I always call to order pizza.

My favorite pizza place, Mountain Mike's, has an online ordering system. But that would require me to create an account, remember a password, and click through a bunch of options each time I wanted to place an order.

That seems like too much trouble since I don't order pizza very often.

Instead, I call and a friendly employee answers right away. The employee uses caller ID to identify me and pull up my order history. All I have to say is, "I'll have the usual, please!"

That's an optimized service channel! 

There's a good chance you are supporting multiple service channels in your business. Here seven ways you can optimize your existing service channels.

1. Identify your customers

Caller ID isn't new technology, yet my pizza place is one of the few companies I regularly do business with that uses it effectively.

Most of the time, I find myself endlessly repeating my account information.

• Name

• Phone number

• Address

• Mother’s maiden name

• Favorite ice cream flavor

• Which Ninja Turtle do I most identify with?

You'll make your customers a lot happier if you can keep that stuff to a minimum.

Capture unique identifiers such as phone number and social media handles, and use that information to skip unnecessary identity verifications at the start of each contact.

2. Forecast all channels

Contact centers traditionally forecast phone volume, so staffing can be adjusted to meet the expected demand. For some reason, this doesn't happen in other service channels.

One study by contact center consulting firm, Services Triad, found a sharp drop off in forecasting for email and social media:

Contact center leaders routinely tell me they struggle to keep up with demand in non-phone channels like chat, social, and particularly email. You can improve performance by staffing to demand in all service channels, not just phone.

3. Monitor all channels 

There's a good chance you monitor your agents' phone calls and routinely give them feedback. But what about emails, chat sessions, or social media posts?

As a young contact center manager, I learned the hard way that written communication must be monitored. When I started monitoring my agents' emails, I discovered 50 percent had errors!

Quality isn't just a phone thing. Contact center leaders should monitor all channels, coach agents on their performance, and identify trends. You might be missing a lot of issues if you don’t!

4. Empower agents equally

If a customer emails your company, will they get the same level of service as if they chatted or contacted you via social media?

Many social media teams are empowered to do much more for customers than other teams are allowed to do. This encourages customers to voice their complaints on social media rather than using a more private channel.

Meanwhile, agents working for outsourcers, particularly chat and phone agents, seem to be the least empowered. They’re encumbered by strict rules and onerous scripts.

You can audit this by identifying common customer issues and determine whether they can quickly be resolved via each channel you serve. This exercise might yield some surprises!

5. Track conversations across channels

It seems natural when you start a conversation with a friend on social media, resume the conversation via text, and keep the conversation going when you see the friend in person.

Companies struggle to do that.

Here's where you need a customer service software solution that puts all conversations in one easy place. You want your agents to quickly see that last phone call, email, and chat conversation along with recent orders and other account history.

This saves customers from repeating themselves, which in turn makes contacts go a lot faster. And that's more satisfying for customers and employees alike.

6. Use a consistent brand voice

Do your agents come across as playful on social media, but sound like robots on the phone? 

Contact centers should use a consistent brand voice across all channels. The idea is to represent your brand using similar words and tone regardless of how you're communicating with customers.

Customer service writing expert, Leslie O'Flahavan, provides some great examples in this short video.

7. Dump underperforming channels

Your business doesn't need to serve customers via every channel imaginable. In fact, you'd be better off avoiding channels where there's no demand or you can't effectively deliver service.

Costco, Trader Joe's, and In-N-Out Burger are all known for being customer-focused organizations. Yet try to engage any of them on Twitter and you'll realize none of those companies are tweeting. That's just not their strength.

A contact center leader told recently told me her team supports chat, but they get very few chat requests. She has a challenge staffing for such low demand, where an agent needs to be available just in case a chat comes in.

That agent is probably better deployed to another channel, like email, that has far more consistent and predictable volume.

Take Action

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it's a good start. Each of these tips can help you serve customers more efficiently and consistently. 

You'll also reduce channel racing. This happens when a customer doesn't trust a particular channel, so they start contacting your company via multiple channels to see which one best serves their needs. 

For example, a customer waiting on hold might tweet their frustration, send an email to the company, and start a chat session with another rep. That means one problem ultimately engages four agents rather than one, all because the customer didn't trust any one channel to handle their issue.

Optimizing all of your service channels will quickly improve the customer experience and reduce your servicing costs.