Omnichannel vs Multichannel: What's the Difference?

If you’re considering investing in customer service software, you’ve likely heard contact center buzzwords like “omnichannel” and “multichannel.” But what’s the difference between the two terms? And is one really better than the other?

In this article, we’ll explore multichannel vs omnichannel contact center software and offer a bit of advice on how you can go beyond omnichannel and design a truly fluid customer experience.

What is a multichannel contact center? 

Multichannel contact center software enables you to offer your customers multiple methods of communication. You might have a work phone number they can call, for example, in addition to an email or a chatbox.

Multichannel runs on cloud-native software rather than on-premise hardware. But while you may be able to interact with customers on several different channels, in a multichannel environment, every channel is siloed from each other. Your call center agents cannot view customer interactions from other channels and can’t switch between channels during a customer interaction without losing all previous context and starting over from scratch. 

What is an omnichannel contact center?

Omnichannel contact center software integrates all of your customer service channels – whether that be voice, chat, SMS, messenger, or email – to create a consistent experience for customers no matter which channel they use to contact you. This enables you to communicate with your customers on any channel and device while maintaining context from previous customer interactions.

For example, if a customer begins a conversation with an agent in your website chatbox, the agent could then begin a voice conversation with the same customer and still have all of the information the customer provided via chat before the call.

Omnichannel vs. Multichannel 

It’s easy to confuse omnichannel and multichannel because they’re both based on engaging customers across multiple platforms and they both offer customers more choice in their communication platforms, but there are distinct differences between the two. 

Multichannel software was a precursor to omnichannel software and is centered on the distribution of customer service experiences across a variety of channels. However, in a multichannel strategy, even though you may be offering your services across a wide array of platforms, the experience is siloed, with little to no integration between one channel and the next. 

A customer may interact with your shop via email, for example, but without the right software, that interaction will only live in email. If they choose to call to escalate an issue, your reps will not have access to the information they’ve provided via email, making the interaction less effective and more tedious for the customer. 

Omnichannel, in contrast, is the confluence of your multichannel streams. The goal of omnichannel was to unite the customer experience across every single platform so the journey is more powerful and comprehensive for your customer. Ideally, when customers move between offline channels and online channels, their information follows them so that their experience remains the same no matter which channel they’ve interacted with your brand on. However, most "omnichannel" contact center platforms have failed to live up to that ideal.

Multichannel vs Omnichannel: Which is Better?

Omnichannel and multichannel contact center software have a lot in common. One of the biggest benefits is that both types of software allow businesses to offer customers multiple support options. Before the advent of multichannel (and now omnichannel software), most businesses only had the ability to connect with customers via voice calls or via email. 

Modern cloud-based omnichannel call center software, however, allows businesses to connect with customers on any channel and still offer a consistent customer service experience.

When it comes to multichannel vs. omnichannel, business owners agree that omnichannel is superior, and there are several reasons why: 

• It makes your brand experience more cohesive
• It strengthens your customer service
• It makes contact resolution quicker
• It eliminates customer pain points
• It personalizes the experience
• It saves money and increases revenue

It makes your brand experience more cohesive

The best brands offer a consistently good experience no matter what channel customers are using. When you have a multichannel strategy, you can’t really ensure that your brand experience, image, and tone are all consistent. With an omnichannel strategy, however, you can ensure that a customer will get a consistent, unfractured experience no matter how they contact you. 

It strengthens your customer service

The more touchpoints a customer has to reach you the better. With an omnichannel call center, every platform becomes a line of contact, making your service even more accessible. Omnichannel call center software also allows your brand to build more targeted messaging that reaches the customer where they’re at. The more targeted your messaging, the easier it is to build customer loyalty and get repeat customers. 

It makes contact resolution quicker

Omnichannel communication enables your customer service agents to work through the entire issue resolution process with a customer and pivot across channels without losing context or continuity. 

Let’s say a customer is having an issue with a product that can’t simply be solved via live chat. Through an omnichannel call center, an agent can escalate an issue from a live chat to a video call where they can then visually assess the issue and provide quicker solutions.

It eliminates customer pain points

Omnichannel makes communication switching easier for customers, too. If a customer chatting with an automated chat bot would like to speak to a representative over the phone, they can switch platforms mid-chat by clicking on a click-to-call link that immediately contacts a rep from their mobile phone and provides that rep with all of the context of the chat. Thus, that agent can address the customer’s questions quickly without the customer having to repeat themselves and walk the agent through their issue all over again.

It personalizes the experience. 

With more lines of contact, quicker resolution, and the ability for more targeted messaging, omnichannel allows you to provide a much more personalized experience for your customer. No matter which agent they’re talking to, every agent will have access to previous interaction history to understand and best assist each customer. 

It saves money and increases revenue

Multichannel contact centers can be very appealing to brands because initially, they’re less expensive. However, as your business grows, multichannel becomes more difficult and spendy to scale, because you’re spending money on each individual channel. 

By uniting all of your channels, omnichannel platforms give you a more scalable and cost efficient option long-term, however, why settle for omnichannel when you can choose a platform that offers true customer experience transformation and actually lives up to the hype?

Omnichannel is no longer enough

Even though an omnichannel strategy is supposed to provide a seamless customer service experience, few vendors have fully delivered on that promise. UJET is an outlier. 

UJET’s CCaaS 3.0 call center software enables your company to transcend past even the challenges omnichannel software users face.

UJET empowers your customer service agents by giving them the ability to more efficiently serve your customers, including biometric identification, photo and video sharing, detailed analytics, and more. Plus, as your business evolves, your UJET contact center can easily scale to fit whatever channels and features you need to create consistent customer experiences.

Ready to go beyond omnichannel and experience true contact center automation with UJET’s CCaaS 3.0? Request a demo today to get started.