Omnichannel support: consistent, trustworthy support automation on every channel

Omnichannel vs multichannel#

Multichannel means customers can reach you in several places. Omnichannel means those places are connected, so a customer who starts on Instagram and follows up by email doesn't have to explain it all again, because whoever answers can see the first conversation.

Most stores are multichannel and call it omnichannel. That's fine, as long as you know which one you're paying for, because enterprise helpdesks charge a lot for the difference.

What omnichannel takes#

The hard part is identity. A WhatsApp message arrives with a phone number, an Instagram DM with an Instagram ID, and a website chat with maybe an email address. Matching those to one person needs something they share, and often there isn't anything.

Then the history has to reach whoever answers next, and the answers have to agree with each other. If WhatsApp quotes a 30-day return window and chat says 14, no amount of connected history will save that conversation.

What small teams need first#

Our view: for a small store, that last part matters most, because automation is only trustworthy if it behaves the same way everywhere. Customers notice a different answer on each channel, or a channel where nobody can actually do anything, like an Instagram inbox that only ever replies "please email us". Fix those before you pay for a perfectly stitched thread.

How Hay.chat covers channels#

Hay.chat answers on your website chat, WhatsApp and Instagram, and inside Chatwoot if your team already works there. You can put the same agent on all of them, with the same docs, playbooks and store connections. So a customer gets the same answer wherever they ask, and Hay.chat can take the same actions, like checking an order or changing an address. You can still give each channel its own playbook for tone, so replies stay short on WhatsApp and go into more detail on your website.

Every conversation lands in one Hay.chat inbox, and anything that needs a person goes to your team with the conversation attached. Each channel keeps its own thread for now, so a customer who moves from WhatsApp to Instagram starts a new conversation there.