We all know that customers want and expect to have the context of their interactions with an organization carry with them as they move from one channel to another. According to Salesforce, 75% of consumers expect consistency across channels (Salesforce, State of the Connected Customer, 2016). And, 89% of customers get frustrated because they need to repeat their issue to multiple representatives (Accenture). Quite frankly, I wonder who are these people who don’t expect this consistency, and don’t get frustrated when they have to repeat themselves.
I have a love/hate relationship with the word "omnichannel." It’s buzz-wordy for sure. But, to describe these types of connected customer journeys, it really does serve a purpose. Omnichannel journeys are when context and data follow a customer as their journey moves from one channel to another.
So, there is high consumer demand and expectation for omnichannel journeys. But, today only 30% of organizations have most or all of their channels connected (Dimension Data, 2017 Global CX Benchmarking Report).
Why the disconnect? It is because much of the technology used to engage customers is legacy — it is heterogeneous, old, and brittle. Making changes is both difficult and risky. Connecting the different technology used in each channel is just plain hard.
But the good news is that it’s finally gotten to a critical point in terms of customer expectations and competition. And, the infrastructure upgrades that have occurred over the past few years are resulting in more integrated systems, that are easier to connect. Which is why we are seeing a growing trend to connecting channels. In fact, 80% of organizations expect most or all channels to be connected in two years (Dimension Data, 2017 Global CX Benchmarking Report).
Testing Omnichannel Journeys
While the technology better supports delivery of omnichannel journeys, they are still complex, requiring connecting multiple systems, and many possible points of failure. Of course, organizations will need to be able to test these journeys.
For quite some time now, Cyara has supported testing of journeys in different channels — voice, chat, chatbot, email, and SMS. But, each channel was still a silo, with its own test case, and own test results.
In late June we released Cyara 7.3, which now supports the ability to test journeys that span and hop channels. This new feature in Velocity enables us to orchestrate what were once separate test cases within a single test case, thereby generating a single test with integrated results, spanning a journey across multiple channels.
This new feature supports a wide array of use cases. A couple common examples include:
- Two-factor authentication where someone is talking to an agent, and receives an SMS with a passcode to authenticate. You can now synchronize two test cases, by linking the SMS test case to the voice test case, and executing and reporting on them holistically.
- Redirect address change to the web — when a customer calls in to change their address, the IVR intercepts, sends them an SMS with a personalized URL, and that sends them to the website.
Those are just a couple of examples, but let your imagination run wild! There are many, many journeys that could span channels, and now you can test them holistically.
Learn more about Cyara Velocity.
And contact us to learn more about how the Cyara CX Assurance Platform can help insurance companies deliver a flawless CX.
