TTx Talk is our new video podcast, with your host, Nate Petry – TTx VP of Sales. Nate has conversational interviews with experts in their respective fields. On today’s episode, Nate is joined by Aaron Clark – TTx Technical Account Manager. Nate and Aaron go over some the basics of omni-channel and clear up some of the misconceptions of it. A lot of people think that omni-channel only matters if you are a call-center, but that’s not true. Omni-channel has become something that all organizations can utilize, and develop to fit their needs and their customers’ needs. Recently it has shifted to the need to create a consumer interaction strategy for omni-channel, and that strategy is different for everyone. Creating a strategy for omni-channel isn’t always easy, but with our help, we can make it easy for you.
What is omni-channel?
It’s all about user experience.
How is the modern customer experience impacted by communication in various channels?
Voice isn’t the only method of communication; email, messaging, sharing, etc.
Start your omni-channel journey with TTx:
Schedule a free IT Solutions Consultation
TTx Talk Episode 1 Transcript
Nate: Hi, welcome to TTx Talk, super excited about doing this production. And on this episode we have Aaron Clark, our technical account manager. We have a great topic today. Thanks for joining us.
Aaron: Yeah, thanks for having me Nate, excited.
Nate: Look forward to it. So, TTx, we’ve been in business for 40 years, technology company, our foundation in our heart has always been in voice. And as a technology company, we’ve had to make a lot of changes as technologies change. So we have great experience with traditional phone systems that was the first 20 to 25 years of our business. We obviously 15 years ago or so, migrated to voice over IP and as recently as five or six years, we really sophisticated our knowledge and expertise on migrating people to the cloud from a voice application. Right now we’re at the very beginning of the midst of omni-channel, like omni-channel now is a voice buzzword. I’m just curious about your take on that. What does on The channel mean to you?
Aaron: Yeah, omni-channel is certainly a buzzword. We hear it all over the place. You know, companies like Salesforce are talking about it. Microsoft Dynamics, small call centers, big call centers. I think though, when you when you mention the word omni-channel, I think the danger is that, you know, most people immediately go to it’s a call center term. So if I’m not a call center, omni-channel doesn’t apply to me. I think what we’ve started to see is a shift, you know, omni-channel’s, certainly still in the picture, but it’s more of a shift of how do we take those channels now and develop more of a consumer interaction strategy around omni-channel?
Nate: So omni-channel, new buzzword, our experience our expertise, your experience with call centers, channels and customer engagements, right. So what does that mean? How do customers Understand channels and how does that relate to the customer experience improvement?
Aaron: Yeah, all the big channel’s voice, okay, so we all make and take phone calls and some regard when we interact with, you know, as a business when we interact with consumers. But you know, in today’s world voice isn’t the only way people want to communicate with us. And so we want to look at, and it’s not anything that’s entirely new. But you know, we look at communication channels around web chat, going to a website, and carrying out a request or a conversation or an inquiry through chat. A hot one right now is text or SMS, even email, you know, so, we’ve got these different communication channels, if you will, that make up that omni-channel and omni is just all encompassing. How do we bring all of those communication channels into a single ecosystem that can that can manage those channels? And also, how as a business do we do we take the same principle, same approach, personalized approach to the consumer and make that experience the same across all those channels. Social media is another one. And even bringing in the internet of things with different smart devices and being able to pull all of that into a single ecosystem that can be managed. And you know, if you have your own Twilio account as a business and you want to keep that Twilio account, great, we can bring that into, you know, a single ecosystem that manages that channel. And what it does is it really starts to open up this ability for a business to better track that customer journey. So you know, as the first inquiry is made, whether it’s through a chat on the website, and then maybe they call in two or three weeks later or even months later, and speak to a different agent on the phone, being able to track that journey through those different interactions record on that have all the analytics behind that is very valuable to a business. And you don’t have to be a call center to appreciate that. So if we’re not thinking about how do our customers want to interact beyond just voice we’re losing out to our competition as an organization that’s already thinking and operating in that mentality.
Nate: Sure. Well, we definitely appreciate that level set on this topic of omni-channel. And are we still a technology company? Yes. Are we still a voice company? Absolutely. But what we want to be known to in the marketplace is a company that understands business processes, as it relates to the technology in the voice application as a whole, but better served to serve your customers in the ways that your customers want to eat. With your company, we’re here to help with that and advise on how that can be best suited for your company.