Omnichannel support is critical in any service desk or request management system. This is especially true these days with a remote and dispersed workforce. Watch this video.
Omnichannel support allows ends users to submit requests and contact support via the method that is most convenient and available to them. With users accessing a variety of devices from multiple locations, giving them a wide range of options for communicating with the support desk is mandatory.
“Omnichannel” is another way of saying that end users have choices. They are not confined to a desktop application or email; they can communicate with the service staff in any number of ways on whatever device they are using.
Crow Canyon Software’s NITRO Studio Business Process Automation platform for SharePoint, Office 365, and Teams fully supports Omnichannel practices. In a NITRO Studio-built application, end users can interact with the service desk in any of these ways:
- Email (Microsoft Outlook or other email clients) – an email sent to a specified email address will be converted into request ticket. Email correspondence is recorded on the ticket and regular updates are sent to the end user.
- Microsoft SharePoint –NITRO applications run in SharePoint and users can access them directly on a desktop, tablet, or mobile phone through the standard SharePoint interfaces (classic or modern) or over the SharePoint App. Users can submit tickets and view status while having access to the many tools SharePoint provides.
- Microsoft Teams (Channels and Chat) – for users in Office 365, Teams is becoming a commonly used communication tool to contact and interact with service desk staff. NITRO is fully integrated with Teams. Whether using direct chatting, a Teams channel, tabs, or other aspects of Teams, users can get support, and staff can respond, all within this popular collaboration tool.
- NITRO Bots (Chatbots) – NITRO Studio has bots that run in Microsoft Teams, allowing users to ask questions and get answers 24×7. The bots can give users a form to fill out to initiate a request as well as show details on already submitted requests. Approvals, escalations, and resolutions can all be done from within the bot.
- NITRO Portals – NITRO Studio offers a variety of portals, whether application-specific or a more broad-based “Self-Service Portal”. In addition, a Customer Portal is available for communicating with external parties – not only customers, but also clients, members, citizens, partners, etc. The portals can have a branding and components that fit your organization’s specific needs.
- Web Forms – by “web forms”, we mean forms that do not require a login. Usually, these are on a web site available to the public and are used for general inquiries. NITRO Studio will convert the user’s input in these forms into request tickets.
- SMS (texting) – there is growing interest in using texting more in service desk communication and NITRO Studio supports ticket creation and user-staff communication using SMS messages.
- Phone Call/Walkups – of course, the old-school methods are still available: picking up the phone and calling, or walking over to the service desk office (though that is a lot less common with COVID). In either case, a ticket can be created in the system and processed as normal.
The beauty of NITRO Studio’s Omnichannel support is that none of these methods are mutually exclusive. Users can utilize whatever communication channel works for them, with the flexibility to change modes at any time as they move around or switch devices. And the same information, displayed in pretty much the same way, is available wherever the end users are located and on whatever device they are using.
Using NITRO Studio as your business automation platform in SharePoint, Office 365, or Teams, gives your users all the options they need to contact, communicate, and interact with the service desk so they can quickly and easily get the support and services they require.
Omnichannel support is just one of the many features of NITRO Studio – be sure to check out the full set of tools and see how NITRO can drive process automation at your organization!
