The top 3 omnichannel customer support tools in 2024

It’s a peak sales day for your business today and you want to do things as seamlessly as possible. The goal is to break last year’s record. 

But wait, there’s something wrong…

You see your customer service team cracking under pressure. The team of three is juggling between at least 5 different communication channels and you can see messages being missed and responses being delayed.

Is it possible to break sales records with such poor customer support? You know it’s not!

Delightful customer service is an integral part of modern businesses. Without high customer satisfaction scores, success is almost unlikely. Here are a few statistics to prove our point:

• Almost 90% of customers will switch to another company for better customer experience. (Hyken)
• Customer-first business practices can boost your ROI to up to 700% in 12 years. (Forrester)
• 93% of customers will return for another purchase if they have a good customer experience. (HubSpot)
• 83% of customers feel more loyal towards a brand that pays attention to and resolves their complaints. (Khoros)

So how do you up your customer support game without hiring an army of support agents to guard each of the gazillion communication channels? The answer is simple: By investing in omnichannel customer support tools.

But what are these tools, what good do they offer, and most importantly, what are the best ones? Keep reading because we are explaining it all!

Customer favourite channels in 2024

A decade earlier, phone calls used to be the favourite communication channel for customers. Nowadays, social media has taken the lead.

Keeping track of customers' favourite support channels is crucial to being on top of your customer service. Here are a few channels modern shopper prefers in 2024:

1. customer favourite social media platforms

Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have massively grown in popularity in the last decade. So much so, that brands are now integrating them into their customer support service.

According to a survey by Statista, 52.7% of US-based organisations used social media to provide full customer support.

Businesses like restaurants, travel agencies, automotive companies, etc, can use social media platforms to actively respond to customer queries and complaints in their DMs or tags. Their customer satisfaction rates can also benefit from regular customer-centric posts, such as tutorials, troubleshooting tips, and product updates, fostering engagement and building trust with their audience.

Here’s Zappos tackling customer queries on X like a pro:

2. Email support

Almost 90% of customer service teams reported that their most supported channel for customer communication was email in 2023.

Businesses can utilise email as an effective customer service tool by ensuring prompt responses to inquiries, providing personalised and helpful solutions to customer issues, and maintaining clear and concise communication. 

In the case of an e-commerce store, they can also use email to send order confirmations, shipping updates, and post-purchase follow-ups to enhance the customer experience. 

Additionally, businesses can use email to gather feedback, conduct surveys, and share relevant content or promotions, fostering long-term relationships with their customers.

3. Live chat tools

Live chat is the first form of contact a customer can find on your website. These tools are like having a customer support agent in your brick-and-mortar store — guiding the shopper to the most suitable product.

These tools offer immediate assistance to website visitors in real time. Customers can ask questions, seek clarification, or resolve issues instantly without having to wait for a response. This leads to higher customer satisfaction levels and increases the likelihood of converting website visitors into customers. 

Live chat tools also enable businesses to provide personalised support, gather valuable feedback, and address customer concerns efficiently, ultimately enhancing the overall customer experience and building brand loyalty.

The importance of an omnichannel (or multichannel) approach

15 years ago, most shoppers used only 2 channels when making a purchase, and only 7% used more than 4. Nowadays, most buyers use 4 touch-points with almost 50% using more than 4. (Knexusgroup)

In light of the above statistic, almost all modern-day businesses need to be active on at least 3 to 4 different social media channels. Add this to email, live chat, phone calls, and WhatsApp, you already have more than 7 fronts to guard. And given that most small to medium-sized businesses don’t have the resources to attend to all of these channels at once, it is only reasonable to somehow converge them all into a single focal point.

That focal point is what we call an omnichannel or multichannel approach.

An omnichannel or multichannel approach to customer service refers to the strategy of providing seamless and integrated support across multiple communication channels. In this approach, customers can interact with a business through various channels and receive consistent and cohesive assistance regardless of the channel they choose. 

💡 The goal is to offer a unified and personalised customer experience, allowing customers to transition between channels seamlessly while receiving the same level of service and support.

Read more: The customer experience game-changer: the all in one inbox

Effect of an omnichannel approach on a brand’s reach, engagement, and conversion

Reach: Offering support across multiple channels can significantly expand a brand’s reach by making it easier for customers to interact with them through their preferred communication channels. This increased accessibility not only attracts more customers but also enhances brand visibility and awareness.

Engagement: An omnichannel approach fosters higher levels of engagement as customers can interact with the brand through various touchpoints seamlessly. Customers feel more connected to the brand and are more likely to engage with it on multiple levels. 

Conversion: When customers can easily navigate between channels and receive consistent support throughout their journey, they are more likely to complete their desired actions, whether it's making a purchase, signing up for a service, or requesting more information. This streamlined experience reduces friction in the customer journey, increases trust in the brand, and ultimately drives higher conversion rates.

What is an omnichannel customer support tool?

An omnichannel customer support tool is a software platform or system that enables businesses to manage customer interactions and provide support and service across multiple channels in a unified and seamless manner. This tool integrates various communication channels such as phone, email, live chat, social media, and messaging apps into a single interface, allowing customer service teams to view and respond to inquiries from different channels in one place.

A quality omnichannel customer service software often comes with features such as automation, analytics, and reporting capabilities to further enhance the effectiveness of customer service operations.

Advantages of using omnichannel customer support tools

We have hinted at the several advantages of using omnichannel customer service tools before, but for emphasis let’s list them here again:

1. Enhanced customer experience

With an omnichannel customer support tool, businesses can track customer interactions, gather data, and maintain continuity in customer conversations regardless of the channel used. This ensures consistency in the customer experience and enables businesses to provide personalised and efficient support to their customers across all touchpoints.

2. Higher customer retention 

According to Porch Group Media, companies with a strong omnichannel online presence can retain as much as 89% of their existing customers.

But how do they make it possible?

When a business is responsive and helpful across multiple channels, the shoppers feel seen and heard. The customer service agents can provide consistent service across all touchpoints without losing crucial data or context in between. This leads to enhanced customer experience and a boost in customer loyalty. 

And high customer satisfaction leads to impressive retention rates!

3. Increased efficiency

Omnichannel support tools can enhance efficiency in business operations by centralising customer interactions from various channels into a single platform. This consolidation allows support teams to manage inquiries more effectively, reducing response times and minimising the risk of oversight or duplication. 

Additionally, top omnichannel support tools like Trengo often come equipped with automation features, analytics capabilities, and streamlined workflows, further optimising processes and enabling teams to deliver faster, more personalised support to customers.

💡 According to Omnisend, when comparing omnichannel to single-channel approaches, there's a significant increase in purchase frequency by 250%, and the average order value per transaction is 13% higher on omnichannel platforms.

Key features of omnichannel support tools

So what makes a good omnichannel customer support tool? Here are a few features to help you get an idea:

- Collaboration omnichannel software features

A modern omnichannel tool like Trengo is equipped with features such as AI and automation. These help teams to streamline their processes and get rid of small, repetitive tasks. 

Customer service teams can route inquiries automatically to their right team members and handle support requests more efficiently. This frees up their time and helps them focus on providing more personalised care.

Read more: Collaboration tools for remote teams

- Integration capabilities

What fun is an omnichannel customer service software without it integrating with your sales and marketing platforms?

By integrating with multiple platforms such as CRM systems, ticketing systems, communication channels, and e-commerce platforms, omnichannel support tools ensure that customer interactions and information are consistently accessible and synchronised across the organisation.

Your customer support team can instantly access the context for every customer interaction, making customer support more effective and hyper-personalised. For instance, when a customer places an order on an e-commerce platform, integration with the support tool can automatically create a ticket for order-related inquiries, ensuring timely resolution and a seamless customer experience.

- Analytics and reporting

Improving customer experience is not possible without accessing customer data and using it to up your customer service game. omnichannel customer service software like Trengo come with powerful analytics and reporting capabilities, ensuring you are always on top of your CSATs (customer satisfaction rates).

These features allow you to identify the most common queries your customers contact you for, customer behaviour across different platforms, and your agents’ productivity and performance.

- User-friendly interface

An omnichannel customer support tool that is simple-to-use wins over not only your employees but, in the end, your customers too.

If your customer support software is too complex and clunky to use, your agents will have a hard time using it and may become wary of it soon. This will not only impede your customer satisfaction rate but also contribute to the already high turnover in among customer service reps.

Investing in easy-to-use, simple-to-understand technology will make your customer support team’s job easier and help them unlock customer care’s full potential — delighting your employees AND your customers.

- AI and automation features

AI tools like chatbots and automated responses gather preliminary information from customers, handle routine inquiries, and provide immediate responses and solutions to FAQs. This not only accelerates response times but also enables support agents to prioritise high-value interactions that require human intervention. 

Moreover, AI-driven analytics can provide valuable insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and sentiment, empowering support teams to deliver more personalised and proactive assistance.

Top 3 omnichannel customer support tools

Choosing an omnichannel customer support software that doesn’t match your teams’ or customers’ needs is a waste of time and money. Here is our list of the 3 best omnichannel customer service software that fit the bill for businesses like automotive, travel, restaurants, and retail:

1. Trengo

If you're looking for a user-friendly and efficient omnichannel customer support tool, look no further than Trengo. It's the perfect partner to help you deliver exceptional customer experiences and take your support and service game to the next level!

But what makes Trengo the best omnichannel customer support tool for your business?

Price plans for all sizes: Trengo has special plans tailored specifically for small businesses, growing businesses, and enterprises, ensuring that everyone gets the support they need to thrive.

It offers three pricing plans, all with a 7-day free trial available: 

• Essentials at $113/month per 5 users: Get omnichannel inbox, web widget, and email support from Trengo experts. 
• Boost at $170/month for 5 users: Includes basic integrations, white labelling, reporting, rules and automation, and Trengo messaging support.
• The Pro plan is $284 per month for 5 users: With Pro, you can access all integrations, workload balancing, mandatory 2-factor authentication, and Trengo live chat and phone support.

All-in-one customer support tool: The best part about Trengo is: it has all the features of a good customer service software that we have been going on and on about in this blog post!

Trengo's omnichannel customer support tool features:

• Omnichannel inbox, so you can streamline your customer communications in a centralised inbox.
• Efficient ticketing system that helps your agents collaborate efficiently without losing vital information. Trengo even automatically tracks customer conversations as tickets.
• Automation that frees up your customer support team’s time by taking care of repetitive tasks like organising, labelling and closing conversations or responding to customers with standard replies, generating reports, automating repeating workflows, setting SLA targets, assigning conversations, messaging customers, and much more.
• Integrations that connect with popular CRM, marketing, and productivity tools with no coding required.
• Seamless onboarding that includes basic training, ongoing technical support, and access to a knowledge base to answer all your queries.

WhatsApp Business: Here’s where Trengo goes above and beyond as an omnichannel customer service software. With its native integration with WhatsApp Business, Trengo makes it easier than ever to connect with your customers wherever they're at. 

Are you ready to experience the power of Trengo to delight your customers? Book a demo now!

2. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a popular helpdesk solution that comes with the features of an omnichannel customer support tool. Freshdesk has a user-friendly interface and affordability, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes. Its omnichannel communication and automation features ensure that customer support is seamless and efficient.

However, customisation options may be more basic than expected, and analytics capabilities are somewhat limited.

Additionally, Freshdesk may not be the best fit for large enterprises dealing with high ticket volumes, as some users have reported issues with tickets getting lost in the system.

Price plans: Free plan available; paid plans start at $15/agent per month. Free trial available in all plans. 

Pros and cons:

3. Help Scout

Help Scout focuses on managing email support and building self-service resources. Its centralised inbox and collaboration tools streamline communication, while AI features ensure prompt customer assistance.

Source 

However, Help Scout may not be the best fit for organisations requiring support across multiple channels, as it offers limited live chat and multichannel support. Additionally, users have reported limitations in knowledge base customisation options and some find the reporting capabilities lacking.

Source 

Despite these drawbacks, Help Scout offers a solid set of features, including workflow automation, a help center, and integrations with various apps, making it a popular choice for businesses prioritising email-centric customer support.

Price plans: Plans start at $20/user per month. A free trial is available. 

Pros and cons:

Example of a successful implementation of omnichannel customer service software

Almost every business, small or big, can benefit from having streamlined customer queries. Here are a few examples of how 2 businesses took their customer support to the next level by investing in the right omnichannel customer support tool:

1. Ferryscanner handles a 700% increase in customer queries without fail!

Who? Ferryscanner is a global ferry-booking business operating from Athens, Greece.

The Problem: Summer months, as you can expect, are the most hectic ones at Ferryscanners. Every year, their customer support team failed to manage huge increases in customer queries effectively. They had five different communication channels and were not able to manage them all under one platform.

"Last year, without Trengo, we had to have our Facebook opened next to our customer contact platform to see if we had missed any comments or direct messages." – Alvertos Iskinatzis, customer success supervisor at Ferryscanner

The solution: Alvertos sifted through available options and chose Trengo as their omnichannel customer service software. Since its onboarding, Ferryscanner has been able to manage conversations via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, email, live chat, and Google's Business Messages in Trengo. 

The customisable Flowbot collects basic information like booking codes before customers can interact with a team member. And customer service teans can collaborate on customer queries internally by simply tagging their teammates without having to call or visit them.

The result: Ferryscanner was able to close a 700% increase in customer queries within 24 hours.

"Trengo offers us much more than I had ever imagined possible." — Alvertos Iskinatzis

2. Betersport answers customer queries faster than ever!

Who? Betersport is a Netherlands-based sports online store that sells everything from home trainers to sports nutrition.

The problem: Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Betersport saw a spike in their customer support calls due to the rise in popularity of home gyms. The incoming messages went through the roof and the customer support team struggled to manage the increase in inquiries efficiently. At one time, they even had to close their live chat and WhatsApp due to overload.

The solution: The customer care department at Betersport sought Trengo’s help to streamline and scale their customer support.

With Trengo’s omnichannel support solution, the company was able to manage all its support tickets under one roof without the task getting chaotic. They could now spot if a customer was reaching out via multiple channels and were able to reply to them in a single go.

Betersport also brought Trengo’s Flowbot into action. They customised the bot so that it could answer common questions and direct the chat to a human agent if the customer does not want to interact with a bot.

The result: The customer care team can now close queries much faster. The Flowbot helped agents take care of 158 questions in a day.

What to consider when choosing an omnichannel customer support tool?

As we wrap up our discussion on omnichannel customer service software, it's important to consider a few key factors when choosing the right one for your business. 

• First and foremost, think about your specific needs and goals – whether it's seamless communication across channels, efficient workflow automation, or robust reporting and analytics.
• Next, consider the scalability and flexibility of the tool – will it grow with your business and adapt to changing customer needs? 
• Don't forget about integration capabilities either – ensuring compatibility with your existing systems and apps is crucial for a smooth transition.

Ultimately, omnichannel customer service software offer a plethora of benefits, from improved customer satisfaction and loyalty to streamlined operations and increased efficiency. By providing a unified and cohesive support experience across all channels, businesses can better meet the needs of today's savvy consumers and stay ahead of the competition.

So, whether you're a small startup or a large enterprise, investing in an omnichannel customer support tool is a smart move that can have a significant impact on your bottom line and overall success.

Finally, don’t forget to check out Trengo as your number-one choice for omnichannel customer support needs. The tool promises to provide exceptional support experiences and delight your customers every step of the way!