Multichannel Management Customer Support Tools

Multichannel ecommerce is one of the best strategies for running a successful digital store. Having multiple sales channels allows you to maximize your business’s appeal and audience size.

One of the biggest challenges of running a multichannel ecommerce brand is that it can take a lot of work to keep up with the demand for customer support across all those channels. Multichannel management customer support tools can help out, and this guide will show you how.

How We Ranked the Best Multichannel Customer Service Software

We wanted to make sure we only recommend the very best customer support software. To do that, our expert team first looked at user reviews and opinions from top professionals in this category.

We then dug deeper, looking at the key features and functions of each app and listing out the pros and cons. Then, we attended demos and tried out trial versions to find out as much as possible about each product before assigning it an accurate ranking and rating in our list.

What Are Multichannel Management Customer Support Tools?

What do multichannel management customer support tools and solutions represent? As the name implies, these digital solutions provide customer support services for ecommerce brands that use more than one sales channel.

Multichannel ecommerce is on the rise. We have so many sales channels available nowadays, from Amazon and Walmart to Etsy and eBay. When we add various social media sales platforms to that, ecommerce businesses have many options to get their products out there into the world.

Using more than one sales channel to connect with your customers makes a lot of sense. However, when you want to speak with customers, respond to feedback, handle returns, and manage complaints, it can be challenging to do so across different channels.

Usually, you have to log in to each account separately and adjust to different dashboards and interfaces. You need to learn various ways to see what your customers are saying, find their order information, and help them. Customer support tools make the entire process substantially easier. Keep on reading to see how these tools function.

How Multichannel Customer Service Solutions Work

The main aim of any multichannel management customer support solution is to make it easier for ecommerce businesses to speak with their customers, take care of complaints and returns, and maintain good customer relations across different channels.

Each tool is different and will have a unique way of working. Still, all these tools provide centralized dashboards that you can use to handle customer support tickets across all of your sales channels.

Instead of wasting large amounts of time and resources entering each separate account to respond to customer messages and feedback, you can speak with all of your audience from one place.

Naturally, this system saves you a ton of time and massively helps to simplify the customer support process for multichannel brands. Many of the best tools also offer additional features to make your customer support faster, stronger, and more efficient.

Aspects of Multichannel Customer Support

If you’re not experienced in running a multichannel ecommerce business, or if you’re wondering how these apps can help you, the table below provides a brief breakdown of how customer support works in this field:

Function	Description
Answering Messages	One of the main aspects of customer support is responding to messages you receive across your various sales channels, which commonly include queries.
Handling Complaints	Now and again, your business may receive a complaint which could relate to a product or service. It’s vital to respond to complaints carefully and promptly.
Managing Returns	Customers may also want to return an item they received for various reasons, and this is another crucial aspect of customer management that can impact your brand’s reputation.
Responding to Feedback	Sometimes, your customers may leave you feedback through comments or reviews on sales channels like Amazon, and you can choose to respond.
Building Loyalty	Ultimately, one of the most significant aspects and objectives of multichannel customer support is to build up a loyal following of customers who like your brand and want to buy from you again.

How Multichannel Management Customer Support Tools Can Help You

As you can see, customer support can be tricky. A customer support manager needs to manage your customer relations, respond to feedback, and keep in touch with your audience, all at the same time. That isn’t always easy when you’re running a multichannel business and trying to make sales across two, three, four, or even more platforms.

There are lots of possible challenges you can encounter along the way, as well as problems you need to solve in order to avoid costly problems or damage to your brand’s reputation.

The best tools can help with all of this in more ways than one, and in this section, we’ll provide some examples of common problems you might encounter and how customer support solutions can aid you.

Managing Feedback

In today’s world, feedback management is a crucial part of running any kind of online business. You need to be able to respond to user criticism in a prompt and efficient way. Multichannel customer relationship management solutions make this so much easier.

Converting Leads Into Customers

Leads might send you messages on one of your sales channels, and if you don’t respond quickly enough or in the right way, they might choose to shop elsewhere. By using customer support tools, you can turn more leads into paying customers.

Wasted Time

A major issue for many ecommerce businesses pursuing multichannel strategies is that they waste hours and hours on mundane support tasks. With software for customer service, you can automate a lot of the support process to save so much time.

Building Brand Reputation

If you fail to provide high-quality customer support, your brand’s reputation may suffer. Poor reviews and ratings could damage your sales, especially if left unaddressed. Using customer experience management solutions can help you maintain good relationships with your customers and build a strong reputation.

Managing Complaints

Even if you aim to offer the best products and services, your company will probably have to deal with complaints and unhappy customers from time to time. The best customer service software makes it easier to handle complaints and get the best outcomes.

Problem	How Customer Support Software Helps
Bad Feedback	Respond to poor reviews and improve ratings
Lack of Customers	Use support tools to convert more leads
Hours Wasted on Basic Tasks	Save time and improve your response rate
Weak Reputation	Improve your reputation with smart support
Customer Complaints	Handle complaints correctly and efficiently

Multichannel Customer Service Solutions – Main Features

Multichannel management customer support tools are some of essential software solutions for ecommerce brands. What can you actually expect from these tools, and what kinds of features can they offer?

A lot of the top-rated customer service tools work by providing one centralized platform that assembles all of your different channels’ support systems in one place.

This allows you to respond to customer messages and complaints on different channels using a single dashboard. They also come with additional features, and the table below provides some examples of what to expect.

Feature	Description
Centralized support platform	A centralized platform gathers together your various channel support systems, making them easier to manage.
Multiple ecommerce integrations	The best customer support software for multichannel management is fully compatible with a wide range of different ecommerce channels and systems.
Automated messages	Many solutions come with automation features you can use to reply automatically to customers and save your workforce hours of time.
Message sorting and organization	Sorting and organizing help you categorize and tidy up the many messages you receive across different sales channels.
Social media widgets	Social media can be a powerful tool for keeping in touch with customers, and the best customer support tools allow for social media integration, letting you speak with your audience on different platforms.

Benefits of Using Multichannel Management Customer Support Tools 

How can you tell if any of these solutions is the right choice for your business? An easy way to find out is to weigh up the pros and cons of these solutions, and in this section, we’ll take a look at some of the key benefits associated with support tools.

Pros	Cons
Compatible with multiple channels	Costs money to use
Happier customers	Some channels may not be compatible
Build up your brand
Make more sales
Improve efficiency

The Tool Works With Your Existing Stores 

One of the best things about customer support software is that it should work seamlessly with any existing store or sales channel that your ecommerce brand uses.

Whether you’re selling on Walmart, Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, or something different, the best multichannel customer service solutions will work perfectly with each platform. This way, you won’t have to waste hours setting everything up or manually logging in to separate accounts when you want to communicate with your customers.

Build Better Customer Relations 

The main aim of customer support is to build and maintain good relationships with your customers. In the long run, this can result in more loyal customers who will come back and buy from your brand again in the future.

The best tools can help with this in various ways. By making it easier and faster for you to respond to customers, they allow you to provide rapid and helpful responses to everyone, with less chance of messages being accidentally overlooked or ignored.

Improve Your Reputation 

Another big advantage of using software for customer support is the fact that it can help to improve your brand reputation. This can also bring long-term benefits in terms of your company’s sales and profits.

By using customer support tools, you’ll be able to respond to customers across all channels in the most efficient way. Customers will then start to associate your brand with good service, which may lead to them recommending your company to others or leaving positive reviews for you on review sites and sales channels.

More Conversions and Sales 

If you use the software properly, it can help you convert leads into paying customers.

Some leads might send you a message to ask about a product or service before deciding whether or not to buy it. If you use support tools, you can organize and prioritize these kinds of messages, giving them the attention they need to boost your company’s conversion rate.

Saving Time and Money

How much time and money do you think your business uses on customer support? Often, ecommerce brands don’t even realize they’re wasting hours of employee time and losing out on potential profits due to outdated support methods and complicated systems. 

When you use multichannel management tools, everything related to customer support becomes more straightforward and manageable. Tedious tasks take less time to complete, and your workers will have more time and energy to focus on other areas to help your business grow and prosper.

Who Should Use Multichannel Management Customer Support Tools

Every business can benefit from customer relationship management solutions, but are the tools more applicable to some? In this section, we’ll look at some of the main types and sizes of businesses that need to consider using these tools.

Small Businesses and Startups

If you’re running a small ecommerce business or just starting a brand new one, it’s wise to consider investing in any tools (including ones for support) that will help you get off to a good start and draw more people to your brand.

Businesses With Poor Reputations

If your business suffers from unfavorable online reviews or has a poor track record in customer care, optimized customer support can help you turn things around and repair your reputation.

Sellers Using Many Channels

If your store sells products across four, five, or even more channels, it can be really hard to manage customer support across all of those different platforms. The right software will help you keep things under control.

Big Stores

Even if you’re running a large store with good feedback, it’s really important to ensure that your standards don’t slip and that your customers continue to be impressed. Automated support will help you maintain your high standards, even as your brand grows bigger.

How Much Do Multichannel Management Customer Support Tools Cost?

Here’s a quick breakdown of the prices of real programs and solutions:

• Basic or entry-level customer support tools may cost around $20 to $50 per month 
• More advanced customer support solutions with additional features can cost from $100 to $300 per month 
• Enterprise-level solutions with custom resources and comprehensive features may cost $500 or more each month

The cost of the tool varies depending on how big your business is, how many users you intend to have, what features you want, and so on.

Trends in Multichannel Customer Management

If you want to ensure that your brand remains competitive and appealing as time passes, it’s important to keep up-to-date with the latest trends in your chosen field. Let’s take a look at some customer support-centric trends that may affect your decisions going forward:

• Support linked intrinsically to growth – Statistics and surveys show that a company’s level of customer support is intrinsically connected to its growth and success metrics. In other words, if you want your ecommerce business to grow and develop, you have to ensure that your standards of customer care are high.
• The personal touch – Modern customers are becoming increasingly concerned about which brands they buy from, and they have higher levels of expectations when it comes to customer service. One survey showed that 70% of customers would buy from brands that show personal levels of care and understanding.
• Automation on the rise – Automation is becoming more and more important in the world of customer service, and it doesn’t just benefit your workers. Studies show that customers, too, appreciate when simple messages or service-related tasks are automated. 
• Chatbots are more widely accepted – Customers are not only increasingly receptive to automated messages and services, but they’re also more welcoming towards chatbots, too. Almost half of the customers say that they feel equally at ease getting help from a bot as they would with a person.

Which Multichannel Management Customer Support Tool Is the Best?

Our list contains tools and solutions ranked according to their overall rating and usefulness, but we recommend trying at least a few different options to see which one works best for you. You can prioritize functionality over design, or maybe you want a specific feature that only a handful of customer experience management software solutions offer.

How to Choose the Right Multichannel Customer Communication Management Tools 

With the right software at your disposal, you can enjoy improved relationships with your customers and  more conversions that can bring you the following:

• More sales
• Better brand reputation
• Increased levels of positive feedback
• Satisfied and more efficient workforce

There are many benefits to enjoy, but you need to use the right tool to get the right results. 

So, how do you know which one to choose? Well, the first step is to think about where your business truly needs help.

Do you find that time is being wasted managing and responding to customer messages? Do you feel like your brand needs a reputation boost? Or maybe you want to downsize your support team and rely more heavily on technology?

Once you’ve identified some objectives, you can start focusing on finding one or more customer support tools that can actually meet your needs and help you hit your targets.

Summary

Overall, multichannel management customer support tools are arguably among essential solutions for any modern-day multichannel ecommerce brand, as they help you develop connections with the people who matter most: your customers.

We hope that this guide has shown you how they can make a difference and why it is in your best interests to start using one. Check out our list for top recommendations and remember to try multiple tools to compare results.