Nowadays customer experience and employee experience are looking more and more similar. Evolving consumer experiences are shaping employees’ expectations for work experiences. Employees increasingly see themselves as customers of their employer, and the paternalistic relationship between employer and employee is a thing of the past. To keep workers engaged and productive, today’s businesses have to treat and embrace them as customers. Creating a consumer-like employee experience is the most effective tool for driving employee satisfaction and retention moving forward. It also includes employee communications. Multi-channel is actually a key for both great customer and employee relationships. 

What is Multi-channel support?

Multi-channel support is providing different methods of communication for customers and employees to reach the Helpdesk. This can include email, phone, chat communication, and much more. Each customer will have their own preference some customers enjoy the rapid response from live chat software, others will prefer to find the answers themselves via a knowledge base. Basically, the idea is that every customer has different ways of interacting with brands, and it is good to answer all of them with the same level of professionalism and agility. As you may all know customer experience, just like anything else, is subject to trends that you simply cannot skip. Thanks to the multi-channel platform. Giving customers the option to contact support in whichever way feels best for them is truly a win for everyone.

Why is Multi-channel support important?

Multi-channel support can go beyond customer satisfaction. Having everything centralized in one single platform makes it easier for the support team to work comfortably and deliver quick answers. There is no need to spend valuable time switching between channels to gather information - everything needed is right here in one place. And the speed at which responses send to a support request is key. It is vital for your organization and your support team to be available on every channel where your customer is and increase your opportunities to converse with them. Multi-channel customer service is key for any company that is aiming for high customer satisfaction and a high number of returning customers. When competitors offer a compatible product and prices, a great customer experience can truly make the difference.

Multi-channel support options: 

A multi-channel ticketing system collects support requests from different channels and organizes them in a single interface, so technicians can stay organized and reply faster. The advent of technology led to an increase in the number of communication channels. Today, there are plenty of communication channels and platforms through which customers and employees can communicate with application support technicians. Some of the popular communication channels are – phone support, email support, live chats, Social media, and more.

Here is the list of few support channels available in ServiceDesk Plus: 

Phone support Making a phone call is still one of the most used ways that customers contact organizations. This is simply because many still believe that voice support is the quickest way to get their problems solved.

Email support is another best communication channel preferred by customers. There are many advantages of email communication over the phone. This channel gives customers the space they need to ask questions without any boundaries or feeling hurried. Many organizations also like email because they are usually not expected to reply as fast as via other popular channels.

Live chat is quickly becoming the most popular support channel for communication. It enables end-users to reach out to technicians in real-time, communicate their requests and issues, and get instant solutions. Requests can be created from chat transcripts. In addition, technicians can use Live Chat to collaborate and resolve requests quickly.

Self Service Portal provides a quick way for customers to reach the ServiceDesk Plus and submit requests, through the portal customer can track the progress of their support requests. One other advantage of SSP is users can access the Knowledge base and solve minor problems. SSP is a vital component in multi-channel support.

Mobile App intended to help you interact with the ServiceDesk Plus application more quickly and efficiently. By using the mobile app you can extend support to your customers anytime, anywhere. In short, you can have a bird' eye view of the complete details of your requests in a single pane.

ServiceDesk Plus Integration with Microsoft Teams will leverage the collaboration app from Microsoft as an additional channel for IT and enterprise support. This integration creates a service desk bot that enables users to view their Service Desk requests, view pending approvals, and chat with help desk technicians―all from within their Microsoft Teams accounts. By bringing a host of service desk capabilities like incident management into Microsoft Teams, ServiceDesk Plus bridges the gap between IT help desk teams and end-users.

Check our previous blog on  - The 4 key elements of modernized ServiceDesk