The evolution of channels for a personalized CX

As customers are increasingly communicating directly with businesses, communication channels have become an integral part of customer engagement. It is clear that technology and telecommunications are constantly evolving, and their latest breakthrough—the Internet and mobile devices—have elevated customer engagement to a whole new level.

However, in the last decade, customer expectations have changed dramatically, forcing businesses to communicate across several channels and provide personalized experiences—tailored to individual consumers.

So how can businesses provide memorable experiences? Below, we’ll discuss the types of customer communication channels, why it’s important for businesses to use omnichannel engagement and how the evolution of channels influences a personalized customer experience.

Customers today like having a choice. Whether it’s a product, service, or the type of communication channel they’re using, they want to connect with brands on their terms. In other words, having multiple customer communication channels for them to engage and interact with your business anytime they want would meet their needs.

To simplify this a bit more, there are two different kinds of channels: traditional and digital communication channels. Digital channels, which are more popular and only began to appear in the last 20 years, are relatively new compared to traditional channels, which have been around and used for decades.

The channels to choose rely on the nature of the communications and customer expectations. But in general, businesses should use an omnichannel communication approach to meet expectations, various geographies and different generations.

Over the years, we’ve helped many companies around the world reach and engage customers on their preferred channels, such as:

When using an omnichannel customer engagement approach, you’re basically setting your business to build emphatic interactions and consistent customer experiences. What does this mean?

Consumers today seek a natural, quick, and reliable way to communicate with businesses. They expect businesses to respond fast to their demands but also look for consistency and flexibility to respond when it is most convenient for them.

Infobip’s omnichannel cloud communication platform allows businesses to personalize their customer engagement by communicating over multiple modern channels while guaranteeing to keep customers engaged at different touchpoints.

Modern digital channels offer the advantage of familiarity, meaning they’re already available on most mobile devices, and customers won’t have to deal with downloading anything new or dealing with additional notifications.

With this combination of convenience and familiarity, businesses can easily engage with customers using these channels and provide personalized communication at scale. But wait, that’s not it.

Infobip’s communication platform allows you to integrate digital channels with our cloud-based software applications:

Businesses have always been relying on communication channels to deliver messages. But it’s not just choosing any channel; it’s more about meeting your customers on their preferred channels to establish that emotional bond and provide a personalized customer experience.

Nielson indicates that brands that use an omnichannel approach have a 91% higher customer retention rate.

The popularity, ease, immediacy, scalability, and personalization of digital channels make them ideal for engaging customers. But, to succeed, the execution must be flawless. Infobip lets you connect your digital channels with our cloud-based software solutions to help you deliver personalized, omnichannel customer engagement and support.

As channels continue to evolve, will there ever be a preferred communication channel? Not really. Every customer has specific needs and preferences, and it’s up to each business to analyze what it needs and decide what communication channels will be optimal for its customers.

Start with developing a communication channel strategy that emphasizes syncing up all customer touchpoints. And when that happens, this is when an omnichannel communication approach truly starts to work.