agents are connecting with customers, and even collect useful data that can be helpful when you're training new members of your team.

6. Omni-Channel SolutionsImprove Strategic Planning

According to some studies, by 2020, the need for an omni-channel customer experience will be amplified due to a demand for almost perfect customer service solutions. Yet many of today's struggling brands still don't know what their customers want most from their network.

A contact centre, in the right circumstances, can be an incredible source of information for your business. The more data you gather through interactions with your clients, the more you can learn about how to deliver a truly competitive service.

The more data you gather through interactions with your clients, the more you

can learn about how to deliver a truly competitive

Omni-channel solutions can make it easier to collect and analyse customer information for long-term strategic growth. That means that instead of guessing at which tools and channels your customers prefer, you can begin to dedicate more resources to the parts of your business that get the most traffic.

7. Omni-Channel SolutionsDeliver a More Future-ProofBusinessAs options for communication in the business

world continue to change, companies that remain focused exclusively on audio calls and conversations may find that they lose out on customers to competitors who can offer a broader range of services. With an omni-channel solution that's already set up to manage a range of different channels, you can prepare your brand to respond to changing trends in the world of customer experience.

A great omni-channel solution for your contact centre could mean that you can tap into cloud technology to seamlessly add or remove channels to your company the more you learn about what your customers like and dislike.

In today's world of growing digital transformation, the average consumer expects more from the brands they do business with. If we simply look back over the last decade or so, it's amazing to see how much the communications landscape has changed. The delivery of new technologies like Al, loT, and machine learning into the UC landscape can only mean that we're on track to an even more diverse future. The companies that thrive in this new landscape will be the ones that deliver the experiences their customers crave. It seems that the contact centre is no longer a one-trick pony.

About Rob Scott

About UC Today

Rob's been in the Business Communications industry for 20 years now.

In 2017 he launched UC Today which combines his love for Unified Communications technology and his passion for digital marketing.

Rob's vision is to create the world's leading Unified Communications (UC) publication. Entirely digital, informative and insightful.

Day-to-day, Rob spends his time between journalism and analyzing the latest products and trends having an impact on the UC industry.

UC Today is a leading online publisher of news, reviews and opinion for the Unified Communications industry.

We write specialist publications on #UCOMS products and distribute our news and market insights via our website UCToday.com, Social Media, our UC Buyer Monthly and Weekly Digest newsletters, Google News, Apple News & iTunes.

We're a fully digital platform and our focus is on producing engaging content which drives technology trends and thought leadership to a global audience of ICT decision makers and UC professionals.

About lnGenius

lnGenius® quickly and easily adapts to unique contact centre needs with advanced computer telephony integration (CTI). As a CTI innovator, lnGenius connects existing telephone systems into leading CRMs with maximum flexibility, for world-class customer experiences. Backed by reliable expertise and superior customer care built over 20 years in the enterprise telephony space, lnGenius helps contact centres increase productivity and customer satisfaction.

lnGenius Connector Enterprise equips contact centres with features like screen pop, click-to-dial, automated call logging, and enhanced call reports. The solution enables agents to efficiently serve customers and see a comprehensive view of customer call interactions for intelligent decision making.