If James T. Kirk was working for a contemporary company, maybe that common command would have turned out like the title to this post. And although it seemed like he tended to go it alone, he was backed by a crew that had to synergize or die.

Businesses today must also synergize or die.  Without a commonality of purpose and efficient teamwork, the whole thing falls apart. When everything is clicking, everyone is doing their job well, and customers are happy, then that is synergy.

One of the areas which must be on top of the game, synergizing for all it's worth, is the area of multichannel communications. A business could run like clockwork yet, when implementing multichannel customer support, starts to sputter. If it hasn't been thought through completely, planned extremely well, and the correct ownership established, those channels will not synchronize and the business will not synergize (is this word starting to sound strange to anybody but me? Ever had that happen? Maybe it's just me).

In short, things are in a horrible mess. The agents on the phones are giving out one answer, while the chat agents are delivering another, and the self service center a third....all for the same question!

It is vital that all those channels are saying the same thing. Otherwise the customer will become frustrated and frustrated customers are definitely not happy customers. And they will walk when they get too frustrated, figuring someone else will have their act together. Like those people over there with the fully integrated Customer Support Software that helps them keep everything running smoothly so they give consistent and accurate responses across the channels.

"Those people" can effectively measure and track the impact of their service interactions on customer retention and customer satisfaction. Every support agent knows exactly how she is performing, how the team is performing, and how each service channel - email, web, chat, or phone - is performing on those two metrics on any given day.

And "That business with Those people" and that integrated customer service system also tend to be aggressive and effective in experimenting with new technologies and service models because they can maintain their course through all the excitement and promise of innovation.They do this through synergy - common goals and transparent, well-understood metrics.

Takeaways

Clarity of purpose, shared goals, and customer-oriented metrics distinguish world-class Customer Support Organizations.

Innovative service models such as 360 degree view of customer information and interaction enable new service delivery mechanisms. Component products and technologies become well-fitting blocks within an overall strategic framework.