Omni-Channel Customer Service

Seals the DealConnect the Call Center, E-Commerce Site and

Store to Modern Shopper Expectations

Store, social and e-commerce each have strengths when it comes to customer engagement.

But there’s a common thread that runs through each channel: the need for outstanding customer service.

Robust customer service that spans online and in-store makes the overall brand experience better for everyone. And it pays off—there’s a solid line that connects customer service and repeat business.

Customer Service Challenges and Opportunities

It’s 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The customer has been waiting all day for delivery of his online order; an order the confirmation email promised would arrive today. With no delivery truck in sight, he picks up the phone and calls customer service. His question is a simple one, “Where’s my stuff?”

It’s 4:30 p.m. on Friday. This time the questions for the call center representative (CSR) are more complex: “Can I switch the credit card I used to pay for my online order?” Or, “I pressed submit on my order and it says you won’t ship it for another week. Do you know if the store by my office has it? I need it now.”

Now it’s 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday in store #121. A customer wants to return an item she purchased online. Imagine her surprise when the store associate says, “Sorry. We don’t take online order returns in the store. You need to pack the item up and ship it back.”

Nikki Baird, managing partner of retail advisory firm RSR, places the problem into sharp relief. “Think of fragmented customer service as a cracked building foundation,” says Baird. “The problem doesn’t go away just because you ignore it. In fact, cracks get harder and more expensive to repair as time goes by.”

Baird has some advice for retailers tackling the customer service disconnect: “Place yourself in the shoes of the shopper. Think about the brand experience customers have when they need help. This will expose the largest cracks. These cracks in the service foundation damage your brand until you fix them.”

Read on to learn about the many forms of modern customer service gaps—and more importantly, what you need to do to bridge them.

The Human Element in Shoppers’ Expectations Is there a difference between what shoppers expect from CSRs and store associates when it comes to customer service? Research shows that regardless of engagement, in person or over the phone, customers want personalized and seamless service. Equipping associates and CSRs alike with the same omni-channel data, such as a 360-degree view of the customer, has the potential to drive loyalty, inspire positive word-of-mouth and increase sales.

Customer ServiceStore Associate

Source: CFI Grou

of consumers prefer voicing their concerns either in-person or over the phone.

62% Find an out-of-stock item at different location

Place an online order for home delivery56%

36% Access order history or other information with their online purchases

38% Inquire about product information

Call to discuss shipping or delivery status56%

41% Expect upselling recommendations

Why Getting Customer Service Right MattersResolving customer problems with speed and agility requires overcoming the common issues of a legacy system. When addressed effectively, modern retailers have an edge.

Eliminating repetitive information and processes that result from a motley mix of customer service, data access and authorization systems makes customers happy and more loyal. Creating airtight customer service from the call center to the store requires an interface that minimizes clicks, screen swapping and phone calls to check store inventory.

The information and capabilities that call center reps and store associates both need to achieve this seamless integration are:

• 360-degree view of orders and transactions

• Accepting multiple tenders• Appeasements• Applying in-store promotions

to online orders• Fulfillment status visibility• Manual price overrides to

match competitors, which are particularly important to e-commerce customers

• Online shopping cart and wish list contents visibility

• Order history across all channels

• Payment adjustments• Requests for free shipping• Uneven cross-channel returns

and exchanges

Repair and Strengthen the Customer Service Foundation

Your customers want you to offer great service above all else. In fact, a survey by AMA and Duke University found that service is customers’ top priority, beating out product quality and low prices.Regardless of customer service channel, order management is where customer service chaos starts to get tamed. Why? Older technologies such as IVR and the newest customer service tools like Facebook Messenger Bots work better with order management. This is because order management supplies the customer and inventory data that a store associate, CSR or even an artificial intelligence-powered chat bot needs to handle customer inquiries.

Adding order management helps you extend the life of systems you have today with an eye toward future growth. It does this through:• Leveraging data from legacy systems, such as e-commerce

platforms and ERP• Combining data streams to create a 360-degree view of

the relationship with the shopper that includes purchase and contact history

• Surfacing network inventory availability to the people on the front lines of your business

Customer Service surpasses product quality and price

Source: CMO Survey by Duke University and the American Marketing Association

Limitations Between Store, Online and Call CenterMore retailers are enabling flexible fulfillment options. Orders can get placed anywhere, fulfilled from anywhere, delivered anywhere and returned anywhere.

But when it comes to customer inquiries about order status, purchase history, and return/exchange requests, the store and the call center rarely see the same information about the retailer’s relationship with the customer.

Customers get frustrated when placed on hold while a CSR hunts for information about order history and network inventory by switching among multiple screens and systems. Even worse than waiting, the customer is told that what she is asking to do isn’t possible because your store associates and CSRs say, “We don’t have access to online (or store) orders.”

Solving the problem requires authorized associates—in the call center and on the store floor alike—be given access to data and tools that create a seamless customer service experience.

Legacy Systems Fall ShortIt’s understandable that retailers want to use systems they already own to solve the omni-channel customer service problem. After all, who wants to invest in more technology without trying to make what you have work harder? Retailers who first try to cobble together these systems end up turning to Order Management to solve omni-channel customer service challenges.

E-COMMERCE PLATFORM

Often lacks a single view of a customer’s complete omni-channel relationship with the brand; online personalization features don’t translate to the store

POINT OF SALE

Some challenges with seamless and persistent integration with other channels; technical limitations of and support for legacy POS platforms; lack of a seamless mobile-facing sales tool to serve to customers on the selling floor

ERP

Rooted in finance and supply chain; often lacks real-time access to all network inventory and application of business rules for fulfillment

CALL CENTER SOFTWARE

Might require switching among different applications and systems to check online and store orders and see inventory available to sell

Order Management Revolutionizes Service

I N V E N T O R Y + F U L F I L L M E N T

stores

S E L L I N G + S E R V I C EWith a comprehensive, channel-agnostic view of customer history, employees are empowered to set a personal tone and delight the customer through service. Why is this the case?

Order management provides a window into enterprise and network inventory visibility—or what’s available to sell. Pricing, customer purchase history, order status, and returns and exchanges, all of which move omni-channel retailers toward channel agnostic customer service interactions and brand experiences, are underpinned by order management.

They also serve as the system of record for a 360-degree view of the customer, including past returns and exchanges.

It doesn’t matter where an order starts or where returns and exchanges take place. New orders can be fulfilled—and past orders serviced—from anywhere.

The task at hand, then, is to build an omni-channel customer service platform around order management data, and to get that data in the hands of customer-facing associates.

Order Management is the Backbone of Omni-Channel Customer Service

Get More from What You HaveAdding order management helps you extend the life of systems you have today with an eye toward future growth. It does this through:• Leveraging data from legacy systems, such as

e-commerce platforms and ERP• Combining data streams to create a

360-degree view of the relationship with the shopper that includes purchase and contact history

• Surfacing network inventory availability to the people on the front lines of your business

Reap the Benefits of Order ManagementOrder management serves as the system of record for all customer orders, regardless of channel, delivering a common set of information to all associates. An order management platform that serves call centers, stores and online creates an opportunity to:• Build transaction volume • Grow profit• Drive repeat business borne of increased

customer loyalty• Minimize customer level of effort • Reduce call time

Legacy systems retailers use to capture store transactions are relatively rudimentary; they’re not built to handle the complexity of dealing with multiple tax structures and payment vendors. They’re also not built to gather, save and scrutinize customer-specific order history and preferences the way modern e-commerce engines can.

Some store sales—cash and carry sales, in particular—are still conducted anonymously. Because there is no specific customer identifier attached to a cash transaction, it’s incumbent on

the merchant to create incentives for customers to share personal and order information that feeds the OMS. In this way, your brand is able to build a holistic omni-channel profile of customer interactions. Incentives often include loyalty account and customer reward applications that prompt associates to attribute in-store sales with specific customers.

Capturing and Leveraging Customer and Transaction Data Across Channels

Save the Sale with Data“Save the sale” transactions offer another great opportunity to attribute in-store sales to specific shoppers. A customer engaging a store associate or chat bot with an inquiry about an out-of-stock item presents an opportunity to request customer information. Again, legacy systems aren’t designed to handle orders that may start in a store and end in a call center.

Achieving this level of integration and data gathering work is an imperative in the transition of call center and store associates from “my channel/my store” to “our company, our brand.”

In a recent Manhattan Associates-sponsored Webinar “The Untethered Associate: Deploying Mobile POS the Smart Way”, RSR Analyst Nikki Baird offered some advice for retailers looking to gather customer information in stores:

“Our experience with consumer data shows that consumers are much more willing to give up their privacy when it relates to orders they’ve already placed. This is the entrée to permission, and recognizing the context of the customer’s past and current interactions with the company is critical. A customer who has an order messed up three times in a row requires a different kind of personalization than one who has never placed an order.”

Empowering associates with inventory and consumer purchase history data on mobile devices can pay dividends.

Nearly half of consumers indicated they would favor a store with advanced mobile capabilities, and among consumers age 18 to 44, that figure balloons to 55 percent.

Mobile Matters for In-Store Service

Drive further to a retailer

Pay slightly more Buy more per visit Shop more with that retailer in general

Among 18-44 year olds, robust mobile clienteling and customer service capabilities will incite them to:

Source: CFI Group Retail Satisfaction Barometer

Some things just work better together.

• Enterprise Order Management executes omni-channel orders, fulfillment and value added services

• Omni-Channel Call Center provides CSRs fast and easy access to customers’ orders originating from any channel and expedites order inquiry calls by providing the most requested information on a single screen

• Store Inventory and Fulfillment ensures inventory accuracy to improve sales, reduce out-of-stocks and improve store replenishment efficiencies while enabling robust picking, ship from store and in-store pick up via an easy-to-use mobile interface

• Point of Sale (POS) enables single-swipe in-store/online transactions, save-the-sale/endless aisle, line busting, on-floor checkout and support for cross-channel returns and exchanges

• Clienteling provides assisted selling; insight into purchase history, preferences and wish lists; ability to set appointments; a consistent view of inventory availability and touches of luxury-level service to everyday retail experiences

Omni-Channel Customer Service solutions from Manhattan Associates allow retailers to convert their call centers into profit centers. Within the context of our Enterprise Order Management framework, merchants can empower associates to assist shoppers with any question or concern, at any point on the customer journey. It removes the distinction between online and in-store orders.

The solution suite consists of:

Order management is the backbone of omni-channel customer service, offering all the functional services that can play into any channel—from inventory and customer visibility to payment, settlement, fulfillment, sales posting, refunds and exchanges.

Setting the Pace

Some things just work better together. Learn more about Omni-Channel Customer Service solutions from Manhattan Associates atwww.manh.com/customerservice.