Is your pursuit of omnichannel excellence actually holding your organization back? The contact center technology you’ve invested in might be solving yesterday’s problems rather than tomorrow’s opportunities. The answer: a ChannelLess contact center.
💡Picture this: Your contact center is running multiple channels, each supposedly ‘integrated,’ yet your agents are still toggling between systems, customer histories are fragmented, and your customers are repeating themselves with every interaction. Sound familiar? You’re not alone.
I’ve been studying the science of customer interaction platforms since the 90s (which now qualifies as “back in the day”) and I’ve been learning that what’s really keeping your organization from achieving its loftiest goals isn’t just your contact center tech, it’s your mental model. It’s what you’re focused on–what you’re optimizing for.
And the reason you’ve probably been trapped in a mindset that has now become clearly ineffective (through no fault of your own), is: The Lure of Omnichannel. This is the belief system that most of us in the industry adopted as the contact center world shifted from primarily phone-based, to today’s phone+digital operation.
In order to break free of the gravitational pull of the past, it will require a brief look back at why the goal of “omnichannel” became so attractive in the first place. Because it was definitely a way better idea than what came before.
Before we explore the solution, let’s understand why the traditional omnichannel approach is falling short of its promises – and costing you both efficiency and customer loyalty in the process.
Omnichannel: The Future of the Call Center (Right?)
First, let’s look at how we got here. In the early 2010’s, the term first started getting kicked around mostly in retail contexts. It was originally described as the evolution of the less-sophisticated “multichannel” approach in which various channels were now to become seamlessly tied together. It was designed as a way to break down silos, and create a more consistent approach across various touchpoints.
As the concept then began to be adopted by call centers, the most accepted interpretation was, “we need to create a consistent experience for customers, no matter which channel they choose to initiate an interaction.” And that sounds great.
However, over time, we’re seeing that this goal of consistency is saddled with 2 inherent problems:
- It’s really hard to achieve
- It’s not even the correct goal
Channels Are Inherently Inconsistent
From a customer’s perspective (the only one that matters!) the experience of talking to a customer service rep on the phone is completely different from the experience of being on my own screen and communicating through messaging. The idea that any company could replicate the same experience across two different forms of communication, staffed by two different teams, and responding in two very different ways, doesn’t even make sense.
Yes, every company needs to ensure that the information being presented across various channels is consistent. Sure. But the customer’s experience couldn’t possibly be the same between the two. That’s why it’s the wrong goal.
What Really Matters Most To Customers
Here’s where the paradigm shift happens: Instead of trying to make every channel consistent, what if we focused on making every interaction effortless?
Put yourself in the shoes of a customer. Think of what’s going through their mind at the exact moment they are reaching out to your company. Not what they had for breakfast, or what time they have to pick up the kids, or what they have to do for work that day, but right as they’re interacting with you.
We know from decades of research that the single dominant thought of virtually every customer at that moment is: “What’s the fastest, easiest, most effortless way I can get this [whatever their issue happens to be] taken care of?”
Some choose to call on the phone. Others go online. Some think they can take care of it by themselves. Some prefer to chat instead of calling on the phone. Some don’t want to interact with anyone. Their behaviors are different, but their primary intent is the same:
✨Get me what I need and make it as painless as possible.
Your ability to consistently deliver on that expectation will determine the degree of loyalty and revenue you receive from your customer base in 2025 and beyond–which, boiled down, represents the future of your organization. So, there’s a lot riding on your shoulders.
Redefining Consistency
Instead of being focused on consistency between channels, what if you began to think about consistency in a different way:
Each customer should have a consistently excellent experience, defined as “the fastest, easiest way to take care of [whatever their issue happens to be], each time they contact us, no matter which channel they use and no matter what their issue is”?
And in today’s world that seems awfully aspirational to achieve consistently. Creating “an effortless experience” for each customer, every time, depends highly on whatever that customer’s issue happens to be at that moment. Some issues are simple and routine. Some are complex and require explanation and reassurance. Some can be easily resolved using virtual assistance. Others can be easily taken care of through messaging, and still some others can only be resolved through a human conversation.
But up until now, there hasn’t been a way to match the right interaction to each customer as they’re interacting with you.
ChannelLess Contact Center = Consistently Effortless
Fortunately, there’s a better way forward. A ChannelLess® platform combines all your communication channels in one place (Yes, all forms of voice and digital). Your team can then work from a single system, using unified metrics to track every interaction.
Companies that are already operating in a ChannelLess® environment are discovering that they can now begin automating the process of matching each incoming customer to the optimal interaction type based on what that person needs–the reason they’re contacting you. In every interaction, they are quickly presented with exactly what they need right now:
- For simpler issues, here’s virtual assistance ready to resolve my need in nanoseconds.
- For more challenging issues, here’s a proactive chat session on my screen, addressing me by name and offering to help.
- For critical and complex needs, here’s a live agent proactively popping up on my screen, ready to offer a human touch.
If you can consistently offer each customer the exact right interaction type to match their need, interaction after interaction, you can maximize the value of your entire contact center operation. And ironically, given all the benefits to your organization, it only comes as the result of a mental model that is decidedly customer-centric. Give each customer the exact interaction that will be most effortless, based on THEIR need, each time they contact you.
Imagine how efficiency would measurably improve. How the customer experience would reach its highest level. How your ability to capture revenue opportunities and increased share-of-wallet among customers would climb accordingly. This is the triple play of success in a ChannelLess contact center: efficiency, effectiveness and experience–simultaneously. And it’s now possible thanks to innovation and the evolution of ChannelLess contact center technology.
Turns out omnichannel was never the right goal to begin with. But until there was an alternative, how could you have known?
Every day you operate in a traditional omnichannel environment means lost efficiency through channel switching, missed opportunities for customer engagement, higher operational costs and increasing customer frustration.
The future of customer engagement isn’t about having every channel – it’s about making channels irrelevant to the customer experience. Ready to move beyond the limitations of omnichannel? Schedule a demo today to see how Glia’s ChannelLess® contact center platform can transform your customer interactions while boosting operational efficiency.
