Covid-19 era is a great opportunity for business to communicate better with customers and strengthen ties of loyalty. The key word is communication. Lockdown is the norm so one can well ask how to keep communication lines open. The answer is for businesses to switch to omnichannel contact center software.

Multichannel contact pathways for employees to connect
All roads lead to Rome so goes a saying. The Omnichannel Contact Center Software unifies all roads of communication into a centralized dashboard or console. In today’s times this works in several ways if you consider a hub-spoke model or a network topology model.

Employees interconnect with each other and with managers and head office from wherever they are. Each employee can be a hub and a spoke as well. The omnichannel solution ties together Whatsapp, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram on the social media side, email, fax and voice as well as text into a unified console. Their work continues uninterrupted even though they may be in their homes and use only their laptop or smartphone for work. Work continues unhindered by distancing.

The same model works to keep in touch with customers and maintain the trust and confidence.

Inform and connect with customers through social media
Business operations may slow down but must be continued. It is even more important to show concern for your customers’ wellbeing. This can be done through social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Covid-19 and the enforced lockdown as well as greater involvement of people with social media is an ideal opportunity to take advantage. When you have all these channels tied into a common dashboard it becomes easier for one or more employees to keep posting relevant content to inform or motivate customers such as dealing with Covid-19 or general health topics. What customers need is to know that you, as a business, care for them. Can you imagine the effect it will have when you become more active at a time when other businesses go off the map? Your customers develop a deep and lasting loyalty for your brand.

Reinforcing connections with email
Email, they say, is an ideal marketing tool. Using the omnichannel contact center software it is easy for anyone in the company to continue the social media engagement with a personalized email. Emails do not necessarily have to pitch your products though that can be brought in obliquely, such as offering free sanitizers and masks. Covid-19 does give you an opportunity to be human and humane.

Being available 24x7 with IVR
In normal times the IVR is mostly used as a buffer zone to divert customers into a system that can usually take care of routine queries. During this Coronavirus era you can use it to provide information on Corona related matters or product related queries and be available 24x7. Opting for hosted contact center software brings IVR along with other benefits that improve communications. The call goes into the CRM and can be attended by any of your remotely located employees at a later time or it can be transferred live to the employee if the caller chooses that option.

Use text/voice message
There is a feel good factor to interactions on social media. You can take it further by using yet another channel of the omnichannel contact center software: voice and text broadcasts. The message may primarily relate to the current situation but you can always subtly weave in a sales pitch.

The face to face experience
Voices and text are disembodied entities. People do like to look at each other during interactions. This applies to employee-employee interaction and employee-customer interaction. WebRTC part of the omnichannel solution makes it easy to video chat or video conference as well as share documents or a presentation. The chat’s origins may lie in a social media post or a tweet or an email or a phone call. Nearly everyone uses a smartphone and you can simply have a virtual face to face meeting with customers or with your employees who are working from home. It gets things done.

Adapt to changing times
The Covid-19 pandemic may die down but it has opened up a way to connect remotely and get things done using omnichannel contact center software. The analytics part of the software will give you a good idea of productivity and efficiency and could help you to take a decision to adapt to this changed situation and make it a permanent feature for post Covid-19 era. Omnichannel ties together all channels in a convenient dashboard accessible to everyone in the organization. In fact, it saves commute time, helping employees to be relaxed and yet more efficient while working from home.

Omni is the key
One may argue that anyone can handle social media through tabs opened in browsers, access email, work SMS on the phone or desktop and chat live. However, it is no easy task juggling all these channels when omni channel unifies all these into a single dashboard. You spend less time skipping from one channel to another and more on getting things done given the present constraints on movement.

If customers are your top priority as they should be, then you should get omnichannel contact center software now and ensure continuity. If employees deserve equal priority then this is also a good enough reason to get the software because, without it, they would not be able to work to deliver what customer expects.

Author Bio:

Hiten Dudhatra is the Team Lead - Digital Marketing at Ecosmob Technologies Pvt. Ltd. He likes to share his opinions on IT & Telecommunication industries via guest posts. His main interest to write the content for Contact Center, PBX Software, Telecom & VoIP development. @hitendudhatra

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