Opportunities and challenges of applying omnichannel approach to contact center

The contact center is the center of communication between users and service providers through which companies strive to provide support and retain or increase the customer's satisfaction in working with the service. Today companies that provide support through contact centers add more and more independent channels including email, chat, SMS, social networks and other, without paying attention to the needs of customers nor to the potential that a particular channel delivers. In context of the contact center, omnichannel approach rises as an idea of creating the seamless and integrated environment for modern customer experience (CX) through integrated channels, which allows agents to work on a better interface and to use a richer set of customer and service data. This paper discusses the nature of applying the omnichannel approach to contact centers. To be more precise, focus of paper is on presenting the need for an omnichannel approach in today's contact centers, analyzing literature and defining opportunities and challenges of applying omnichannel approach to contact centers.