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Omnichannel, the new standard in Customer Experience

You have probably heard the word Omnichannel before. You might also have an idea of some of the term’s implications. After all, Omnichannel Customer Experience has experienced a tremendous upsurge in the last few years across the marketing, retail, and customer service landscapes. For many companies and brands today, omnichannel software is key to how they do business. However, you might still have some questions about the true meaning of Omnichannel and, more importantly, what it can mean for your business.

 

In the present context, trying to find an answer to those doubts is one of the best decisions you can make. In 2023, Omnichannel Customer Experience is becoming more and more essential to modern business, to the point where it’s becoming a must in many fields to remain competitive. Today, having a communications strategy and plan in place for Omnichannel marketing is essential because it ensures that your messaging is consistent across all channels. By creating a strategic approach to communication, you can effectively reach your target audience, maintain brand coherence, and avoid repetition that may lead to customer disengagement.

 

A well-developed communications strategy considers the varying preferences and behaviors of different audience segments, enabling you to tailor your messages accordingly. Additionally, it helps you identify the most efficient channels to engage with your audience, ultimately leading to a more impactful and successful marketing campaign.

 

With this article, we’ll try to respond to all the questions you might have about the meaning of Omnichannel. As we will show throughout the next lines, in 2023 it can safely be said that Omnichannel is steadily becoming the new standard across industries. 

 

Now more than ever before in history, businesses are expected to offer a personalised customer experience. There are two causes for this: the first one is technological evolution and an increase in options and channels for customer communication and engagement; the second is a rise in customer expectations for a personalised experience. 

 

Naturally, these two causes are interconnected: the more available communication channels exist, the more varied people’s preferences on which of them to use and how will be. This, in a nutshell, explains why in 2023 it’s essential to provide your customers with the full Omnichannel experience. 

 

But first, let’s start with the basics: what do we talk about when we talk about Omnichannel?

 

What is Omnichannel?

The word “omnichannel”, derived from Omnis, the Latin word for “all/every”, literally means “all channels”. The term is used throughout the marketing, retail, and customer service industries to refer to an integration of all physical and online channels relevant to how a customer perceives and interacts with a business. 

 

One of the earliest formulations of Omnichannel was suggested by Frost & Sullivan, who used it to refer to “seamless and effortless, high-quality customer experiences that occur within and between contact channels”. 

 

And there is a key word there: experience.

 

First and foremost, Omnichannel is a method for improving Customer Experience. In a nutshell, its purpose is to provide customers with a unified, cohesive brand experience regardless of how they engage with or interact with the brand. Interactions can occur in person at physical stores, online (for example, by browsing the brand’s website or asking a question on social media), or through other means, such as calling customer service representatives.

 

The ideal Omnichannel Customer Experience will encompass all those experiences and coordinate them with each other. In this way, an omnichannel strategy will allow customers to engage with a brand through their preferred channels, thus giving a personalised experience to every customer, all while retaining and conveying a cohesive, unified brand experience.

 

 

As we have mentioned earlier, the Omnichannel experience has been becoming more and more widespread in the retail, marketing, and customer service fields, to the point where it can rightfully be called the “new normal” when it comes to Customer Experience. The reason is as simple as it is undeniable: customer behaviour has changed tremendously over the last few years, and businesses have no choice but to adapt.

 

In the next section, we’ll consider some of the changes that have occurred in the Customer Experience and business landscape over the last years, how those have affected customers’ expectations and preferences, and how all this relates to Omnichannel.  We’ll also look at some data to illustrate how and why omnichannel is becoming the new standard in Customer Experience.

 

Why is the Omnichannel Experience taking over?

 

There are multiple reasons why the Omnichannel Customer Experience and Omnichannel software are quickly becoming the new norm.

 

As we mentioned earlier, rapid advancements in communication technology have played a big role in it. Nowadays, there are more ways for both businesses to reach customers and customers to engage with brands than ever before: from social media and SMS to brand websites or apps, on top of brick-and-mortar stores or events, and other more “traditional” communication channels like telephone or email. 

 

Naturally, there are as many different types of customers with different preferences as there are different communication channels, and even more: as we will see later, most customers today prefer to use many communication channels when engaging with their choice brands. 

 

This is also an important fact that explains the popularity of the omnichannel experience over other approaches to customer engagement, like multichannel. We will elaborate on the differences between those two later on.

 

But to get back to the point: customer behaviour has experienced big and important changes in the last few years. 

 

Back in let’s say, 2008, there weren’t as many available communication channels as there are today: Apple still hadn’t launched the iPad, Facebook was the only game in town when it came to social media, and businesses having their own apps was pretty much unheard of. To put things in perspective: Jeff Bezos was still “just” number 68 in the Forbes World’s Billionaires List.

 

Obviously, things have changed tremendously in less than 15 years. In 2023, ecommerce purchases will account for a total of 25% of total retail sales; social media is the new main front for visibility and customer engagement; and customers use many different channels to communicate in their daily lives and to engage with their favourite brands.

 

These changes have been precipitated mostly by the evolution of communication technologies and social media, but also by other events like the recent pandemic or the emergence and supremacy of e-commerce and online shopping.

 

 

In this context, it’s easy to see why Omnichannel Experience is the winning horse in 2023. A strategy that integrates and coordinates all available engagement channels is no longer just a nice-to-have: it’s simply necessary to meet today’s customer demands.

 

When presented with statistics on the evolution of customer behaviour, it’s difficult to deny the need for an omnichannel customer experience in today’s customer engagement landscape. 

 

We’ve compiled a few key figures that illustrate the impact of omnichannel. Let’s have a look at them.

 

The importance of Customer Experience for today’s business

For starters, we can look at some stats that demonstrate the importance of Customer Experience for today’s brands and customers. 

 

• 74% of consumers are likely to buy based on experiences alone (Forbes / Arm Treasure Data)
• Research by American Express found that 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better experience.
• According to a study by The Temkin Group, companies earning $1 billion annually can expect to earn, on average, an additional $700 million within 3 years of investing in customer experience.
• A study by Oracle reveals that 89% of customers have walked away from a brand due to poor CX.
• Over 4 out of 5 consumers would leave a brand they love after three or fewer instances of poor CX, and about 1 in 5 would after only one instance. (Emplifi)
• 9 out of 10 customers won’t purchase again from a company after three or even less poor customer service interactions (Source: Customerthink).

 

As you can see, customers today value the experience offered by a brand almost as much as its product, if not even more.

 

Omnichannel Experience, the Customer’s Choice

Now, let’s see how this increase in expectations about CX has made customers gravitate towards businesses offering omnichannel experiences:

 

• Over the past 5 years, the number of digital shoppers has increased by 40%. During the same period, online sales volumes increased by 218%
• The United Kingdom is the country where customers spend most in online shopping, with an annual average spend of £4,000 per person. 70% of Brits prefer shopping online rather than going to a physical store.
• 59% of shoppers surveyed say that being able to shop on mobile is important when deciding which brand or retailer to buy from.
• Data from RetailMeNot concluded that 69% of consumers had used their mobile devices to check products at home, with 53% having used their smartphones to check reviews before chatting to a store employee.
• 98% of consumers switch between devices on the same day to communicate with their favourite brands, and expect the same experience from the brand each time.
• A study conducted by Harvard Business Review found that around 73% of consumers prefer shopping through multiple channels. 
• About 40% of customers expect to contact the same customer service representative through any channel, and almost 50% of shoppers in-store expect sales associates to be knowledgeable about online-only products. 

• In a survey, Salesforce found that 75% of consumers look forward to a consistent experience across multiple engagement channels. And what’s more: 73% declare that they will likely switch brands if they don’t get it.

 

It’s not hard to tell why today’s customers prefer omnichannel. As we have seen earlier, the multiplicity of communication options and channels and more empowered customers results in the segmentation of different types of buyers with different preferences when it comes to customer experience and engagement.

 

Omnichannel Customer Experience and its impact for business

Lastly, let’s see how the decision of whether to adopt a strong omnichannel strategy or not affects businesses:

 

• Studies have found that customer retention rates are 90% higher for omnichannel marketing campaigns than those focusing on single-channel marketing. 
• Companies with omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain on average 89% of their customers. In contrast, companies with weak omnichannel strategies show customer retention rates of only 33%.
• Additionally, an Omnisend report revealed that marketers using ‘three or more’ channels in any one campaign earned a 287% higher purchase rate than those using a single-channel campaign. (Omnisend, 2020). 
• According to Think with Google, omnichannel strategies generate an 80% higher rate of incremental store visits by consumers
• Some research estimates retailers lose anywhere between 10% and 30% of sales when they fail to meet omnichannel shopping expectations.
• Data from Google also showed that omnichannel shoppers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop using only one channel; in other words, they generate more revenue. When you consider that it usually costs between 5-30 times more to get new customers than retain the ones you already have (Finextra), this really helps put things into perspective.
• Companies with strong omnichannel Customer Experience see a 10% year-over-year increase in annual revenue, compared to 3.4% for weak omnichannel companies.

What can these key Omnichannel findings do for your success?

All things considered, it’s easy to understand why the Omnichannel Experience is steadily becoming the new standard for customer engagement. We can summarise all this data with one simple argument, made of three premises and two conclusions:

 

• Premise 1: Now, customers have more options and channels to obtain knowledge about products and brands, and it’s increasingly easy for them to explore those options. As a matter of fact, they prefer to use different channels when engaging with a brand or learning about it.
• Premise 2: As a result, they end up spending a significant amount of time prior to their purchase (but also after it!) looking for information about your product and your competitors’ across different channels.
• Premise 3: Customer expectations have also risen in this regard. Today’s customer regards the experience offered by a brand as something just as important as the product itself, and this reflects on their purchasing decisions.
• Conclusion 1: Omnichannel represents a major upgrade in a brand’s Customer Experience. Not only satisfies the expectations of today’s customers and makes them more loyal and likely to buy more, but it also makes its product more accessible to new customers.
• Conclusion 2: A brand that adopts an Omnichannel strategy and satisfies the CX expectations of increasingly exigent customers, all the while reaching new customers, will outperform those that don’t. As Omnichannel becomes more and more common, companies that don’t go Omnichannel risk becoming irrelevant or obsolete and losing customers and revenue against those that do. 

 

Hopefully, now you have a clearer picture of the importance of Omnichannel, why so many businesses are adopting it, and why more and more customers are picking those businesses above others. By this point, you’re probably wondering how you can go about implementing an Omnichannel strategy to your business or brand. We’ll also tell you about that in the following sections.

 

However, there is a common misunderstanding about the nature of Omnichannel that we must address before moving on to other questions. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t fully understand the difference between omnichannel and multichannel. Let’s try to clarify that distinction.

 

Omnichannel vs. Multichannel: What’s the difference?

Unfortunately, many business owners and decision-makers do not understand the difference between Omnichannel vs Multichannel. 

 

This confusion causes many brands and companies to believe that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with how they engage with customers. They believe that using different channels for customer communication is enough; that, once they have created a business Facebook or Instagram page or implemented Live Chat on their website, they have done their due diligence when it comes to providing good Customer Experience across channels.

 

Unfortunately, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

 

A lot of times, these companies are completely oblivious about how far they’re lagging behind their competitors in customer engagement. This causes businesses to squander crucial resources, cash, time, and customers by continuing their CX operations via a multichannel approach, believing that there are no essential differences between multichannel and omnichannel.

 

So, what is the difference between multichannel and omnichannel strategies? Let’s try to clarify that.

 

For starters, let’s consider the roots and meanings of these terms in the strictest sense: by definition, multichannel means “many channels”, while omnichannel means “all channels”. This gives us a clue about one essential difference between the two approaches: A multichannel approach simply adds more channels to the list of ways customers can contact a company, while an omnichannel strategy, on the other hand, seeks to reach even further by integrating all channels. However, that’s not all there is to it.

 

In the line above, we have just mentioned a keyword that represents the most crucial factor differentiating multichannel and omnichannel: integration.

 

One way to illustrate the difference between a multichannel and an omnichannel strategy is with a well-known adage: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Essentially, it’s a matter of quality versus quantity. Let’s elaborate on this.

 

In a multichannel approach, numerous communication channels are made available for the customer to reach the brand. However, these remain isolated from each other; the customer journey will include different channels, but the data from each interaction will remain siloed, and, all in all, the customer experience will be a fragmented one. 

 

 

Another way to put this is that the multichannel approach is not a customer-centric one; it’s rather what we may call a “channel-centric” approach. Ultimately, what multichannel does is allow a brand to become more accessible for the customer, but it doesn’t go beyond that: it doesn’t aim to improve the overall Customer Experience or even consider it as a whole.

 

An Omnichannel strategy, on the other hand, is very much concerned with what the Customer Experience is like from the customer’s perspective at each stage of their journey. Offering Omnichannel customer journeys is much more than offering the customer to engage with a business on more than one channel: it’s an attempt to understand where the customer is literally coming from in order to serve them better and make their experience more memorable.

 

As we have mentioned earlier, the goal of Omnichannel is to create a seamless, smooth, unified experience across all channels. But what does this look like on the field?

 

3 Defining Characteristics of Omnichannel vs. Multichannel

Naturally, each company has different needs and different customers, so the specifics of their Omnichannel Customer Experience strategies will look different in each case. However, there’s something all Omnichannel approaches have in common and that differentiates them from Multichannel: 

 

Integrated, not disjointed

From an Omnichannel point of view, it’s not enough for a brand to allow its customers to reach them through all channels. While it’s true that an essential component of Omnichannel is presence across all channels, that’s not all there is to it. One way to put it is that all Omnichannel strategies are multichannel, but not all multichannel strategies are Omnichannel.

 

The main point of an Omnichannel approach is to coordinate brand efforts across multiple channels to create a seamless, unified experience. 

 

Allowing the customer to contact you through any channel is just the beginning: what Omnichannel seeks is to make all interactions feel as one and make the customer feel heard, listened, and cared for. This leads us to the next point:

 

Customer-centric, not business-centric

An Omnichannel strategy is about the customer first and foremost. It doesn’t just conceive the use of different channels as just another way to reach more customers; it sees it as a means to create a more seamless experience. 

 

In other words, the point of Omnichannel marketing is not just to increase a brand’s visibility by increasing the number of channels in which it’s present. While multichannel is focused on  increasing presence across channels to make more and more people aware of a business, with Omnichannel the aim is to create a consistent customer experience for people who are already aware of a brand.

 

It’s not just about reaching and serving customers in different channels: it’s about allowing them to switch between those channels while feeling immersed in a consistent, engaging brand experience. It’s also about eliminating wait times, making the customer feel heard and seen at any point of their journey, and, ideally, allowing them to speak to the right representative on every interaction.

 

To put it simply: Omnichannel assumes a framework where Customer Experience is what matters most. 

 

Quality over quantity

If there is one word we can use to summarise the rationale behind the Omnichannel approach and the reasons for its success, it’s personalisation. 

 

A multichannel approach will extend a brand’s presence across channels to reach more customers, but that’s pretty much where it ends; and insofar as the customer reveals a preference for using different channels, a strictly multichannel strategy will not take into consideration the customer journey as a whole; it will look at each channel separately, not touchpoint, what channels they prefer to use for each stage of their journey, why they prefer to use those channels, what pain points or disjointed experiences they are encountering along the way, etcetera.

 

In contrast, an omnichannel marketing strategy proceeds by examining the customer’s relationship with a brand on a larger scale: its goal is to coordinate brand presence across all channels to convey a unified yet personalised experience that allows the customer to engage with the brand on their own terms. It considers multiple channels not as an end in itself, but as a way to create more solid, engaging, seamless, and memorable customer experiences.

 

 

Benefits of Omnichannel

Presence, availability, and resolution speed are key when it comes to customer engagement. And that’s exactly what an Omnichannel customer experience delivers.

 

Here are seven major advantages of utilising an Omnichannel customer engagement platform.

 

1. Increased presence and reach

Being present on all channels will enable a brand to reach any customer. Today, there are as many communication channels as customer preferences: surveys reveal that Baby Boomers still prefer to talk to a representative over the phone when engaging with a brand, while younger generations prefer using WhatsApp, SMS, or social media. 

 

Using all of them and enabling seamless transitions from one channel to another will instantly make a brand more accessible for both current and prospective customers.

 

2. Seamless and efficient interactions

It’s not just that different people use different communication channels; they also switch between them multiple times a day to talk with each other in their everyday lives, and it’s only natural that they expect to do the same when talking to businesses. Remember the figure we cited earlier? According to Harvard Business Review, 73% of consumers prefer shopping through multiple channels. 

 

Going omnichannel will allow your representatives to seamlessly cater to customers’ communication preferences and switch conversations to different channels when necessary. 

 

 

Omnichannel allows your representatives to switch channels seamlessly and with no disruptions: as a result, customer conversations get better in terms of quality, fluency, and resolution time. But that’s not all.

 

With Flow, our workflow automation tool, you can design entire omnichannel customer journeys including any channels your customers and agents prefer to use, build rules to decide how, when, and under which conditions should the interaction switch to another channel, and automate the entire process, reducing wait times and improving the efficiency of your interactions and your customers’ overall experience.

 

3. Better CX, happier and more loyal customers

As we said earlier, omnichannel is all about making the customer’s experience better. The ultimate goal is to set a golden standard for what it is for your customer to engage with your brand and to uphold it across all channels, creating consistently compelling experiences.

 

According to research by Aberdeen Group, companies that implement an omnichannel solution can see up to a 23X increase in their customer satisfaction rates! And that’s not all: satisfied customers are also more likely to recommend a product or brands to friends, to leave positive reviews online, or enrol in loyalty programs.

 

4. Better data collection

Adopting an omnichannel strategy will not only make your customer journeys more seamless and satisfactory; it will also provide you with a privileged view of your customers’ behaviour and preferences across channels.

 

It will facilitate a more complete understanding of what your customers want, what they expect, and how, where, and when they prefer to engage with your brand. You will also learn what type of campaigns perform better and create the most value. By incorporating these insights into their overall strategy, brands can continue to enhance the customer experience and optimise their media spend.

 

What’s more: some Omnichannel platforms, like Connex One, come with a range of AI interaction analytics tools that will provide your business with invaluable insights into your customers’ preferences, wants, and needs. Keyphrase Analysis and Entity Recognition, for example, will spot how regularly your customers mention specific words and phrases, informing you about trends and recurring issues. Also, AI Sentiment Analysis will analyse the choice of words in your customers’ calls and read their level of satisfaction and engagement with your representatives’ input.

 

 

5. A more consistent brand identity

Omnichannel strategies play a pivotal role in conveying a consistent and compelling brand identity. By adopting an omnichannel approach, businesses can ensure that their brand message and values are uniformly communicated across all customer touchpoints, be it online, in-store, or through various communication channels. This consistency creates a cohesive and synchronised brand experience, fostering customer trust and loyalty. 

 

With omnichannel, customers receive a seamless journey where they encounter the same brand elements, voice, and visuals, regardless of the channel they choose. This unified presentation of the brand reinforces its identity, builds recognition, and enhances brand recall. 

 

By consistently delivering a compelling brand experience, businesses can establish a strong and memorable brand identity that resonates with customers, fosters emotional connections, and differentiates them from competitors.

 

6. Better visibility

According to a recent IBM study, locating client account information takes up 75% of a typical manual (agent-facing) support call.

 

However, with some high-level omnichannel contact centre solutions, like Connex One, information from previous interactions will be stored and readily available no matter which channel the customer is using. With this level of data visibility available to customer teams, they can spend more time on the task at hand and less time looking for information.

 

This useful data can also be used by customer service representatives to inform the next steps in the customer journey. With the ability to see all stages of the omnichannel customer journey from beginning to end, agents can better understand each interaction in its larger context, allowing them to more precisely map out the path to resolution.

 

7. Preventing agent burnout

Agent burnout and churn rate are a contact centres’ worst enemies. The average contact centre experiences an agent turnover rate ranging between 30 – 45% per year, costing Contact Centres on average an estimation of £7000 per employee to replace.

 

According to an ICMI survey, 87% of call centre agents report moderate to high levels of stress during their workday, and 71% attribute this to system and tool inefficiencies.  

 

 

In the same ICMI survey, a whopping 100% of the organisations agreed that agent morale and satisfaction have a direct impact on the customer experience. However, most former call agents cite stress, which is frequently caused by inefficient tools, as one of the primary reasons they left their jobs.

 

“It bothers me that when you ask business leaders what’s most important to them, they’ll tell you [that it’s] customer experience, customer service,” says Justin Robbins, Senior Analyst at ICMI. “But the reality is that their actions are completely contrary to that. They know that their agents are stressed out, and the main reason is their tools and technology aren’t efficient.”

 

To combat these issues and improve the agent experience, many businesses are turning to omnichannel software to relieve agents of the stress of menial, repetitive, and arduous tasks, allowing them to focus on building relationships with customers without the risk of burnout.

 

Hopefully, by now you understand how important Omnichannel CX is for modern business and how you can leverage it to create better brand experiences and customer engagement. Now, let’s get to the practice of how to implement an omnichannel approach.

 

How to implement an Omnichannel strategy

To create an effective omnichannel customer experience, it’s crucial to consider how customers interact with your brand as a whole, rather than just focusing on individual channels. Here are a few key essentials to keep in mind when developing an omnichannel strategy:

 

1. Know your customer

The first thing you should do before implementing an omnichannel solution is to figure out how you’re going to use it. Naturally, the first step in this stage is to know what your customer cares about, what type of experience they would like to have, and their preferred communication channels.

 

This doesn’t mean you need to have it all set in stone; as a matter of fact, going fully omnichannel will probably give you a more complete picture of your customers’ behaviour and preferences, which will help you later on to provide more personalised and satisfactory levels of customer experience.

 

However, it’s absolutely essential that you start your omnichannel journey with a purpose: getting to know your customers and give them exactly what they want and expect.

 

The best way to do that is to ask questions. Gather customer feedback, get insights from customer service and sales representatives, and learn all you possibly can about how to best engage your customers. 

 

For successful Omnichannel marketing, focus on collecting data that is essential and relevant to your marketing objectives. Ensure that you adhere to GDPR regulations while capturing data on various touch points and interactions, beyond just the usual transactional activities. Valuable data should be current, precise, and aligned with the goals of your marketing strategies.

 

Any information you can extract from customer data analysis will also be of invaluable help before you move on to the next step.

 

2. Build a customer journey map

Then, you should create a customer journey map; or, in other words, a visual representation of all the touchpoints your customer goes through when engaging with your brand.

 

Here, you want to contemplate each channel and how it fits into the customer journey as a whole. Some customers might prefer asking about products via email, while others might prefer using Live Chat or reaching out through social media; in that case, you may want to compose different customer journey maps for different types of clients.

 

Map everything that happens from the first moment your customer hears about you to the moment they decide to make a purchase; you shouldn’t forget to include decisive events like the customers’ individual work of research about your product, their comparison between you and your competitors, and every experience leading up to their decision about whether they should buy from you or not.

 

In other articles, we have covered further the subject of customer journey mapping and explained how you can construct the perfect customer journey map. Here, you can also read about how our Flow tool can help you create and automate customer journeys from scratch.

 

 

3. Understand each channel in its context

When selecting the right channels for omnichannel marketing, it is crucial to first identify your target audience and understand their preferences and behaviors. Consider whether your business is primarily focused on B2B, B2C, or falls within the Third Sector, as this will influence the channels that are most effective. Next, evaluate a wide range of channels available for reaching your audience, including social media platforms like Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and others, as well as website, native and web apps, email, SMS, WhatsApp, Slack, and offline channels such as retail stores, events, call centers, and offices.

 

It is essential to assess how these channels can complement each other and work cohesively to create a seamless experience for your customers. Integration and consistency across all channels are key in omnichannel marketing to ensure a unified brand message and customer journey. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each channel in relation to your target audience and objectives to determine the most effective combination for your omnichannel marketing strategy.

 

4. Connect all channels

Achieving success with an omnichannel strategy requires flawless execution, which can be challenging. The key is to have the proper technology in place to track customers throughout their journey, from researching on your website and social media to browsing on third-party marketplaces, and ultimately making purchases at your physical store.

 

Connex One’s Omnichannel will allow you to integrate all channels in a matter of days. Our platform provides users with an intuitive, easy to use interface where they can engage with new or regular customers across all channels, sort all their customer interactions, and switch between channels with ease, all in one hub. They will also be able to see each customer’s complete history and information with just one click. 

 

Also, our Flow feature can automatically take your customers where they want you to, switching between different channels if necessary and saving your agents’ and customers’ time without writing a single line of code.

 

5. Maintain a consistent brand identity across channels

To facilitate an effective omnichannel customer experience, it’s important for organisations to create a clear brand identity with specific messaging and creative guidelines. These guidelines should be consistently applied across all channels to promote brand recognition and awareness. Additionally, leveraging brand tracking tools can help measure and predict the health of the brand perception among consumers. 

 

During an Omnichannel marketing transformation, it is crucial to continuously uphold core brand values. Neglecting or downplaying these values in the planning and execution of such a transformation can lead to inconsistencies that may erode the trust and perception your audience has towards your brand.

 

Maintaining alignment with core brand values across all channels ensures a seamless and unified brand experience for your audience, reinforcing brand loyalty and trust. Therefore, staying mindful of core brand values throughout an Omnichannel marketing transformation is essential to preserving a positive brand image and strengthening customer relationships.

 

Sentiment Analysis is another tool that can be of great use to find a consistent voice to use across channels: our solution, for example, can analyse the customers’ and representatives’ choice of words during the conversation and automatically recognise the customers’ sentiment at each point of the interaction. 

 

Matching this AI functionality with other tools like Keyphrase Analysis will also allow you to find which words or phrases are associated with successful outcomes in your representatives’ conversations, which can be incredibly useful to track the effectiveness of new campaigns.

 

 

6. Keep testing and improving

An essential aspect of a successful omnichannel marketing strategy is consistently evaluating the effectiveness of your approach. After you’ve come up with a plan, you’re going to have to keep testing it, measuring its effectiveness, and gathering feedback.

 

Testing plays a critical role in the Omnichannel marketing process as it allows businesses to thoroughly evaluate their strategies and operations. By testing extensively, companies can identify potential weaknesses, optimise their processes, and ensure that all aspects of their Omnichannel marketing efforts are effective. Whether it’s conducting strength tests, load tests, penetration tests, or any other form of evaluation, the practice of testing helps organizations fine-tune their approaches and improve the overall performance of their Omnichannel campaigns.

 

In essence, testing is a fundamental component that empowers businesses to enhance their Omnichannel marketing strategies, reach their target audiences more effectively, and achieve greater success in today’s competitive market.

 

Consider the individuals involved, both internally and externally, as well as the processes and technologies that contribute to delivering an enhanced and unified omnichannel customer experience. Assess which workflows are performing well and which ones require improvement. Thoroughly document these touchpoints to optimise customer service. 

 

Connex One’s Assessment Centre features can be your best ally to constantly track and upscale the success of your Omnichannel strategy. Our platform’s dashboard grants full visibility of agents’ inbound and outbound queues, call transcripts, performance, and productivity. AI tools like Call Transcription, Sentiment Analysis, Keyphrase Analysis, or Entity Recognition will allow you to dig deeper than ever into the conversations your representatives have with customers, empowering you to instantly recognise what works and what you can improve.

 

After taking note of your current strategy’s strengths and weaknesses, develop a strategic plan to streamline inefficiencies, foster collaboration, and cultivate a loyal customer base that continues to return for more.

 

So far, we have talked about what Omnichannel Customer Experience is in general. However, Omnichannel will take different forms depending on whether we’re talking about retail, marketing, or customer service. In the following sections, we’ll consider what Omnichannel Customer Experience looks like in each of these fields by looking at some examples of different businesses that owe a big part of their success to their implementation of omnichannel.

 

Industries leveraging Omnichannel

Omnichannel approaches have become increasingly popular across industries as customers have more options to communicate and more power of choice. Here are some particular areas where Omnichannel approaches have proven to be extremely effective. 

 

Omnichannel for retail

In today’s omnichannel environment, retail has undergone significant changes. With the ability to buy in-store or online and the emergence of social media and review sites, retail marketers must centralise consumer interactions across multiple channels to ensure a positive outcome. It’s all about creating a cohesive brand experience, monitoring feedback, and utilising data to drive success in this dynamic landscape. In the UK, leading fitness clothing brand Gymshark is one of the paramount examples of retail omnichannel done right: By utilising Shopify Plus, Gymshark enhances customer experiences by tailoring them to individual preferences, implements company-wide promotions, and conducts worldwide campaigns, all while ensuring a dependable and customizable platform.

 

Omnichannel for Healthcare

In the world of healthcare, customers interact across various touchpoints across multiple providers, including hospitals, primary care, and pharmaceuticals. By analysing omnichannel customer journey data, healthcare providers can personalise their services, deliver meaningful information, and mitigate potential health risks for individuals. 

 

This data-driven approach improves patient outcomes, enhances care coordination, and empowers patients to make informed decisions about their well-being. Here, you can read about Optegra, UK’s leading eye healthcare provider, which benefits from an Omnichannel capacity provided by Connex One. After onboarding with our Omnichannel solution, Optegra managed to increase agents’ productivity by 20% thanks to detailed, real-time, AI-powered reporting, improve customer satisfaction levels by 15%, and increase conversion rates.

 

 

Omnichannel for Pharma

In the dynamic contemporary market, pharmaceutical companies face the task of finding innovative methods to connect with, captivate, and convince physicians. Faced with shifting behavioural influences, mounting marketing costs, and a vast array of communication channels, pharmaceutical companies are leveraging Omnichannel Customer Experience to improve the accessibility of their drugs to physicians and, ultimately, to patients in need.

 

Omnichannel for Financial Services

The banking and financial services sector is undergoing a transformation, shifting their focus from product-centred thinking to putting customers first. As a result, companies are now faced with the challenge of delivering bespoke, omnichannel customer experiences that allow them to understand which services and products would be the most suitable for each customer, taking into consideration their personal preferences, wants, and needs. 

 

This, of course, includes the type of experience that each type of customer looks for and appreciates when engaging with their bank or financial service provider. Old Mutual, 170+ year old investment, savings, insurance, and banking group, was one of many financial services businesses betting for Omnichannel Customer experience to best serve their customers. Connex One helped them deliver outstanding customer experience to their customers, all while gaining real-time, comprehensive insights on team performance and increasing their team’s efficiency; click here to learn how Old Mutual used Omnichannel to increase the effectiveness of their CX.

 

Omnichannel for Contact Centres

Omnichannel has emerged as a crucial and highly relevant concept in the customer service industry over the past few years. With the proliferation of communication channels and the increasing expectations of customers, organisations have recognized the importance of providing a seamless and integrated experience across various touchpoints. By embracing omnichannel strategies, contact centres can enhance customer satisfaction, build stronger relationships, and improve overall business outcomes. The ability to provide a seamless, cohesive experience across channels has become a defining factor in the success of contact centres in today’s highly competitive and customer-centric landscape. 

 

Intelling, a leading BPO with over 1000 staff across the UK and Northern Ireland, as well as partnerships in South Africa and India, owes a big part of their success to a strong Omnichannel strategy following their partnership with Connex One. Here, you can read more about how Omnichannel helped Intelling to increase ROI for their clients through real-time reporting, bridge complex customer journeys with omnichannel, and achieve compliance across strict governance requirements. 

 

Omnichannel for the automotive industry

Given that cars represent a significant long-term investment, car dealerships and manufacturers place great importance on maintaining customer loyalty and staying at the forefront of customers’ minds. However, the automotive buying journey has undergone a transformation, with a remarkable 80 percent of shoppers conducting online research before making a decision. This shift underscores the increasing significance of having an omnichannel marketing strategy that effectively engages with customers across all channels, making Omnichannel Customer Experience the logical conclusion of these changes in customer behaviour.

 

Conclusion

Hopefully, by know you know everything there is to know about Omnichannel, why it is so important, and how to go about implementing it in your business. However, there’s still one thing left.

 

While you might be fully aware of the theory now, you might still want to get some practical notions of how Omnichannel works. Fortunately, that couldn’t be easier.

 

You can speak to one of our people to get more information about our Omnichannel platform or get a free, personalised demonstration session. We’re absolutely confident your team and your customers will love our Omnichannel solution as well as the quick set up, and rapid time to value. Give it a go!

 

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