You would never buy a new computer for the sake of just one feature, like Skype. It goes without saying that, by ignoring the wealth of other time-saving and productivity-enhancing features the computer has to offer, to do so would be a tremendous waste of resources.
In a way, it’s like hiring a customer service agent who only talks on the phone.
Before the advent of the multichannel contact center, this was standard practice. Every agent got a headset and access to a CRM system. Now, however, it’s much more cost-effective—and practical—to have agents interacting with customers over a variety of different channels.
As we mentioned in a recent blog post on the cost-effectiveness of live chat, reducing your reliance on the phone comes with added benefits, like reduced telecommunications costs and increased first-call resolution rates. And email support, it’s no different.
Communicating with customers over email can boost productivity significantly, allowing you to maximize the return on your human capital—even more so than live chat. After all, an agent can only carry on so many real-time customer conversations. Email for contact centers, however, does not take place in real-time. In theory, you could put an agent in front of a full email queue (meaning hundreds of emails) and have him or her respond to customer inquiries until the cows come home. And the best part is that it won’t impact your bottom line, as you’ll be avoiding toll-free fees in the process.
Of course, you don’t want to cut off a major avenue of communication with your company, particularly for those customers who prefer using the phone. With a solution like Bright Pattern, agents can access a large number of critical communication channels like voice, email, SMS and more, allowing them to man the phones when necessary, but also increase their use of multichannel communications tools.
For more information about Bright Pattern’s approach to multichannel customer service, click here.
