Creating Great Cross-Channel CX Starts With Mobile

Creating a great customer experience is no longer a nice to have; it's now a must. Consider that according to Deloitte, customer-centric companies are 60 percent more profitable than companies that don’t focus on their customers. The benefits of being customer-centric and developing great customer experiences are clear, but the road to getting there is less defined.

For companies looking to gain a competitive advantage through customer service, developing cross-channel experiences that emphasize mobile features and functionalities will create not only loyal customers, but advocates of your brand.

Be Where Your Customers Are

Right now, around 57 percent of all online U.S. traffic comes from smartphones and tablets, a number that in all likelihood will only continue to grow. The fact is, mobile devices are where your customers are. Mobile devices are no longer simply innovative gadgets; they're essentially computers sitting in your pocket. These devices are being used to make purchases, share information, and connect with each other. So why are they not being used to create better customer experiences?

Ensure that you're meeting your customers where they are, in their channel of choice, not the other way around. This means opening up customer support to mobile-specific channels such as text and SMS, in-app messaging, and more. Providing cross-channel mobile support allows customers to not only access support through the mobile channels they're accustomed to using, it allows them the freedom to connect and interact support teams from wherever they are.

Take Advantage of Mobile Features

Think about how you communicate and interact with friends and family today. You might call them, but you might also send a text. Depending on the context of the conversation, a photo or video may be appropriate. And sometimes, you do all of this within the same conversation. In order to create the best modern day customer service possible, companies must take the experience customers have when communicating with one another and replicate it within their own communication channels.

Instead of asking customers to input the name of their third grade teacher, or their mother’s maiden name, customers can use the power of their mobile devices and verify themselves through facial recognition or thumbprint verification. If seeing the issue would be easier than describing it, customers can upload and share photos, videos and screenshots, and send them directly to support agents in real time, giving them the visual and contextual information they need in order to expedite the issue at hand.

Mobile Customer Service Means Great Customer Service

Smartphones and mobile devices have enabled cross-channel communication like never before. And while multimodal and mobile communications have mostly been embraced by customers up until now, customer service teams are starting to take notice on the impact that modern cross-channel customer experiences can have on driving business growth.

Anand Janefalkar is founder and CEO of UJET, a real-time customer communications provider that makes it simple for any company to provide intuitive, modern-day support.