Voice vs Non-Voice: Omnichannel Contact Center for SMEs

Empowering Your SME with Omnichannel Contact Centers

As many business practices continue to evolve, so does customer service, developing its channels to provide excellent service in more ways than one.

Among the many innovations in customer service and all its channels, omnichannel contact centers are one of the most recent (and the most effective) in terms of assistance and covering more ground.

What is an Omnichannel Contact Center?

An omnichannel contact center is a business function operating under a hosted, cloud-based software.

As the name suggests, this cloud-hosted contact center covers all ground regarding communication – phone calls, online chats, emails, SMS (texts), and social media.

Relatively new to the scene, omnichannel contact centers are slowly making their way into normalcy and in popularity due to the rapid digitization of many business functions over the years.

While it’s a widespread belief that only larger-scale businesses can outsource many of their business functions, the opportunity has expanded to small and medium-sized enterprises as well, with the rise of omnichannel call center providers for SMEs catering specifically to businesses of this size.

 

Voice or Non-Voice: What is Best for Small Businesses?

Omnichannel contact centers are developed to cover all bases for keeping communication lines open.

Over the years, many innovations have been created to make customer services more effective and accessible to customers by demand.

Customer service has become more modern and convenient in real-time than traditional phone call correspondences.

While all these newer, quicker communication media are available and highly recommended to businesses of all types, there are still many factors to consider in picking which customer support fits the enterprise.

While more traditional, voice support is still a preferred mode of communication by many customers, as speaking to a live agent gives them an impression of urgency and more time and room for other concerns.

On the other hand, non-voice support is preferred by most of the younger, more technologically inclined customer base, as chatting and messaging on online websites and apps appeal more to their definition of accessibility and need for instant gratification.

Other than determining what type of support your business needs through internal factors, it’s just as essential to learn more about your market and your customer base in figuring out a much more effective way to reach and communicate with them.  

 

Factors To Consider

Every decision for your business is a calculated risk, significantly if you’re expanding your enterprise in its early years.

This is why it’s essential to continue exploring possibilities in fine-tuning business operations and innovating how your enterprise can expand.

Excellent customer experience is the foundation of a good relationship with regular and potential customers.

While seemingly a simple task, creating a good rapport with your customers through pleasant customer service maintains a good impression with customers and associates your business with convenience and quality service – essential and greatly helpful in establishing customer loyalty.

Now that customer service comes in all forms, it’s time to decide which is best for your type of enterprise. There are many things to consider – the nature of business, the size, the services offered, etc.  

To determine which channel is right for your business, let’s examine these factors:

Nature of Business

Voice and non-voice support aim to assist customers and tackle concerns. Both may be essential to your business in terms of boosting your accessibility. However, it still largely depends on the nature of your business and, by association, your type of customer service.

Voice support gives off the impression of urgency and accessibility, and, being a traditional and familiar mode of customer service, it is still preferred by many up to this day.

Usually, for technically technical businesses, voice support would be a good fit, as there are always several concerns to address when it comes to products and services in the technology industry – internet service and mobile app support, to name a few that are often availed.

Customer Base

Your customer persona plays a significant role in your customer experience – after all, the function exists to keep them happy and interested.

While voice support may seem more familiar, the more tech-savvy generation nowadays prefers non-voice support – chats, messages, SMS, emails – to reach out for customer service.

Knowing your customer base and choosing the suitable customer service medium is essential.

Cost-Efficiency

For a growing SME such as yours, allocating funds wisely is essential. Investments may seem like an expense at first until you find yourself reaping the generous benefits right after.  

While every entrepreneur always goes for the option with the most value but the least expense, ensuring the investment fits well into your business is essential.

Regarding operational expenses, voice support is more costly than non-voice support. We hire and compensate agents; incidental costs factor in the rate packages, especially for exceptional cases such as after-hours and 24/7 customer support.

This depends, however, on the nature of business. Voice support is ideal for technical help, order-taking, and the like, providing more room for in-depth communication.

Non-voice support is far less costly, as it is mainly accomplished through apps and software, without necessitating constant manning due to some options being automated.

This is ideal for logistics, food, and booking services, which take little time and often use simple communication.

Level of Responsiveness

Aside from their distinct mode of communication, voice and non-voice support differ in the level of responsiveness, just as much as customers have different standards of effective responsiveness.

Voice support is an ideal option for concerns and issues that need to be addressed urgently, especially when it requires a live agent’s swift and practical guidance.

For SMEs in the financial services industry – loaning apps, payment channels, e-wallets, etc. – voice support would be ideal, as customers are very particular about addressing concerns regarding finances and payments.   

Non-voice support is best for concerns that need an immediate response that does not necessarily require a complex course of action.

For small businesses such as retail, food delivery, hospitality, and the like, non-voice support channels such as chatting and messaging apps can be beneficial to make the ordering, delivery, and booking process more convenient.  

While live chatting agents man, some, many non-voice multichannel contact center solutions often include automated answering and interactive features that allow customers to place/request services themselves.

 

Cover All Bases for Your SME

Business solutions continue to evolve and cover more ground regarding business functions, and the good news is that it’s not only reserved for larger firms.

Omnichannel contact centers benefit SMEs, making covering all bases more convenient and linear. As a growing business, it helps to be more organized without compromising efficiency.

As outsourcing is much more accessible and feasible, it’s time to take things up a notch and acquire reliable omnichannel contact center solutions to boost customer services for your fast-growing business.

Magellan Solutions is a Provider of High-Quality Omnichannel Contact Center Solutions

Magellan Solutions is an ISO-certified provider of prime call center business solutions in the Philippines. We offer a wide range of outsourced call center services – top-tier omnichannel contact center solutions, phone answering services, technical support, etc.

Put your customer service in expert hands. With 18 years of industry experience and hundreds of satisfied SMEs, we can guarantee the best service for your growing enterprise.

Let’s explore what we can do for your business today. Contact us here for more info.

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