Contact centers have evolved from traditional call centers to vibrant hubs of customer engagement.
The transition to omnichannel and multichannel approaches has become increasingly popular among businesses aiming to meet their customer’s needs across the entire customer journey.
It takes much more than a CRM and a call center solution to achieve a successful omnichannel customer service experience.
So, what exactly is the difference between these two strategies, and which one is right for your company?
Differences Between Omnichannel & Multichannel Contact Centers
| Feature | Omnichannel | Multichannel |
|---|---|---|
| Integration | Fully integrated systems across all channels | Silos between different channels |
| Context | Complete customer history and journey data across channels | Limited cross-channel customer data |
| Experience | Seamless, consistent experience across channels | Can feel disjointed across channels |
| Customer Focus | Customer-obsessed, focused on service excellence | More operational focus on delivering service |
| Personalization | Hyper-personalized service based on customer data/journey | Less capacity for personalization |
| Channels | Phone, email, chat, SMS, social media, etc. | Typically focuses on traditional channels |
| Technology | Sophisticated, cloud-based, real-time customer data and AI | Basic call routing, legacy on-premise systems |
| Cost | Higher investment but drives long-term value | Lower upfront costs but less futureproof |
| Metrics | 360-degree customer relationship metrics | Channel-specific metrics only |
| Best For | Customer-centric teams focused on superior CX | Budget-conscious teams with volume focus |
What Is an Omnichannel Contact Center?
Omnichannel contact center refers to a customer service system that integrates multiple communication channels, such as phone, email, social media, live chat, and more, into a seamless and unified platform.
Omnichannel contact center software allows businesses to provide a consistent and personalized customer experience across all channels, enabling customers to communicate through their preferred channel while maintaining the full context of their interactions.
This way, customer support teams have the capability to manage both incoming and outgoing customer communications through various channels such as email, phone, text, and support tickets.
It ensures a unified and seamless customer experience across all channels.
Omnichannel contact center advantages
- Unified experience: Single platform aligning customer interactions across all physical and digital channels
- Complete customer data: Agents have full context of each customer’s history and touchpoint
- Proactive engagement: Insights to predict needs and proactively engage customers from the first contact in the IVR.
- Emerging channels: Cloud architecture to quickly integrate new channels like social, SMS, and in-app.
- Personalization: Leverage customer data to provide hyper-personalized service and journey
An omnichannel cloud contact center ensures that customers can have a consistent experience regardless of how they access your website or visit your physical store.
Customers may use social media to contact your contact center agent and have their messages appear on their screen without losing any important information.
👉 If this sounds great, we recommend the Nextiva Contact Center powered by Five9.
What is a Multichannel Contact Center?
A multichannel contact center refers to a centralized facility or system that allows organizations to communicate and interact with their customers through various channels simultaneously. These channels may include phone calls, emails, live chat, social media platforms, and mobile applications.
Multichannel contact centers provide seamless and efficient support, enabling companies to effectively manage and address customer inquiries, issues, and requests across multiple communication channels.
Multichannel support centers have the capability to automate multiple channels of communication. However, unlike omnichannel centers that are integrated, the communications in multichannel centers are not interconnected. This means that agents may not be aware of someone’s previous interactions through other channels.
Multichannel contact center advantages
- Siloed channels: Phone, email, chat, and other channels operate in silos rather than as integrated systems
- Limited customer data: Agents only have access to customer history within that specific channel, narrowing their focus on the channel itself
- Channel-specific metrics: Key metrics like response time are measured for each channel separately
- Quick setup: Faster and simpler initial configuration compared to complex omnichannel deployments
Multichannel communication is best if the experience for customers doesn’t span multiple contact methods. As such, it’s a cost-effective option for a company to establish its initial contact center.
👉 If this sounds attractive, we recommend the Unity Contact Center offered by Nextiva.
Some argue that omnichannel is more effective than Multichannel, but the biggest difference you will notice is in the customer experience.
Both allow customers to contact you via multiple channels (phone, SMS, email, chat, etc.), but an omnichannel contact center integrates all of the communication channels together.
A multichannel contact center, on the other hand, also handles multiple channels, but the various touchpoints (each time a customer contacts you across the various channels) are not connected.
Nextiva offers both — a multichannel contact center and an omnichannel contact center. To take a deep dive into the two CCaaS platforms and the full comparison, check out our comparison of Five9 vs Unity Contact Center.
Nextiva Contact Center vs. Unity Contact Center: Comparison
Why Companies Use Contact Centers
A contact center is used to manage and handle customer interactions efficiently. It allows businesses to centralize their customer communication and provide a single point of contact for various channels such as phone calls, emails, live chats, and social media platforms.
Businesses use contact centers for several reasons:
- Improved customer service: Contact centers facilitate a seamless experience by ensuring that inquiries and issues are promptly addressed. This leads to higher satisfaction and customer loyalty.
- Consistent customer experience: By centralizing customer interactions, a contact center enables live agents to have a unified view of customer history and preferences. This allows support agents to provide consistent support across every channel.
- Efficient workloads: Contact centers help optimize resource allocation by distributing workload among a support team. This ensures that customer requests are handled efficiently, reducing wait times and improving overall productivity.
- Enhanced scalability: Contact centers can easily scale their operations based on demand fluctuations. For instance, online chat tools can help deflect some inbound call volume with chatbots. They can flexibly adjust the number of live agents and resources to meet customer needs during peak periods or campaign launches.
- Advanced analytics and reporting: Contact centers provide valuable insights into agent productivity, customer behavior, call volumes, and customer satisfaction levels. This data helps businesses identify areas for improvement, monitor performance, and make data-driven decisions.
- Cost savings: Implementing a contact center can lead to cost savings by avoiding the need for multiple communication tools. It also allows for efficient workforce management and reduces the risk of missed or mishandled customer interactions.
Overall, using a contact center allows businesses to deliver a unified customer experience, improve first-call resolution, and gain valuable insights for strategic decision-making.
Related: What Is Unified Customer Experience Management (CXM)?
Deciding Between a Multichannel vs. Omnichannel Strategy
There are a few key differences between omnichannel and multichannel approaches to consider.
⚡️ Multichannel
In a multichannel approach, businesses utilize multiple channels, such as brick-and-mortar stores, websites, social media, and mobile apps for customer service interactions.
However, these channels often operate independently, resulting in a fragmented and inconsistent customer experience.
🔀 Omnichannel
On the other hand, an omnichannel approach aims to provide a seamless and integrated customer experience across all channels.
It focuses on creating a cohesive brand presence where customers can smoothly transition between channels while receiving consistent messaging and personalized interactions.
Which is best: omnichannel or multichannel?
The debate between omnichannel and multichannel strategies is ongoing.
A multichannel approach involves utilizing multiple marketing channels, such as social media, email, and direct mail, to reach customers. In contrast, an omnichannel strategy focuses on creating a seamless and integrated customer experience across every communications channel.
Which of these strategies is better depends on the goals and resources of your business.
If you are seeking to provide a unified and personalized customer experience, then an omnichannel strategy may be the way to go.
However, if your main goal is to have focused interactions on a single channel at a time, a multi-channel contact center can still be highly effective.
Of course, the size of your workforce and whether you require an outbound call center may make the most difference.
Implementing a holistic omnichannel strategy requires a commitment of time, budget, and ongoing monitoring of customer preferences. It is important to note that the personalized experience of an omnichannel solution does come with a higher cost, leading some companies to choose a multichannel approach initially.
Get your contact center strategy in motion by talking to a Nextiva expert today!
Related: Omnichannel Customer Experience: The Complete Guide
