Customers today have more freedom to make purchases and order services than they ever have before. They can place an order from their phones, from their personal computers, from their computers at work, through phone calls, in person, or by any number of other means. This is great for the customer and great for the company – convenience and accessibility for them, and more sales and a larger marketplace for the provider.

However, this rapid change has come with its own complexities: how does an individual or a company keep up with such demand? A greater degree of communication and outreach is now required for anyone who wishes to be successful in offering their products or services to a public that has quickly become accustomed to instant service. Fortunately, there are a number of solutions to address this interesting problem.

1) Combine Into One Point-of-Sale Solution

Make sure that your order approach is combined – that is, don’t have a different solution for every method by which someone might make an order. That means no apps for every specific phone and no rewards cards for every different brick-and-mortar location. Link your app and your online store, ensuring that the payment portal works for everyone. Combine rewards with the app, or with the customer’s user account. Think simple: customers want that.

2) Ensure You Have Knowledgeable Staff

This is particularly important for staff who are in constant contact with customers. There’s nothing worse than making a call to customer service and realizing the person you’re talking to doesn’t even know what product you’re talking about. This is an easy one: make sure your staff are appropriately trained, or if you’re using a call center, make sure they’re committed to expertise on your products or services.

3) Make Everything Available to Everyone

It’s critically important that your website works on all web browsers, that your app is available for all smartphones, and that your physical location is made accessible to all customers. This is the only way for you to capitalize on this new world of multi-channel ordering! If any one channel is completely inaccessible, you’re closing off an entire revenue stream and alienating potential clients/customers.

4) Consider Every Obstacle

Walk yourself through your own order process. Did a customer order online and is now here in person to pick it up? Who do they speak to? Where is their product located? With multiple channels for orders, there are now multiple avenues for problems to arise. Make sure these are all smoothed out for every possible order route, and you’ll find your customer satisfaction levels are at an all-time high.

5) Partner With a Multi-channel Solution Provider

There’s nothing wrong with offloading all of this work – after all, you’re in business to provide what you offer, not manage the logistics of offering it. We offer our clients numerous solutions for all of their customers’ order preferences. We’re also committed to expertise and excellence regarding your product and service, which means we can handle sales or questions coming in by phone, text, e-mail, or even live web chat without missing a beat.