No matter where you are, if you go up to people to ask them what their most used or preferred communication platform is, you’ll more likely than not get different answers. Even within the same friend group. What’s even more interesting? According to some research, 90% of customers expect to be able to contact customer service without switching channels. This leads to a fundamental need for omnichannel support.
But what is omnichannel support? Why is it important, and why should WhatsApp be included as one of the channels you need to provide support for? That’s what we’re here today to explain.
The term ‘omnichannel’ refers to something that is effortlessly available across different channels. So, in this case, omnichannel customer support means cross-channel customer support that’s simultaneously available on a variety of channels that are seamlessly connected.
Creating an omnichannel ticket support system is the perfect strategy to boost your customer engagement. In fact, it can help you retain 89% of your customers. People are creatures of habit, and tend to flock towards whatever brings them the most comfort. So if they use their favorite messaging apps to contact businesses, and inadvertently yours, they'll be more likely to feel positive about your company if you provide support in the channel they use. That, in turn, will have them be more happy to return, and expand the use of your products, or purchase your items.
The gist of it is, people like diversity. Each and every person has a different preference of what platform they like to chat on or contact customer support using. While it’s not feasible for companies to be on every single platform coming to light, especially with how competitive the field is, they can at least target the ones with the largest number of users.
As we all know by now, WhatsApp has shot up in number of users these past few years. With over 2.2 billion users worldwide, that’s a large market to have at your fingertips and completely miss out on. When compared to any other channel available at the moment, WhatsApp’s open rate is a whopping 98%, meaning that using it for advertising should be on the top of your priorities. It also provides you with the perfect opportunity to offer exceptional customer service to improve customer satisfaction and maintain a high retention rate.
Since Jira is the most widespread ITSM tool for tech companies at the moment, finding a way to incorporate WhatsApp in your Jira workflow has become vital. You see, while offering support on various channels is all well and good, it’s counterproductive if you can’t keep up with the Jira issues or the different request types or tickets coming in. No, we’re not here to advocate hiring an entire team dedicated to WhatsApp customer service. If anything, we’re huge fans of working smarter, not harder. So how do we deal with this situation without overwhelming our pre-existing team or hiring more agents? We create the perfect flow by integrating WhatsApp with your Jira service desk. This can be easily done with a tool such as WhatsApp Connector for Jira.
With this Jira integration, you can:
Omnichannel customer support has done wonders for every company that has implemented it in comparison to ones with a single channel support system. As everyone in the industry knows, businesses can’t run on unhappy customers, not when a single bad review can destroy a company’s reputation. So offering the best service out there, and doing whatever you can to cater to your customer’s is essential. Using WhatsApp and integrating it with Jira can be a first step in a strategy that can only reap benefits in the long run.
Nourhan Gamal - Infosysta Apps
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