Omnichannel means solving problems, not adding channels
A decade of “be everywhere” thinking has left customers repeating themselves. AI-driven connected intelligence makes omnichannel finally work the way it should
For more than a decade, customer experience leaders have been sold the same promise: Be everywhere your customers are. Add email. Add chat. Add social media. Add WhatsApp.
But as companies have invested heavily in being present across every channel, they have found themselves drowning in silos, burning out their agents, and frustrating customers who still have to repeat themselves every time they switch from email to chat to phone.
We've hit a wall with this view on omnichannel, and I think AI will help us break through. It starts by focusing on what customers actually want.
Getting a problem solved is everything
When customers contact an organization, their top priority isn't the choice of channels, it's getting their issue resolved the first time, according to research from Contact Babel. In fact, the study found that most people prioritize it above everything else, including short wait times and having U.S.-based representatives for U.S.-based customers.
Yet for years, the promise of omnichannel has overindexed on channel presence rather than resolution effectiveness. The result has been predictable: Companies spread themselves thin trying to staff every channel, agents lose context when customers switch between touchpoints, and customers repeat their stories multiple times. As a result, simply adding more channels actually degrades the customer experience.
True connected intelligence requires rethinking your whole approach—from how you understand your customers to which channels you prioritize and how you prepare your teams for this shift.
Jenny Petersen
Sr. Director, Product Management
Connected intelligence: The new omnichannel paradigm
AI finally allows us to make omnichannel effective by shifting to "connected intelligence." This approach combines customer context that follows them across channels, AI that can predict issues and resolve them autonomously, and connected data from across your entire business into one unified view.
Here’s how this would work at a utility company during a service outage. They're likely getting a number of inquiries in the same area. The system can identify patterns, bubble them up, and help teams understand there's an issue—even as an early warning system. Some customers have told us this actually helps them catch problems faster than their traditional methods.
4 steps to better omnichannel
The solution isn’t in simply layering AI over an existing omnichannel solution. Getting to true connected intelligence requires rethinking your whole approach—from how you understand your customers to which channels you prioritize and how you prepare your teams for this shift.
Understand where your customers actually want to engage. Ask them directly. Analyze which channels have the best CSAT scores and resolution rates. This may vary a lot between B2B and B2C businesses.
Don't launch all channels at once. Add channels as you need them. Start with the channels that make the most sense for your customer base and build from there.
Use AI to open channels you couldn't before. AI is a great solution for a new channel where you might not have the staffing in place for it. It’s a way to give customers an opportunity to solve their problem in real-time.
Focus on change management. Your team needs to understand what AI is doing, how it's talking to customers, how they handle if someone's frustrated. Help them understand that it is there to make their jobs easier, especially on those really mundane tasks, so they can handle the ones where they really need that empathy and human touch.
Connected intelligence in action
At services firm First Legal, this approach has translated into 85% first-contact resolution, 98% resolution SLA, and 90% CSAT.
These are metrics we've always been looking at and things we've always been trying to do. But now we're combining them to deliver omnichannel service in a way that has been challenging before, with Freshdesk Command Center. It brings together conversations, customer insights, and AI capabilities in one powerful, centralized workspace to provide proactive customer service.
For decades, omnichannel has been about keeping all channels open. AI-powered connected intelligence shifts the focus to what customers have wanted all along: getting their issues resolved accurately the first time, without having to repeat themselves. That's omnichannel finally working the way it was supposed to.
Hear more from Jenny Petersen at Refresh Virtual Summit on Nov. 18!
