How to Increase Omnichannel Customer Engagement

In the aftermath of the Covid-19 era, a significant shift in consumer behavior is evident. While physical shopping has seen a resurgence, online activities remain robust, with consumers increasingly searching for information, placing orders, and opting for in-store pickups. To stay competitive in this evolving landscape, omnichannel customer engagement enters a critical role.

In its simplest definition, ‘Omnichannel’ refers to the integration of multiple platforms into a unified system, while ‘Customer Engagement’ signifies the interactions and active participation of customers with a brand.

Therefore, Omnichannel Customer Engagement is a strategic marketing solution to enhance customer touchpoints and deliver an integrated seamless experience. It’s not merely a catchphrase; many brands have proved their triumph through omnichannel strategies despite the intricate consumer market.

The Benefits of an Omnichannel Customer Engagement Strategy

The concept of omnichannel customer engagement is a versatile strategy, applicable to businesses across the spectrum–be it petite start-ups or towering enterprises, B2B ventures, or B2C platforms. The crux of this strategy is simple yet profound:  keep the customer-centered and ensure they can seamlessly navigate through various brand-integrated touchpoints during their purchasing journey. Yet, only a meager 11% of brands have managed to fully harness the power of omnichannel engagement. But those who hit the mark, are reaping some pretty impressive benefits, including:

• Revenue Growth: Brands with top-notch omnichannel customer engagement see a 9.5% yearly increase in annual revenue, compared to 3.4% for poor omnichannel brand strategies.

• Enhancing Qualitative & Quantitative Customer Data: Omnichannel engagement allows for the collection and distribution of customer seamless data integration across each interaction point. This valuable insight can significantly enhance your analytical capabilities, empowering you to refine and optimize your offerings at every juncture.

• Ability to Cater to Diverse Audiences: As brands can reach customers through various channels, a robust system in each platform becomes increasingly necessary. This provides more options for customers to explore, engage, and make decisions about your brand.

• Better Customer Satisfaction: When customers receive better experiences from having supported channels at every touchpoint, it leads to greater customer satisfaction.

• Customer Retention: Once customers are satisfied, they will likely return to use the services again. Coupled with customers returning to use services and customers from diverse new channels, statistics show that 89% of brands using omnichannel customer engagement strategies have a high customer retention rate of 89%, while brands that have never adapted only achieve 33%.

Here’s What an Effective Omnichannel Customer Engagement Strategy Looks Like

The first step of Omnichannel Customer Engagement is to do your homework, this doesn’t mean this article isn’t useful, but it underscores the importance of in-depth investigation at every stage of your customer journey. This extends from the point where customers first encounter your product on the shelf or in an advertisement, to decoding their behaviors before adding items to their virtual or physical cart. Each interaction point presents many customer decision-making factors, particularly when you factor in competition. 

By weaving an omnichannel strategy across social, physical, and digital platforms, you can bolster customer experiences and eliminate any chinks that might lead them to deviate from your brand.

Let’s look at Pomelo, a prominent clothing brand in Thailand, as an example. They’ve incorporated a ‘Try-to-buy’ feature into their mobile app; this allows customers to peruse products they’re interested in, anytime, anywhere. This not only enables them to sample the actual products but also to decide whether to buy online or at a nearby brick-and-mortar store. 

If you’re operating in the B2B sphere, consider implementing a feature that provides prospects with a dedicated assistant who can guide them from initiation to completion of the service process. This could manifest as face-to-face meetings, scheduled appointments, online communication, or even self-service options, thus offering prospects more flexibility in how they engage with your services.

However, these are merely illustrative examples. In this article, we’ve outlined 8 key components that will steer your brand toward a robust Omnichannel Customer Engagement Strategy that many successful big brands have adopted and reaped benefits from.

1. Create a Personalized Experience

To enhance customer engagement, brands need to strategically identify touchpoints that resonate with individual customer needs. This involves the smart utilization of data analytics to discern patterns that can be leveraged to fine-tune service delivery, making it more responsive and tailored to consumer preferences.

Take, for instance, Sephora’s mobile application–a digital platform for this globally recognized cosmetic retail brand. It incorporates features like ‘Wait List’ and ‘Wish List’, designed to cater to customers who are keen to purchase items currently out of stock. The moment these products become available, instant notifications are triggered.

Moreover, the app boasts a ‘Recommended For You’ section, which uses advanced algorithms to suggest products based on the customer’s browsing history or frequently purchased items, adding a layer of personalization to the shopping experience.

However, amidst the large sets of customer data being collected and utilized, the paramount concern remains the safeguarding of sensitive information. Customers anticipate brands to not only protect their data but also utilize it responsibly to curate more personalized and engaging experiences upon their return.

2. Offer a Dynamic Experience

In an increasingly digital age, brands must elevate their omnichannel strategies to offer not just personalized, but also dynamic customer experiences. This concept mirrors the in-store experience of a customer perusing items on shelves, with accessible staff ready to lend a hand.

A dynamic experience is essentially about responsiveness–recognizing and addressing customer pain points at every stage of the buying journey and presenting your offerings as the solution until the transaction is complete.

Take for instance a customer on your e-commerce platform, about to finalize their purchase but unsure of any applicable discount codes. In such a situation, your platform could automatically present a ‘discount codes’ button for easy access. This is an example of a dynamic experience; it simplifies the process of applying promotional codes, serving as a compelling incentive for customers who are still in the decision-making phase of their buying journey. Such a strategy can effectively guide customers through their purchase decisions, making it a win-win for all.

3. Making Sure Channels Complement One Another

Omnichannel engagement is essentially about ensuring seamless customer interaction across all your platforms. It’s about delivering a consistent experience, whether your customers are interacting with you on one channel or hopping across multiple ones.

For instance, if you’re a big tech with a wide array of platforms and offerings, you should strive to ensure that users can readily access interconnected data across these platforms. This enhances their user experience by integrating and simplifying their interactions. Take a leaf from Amazon’s book–they allow users to create a single account that gives them access to a multitude of services, from Amazon Prime entertainment to shopping on their main platform.

As a small business, if you’re selling in-store and online products, it’s critical to maintain real-time inventory updates. Avoid scenarios where a product shows as sold out on eCommerce Platform A, but is still available on eCommerce Platform B, or even at a physical store nearby. Implement features that update stock availability and offer alternative purchase options like an in-store pick-up.

4. Make It Easy for the Customers

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that usability is crucial in the grand scheme of technology. Your customer base is a mix of tech-savvy millennials and those who are still getting a grip on the digital world. Overcomplication could lead to customer attrition, as they may gravitate towards more user-friendly platforms or brands that streamline their journey. 

Instead of an obsessive focus on channel augmentation, pivot towards enhancing the actual user experience. Make your omnichannel touchpoints intuitive, perhaps by incorporating tutorials or clear, step-by-step guides. Ensure these channels are responsive and offer a range of options to cater to different user preferences. By doing so, you’re not just selling technology; you’re providing an experience.

5. Understand the Target Audience

As mentioned before, grasping the essence of your target audiences is a critical component in forging an efficient omnichannel customer engagement strategy. The aim is to orchestrate a journey that places the customer at the core, ensuring fluidity and cohesiveness across all touchpoints.

It’s essential to delve into the specific goals and predilections of each target group, employing data-driven insights to tailor experiences that resonate with them on a personal level.

Take Disneyland, for instance. This brand has mastered the art of anticipating its customers’ needs, offering a comprehensive suite of services through its mobile platform. From ticket procurement and travel logistics to accommodation arrangements, every facet of the customer journey is encapsulated within this single app.

Furthermore, the app is designed to enhance the in-park experience by providing real-time updates on attraction wait times and enabling users to pre-order food, thereby eliminating unnecessary hassles and enhancing overall satisfaction. This is a prime example of how understanding your audience and their expectations can lead to a seamless and enjoyable customer experience.

6. Create an Immersive Experience

Leveraging Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) can significantly enhance the omnichannel customer journey, bringing a fresh and innovative approach to engage customers. This could be implemented during the exploration or consideration stages, where customers can virtually interact with your products in a real-world context, or even personalize options to fit their unique needs.

Take IKEA as an example. They’ve ingeniously integrated Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 to spawn a Virtual IKEA Kitchen that mirrors real-world dimensions. Customers are empowered to modify key elements within this virtual space, such as altering the colors of their cabinets or positioning products in different parts of their homes to gauge the scale. What’s the next step? Once customers have finished decking out their virtual abodes, they can seamlessly transition to purchasing the selected products, with options for either pickup or delivery for added convenience. 

7. Focus on the Details

Before launching your omnichannel initiative to your team, ensure that you’ve thoroughly mapped out the customer journey. This involves pinpointing all touchpoints to facilitate a fluid experience, identifying and addressing customer friction points, and cultivating a customer-oriented approach that enables you to modify your services to meet customers wherever they are.

For instance, consider Netflix’s success in executing a hyper-personalized omnichannel customer engagement strategy. They’ve mastered the art of focusing on the finer details by crafting engaging messages that draw from real-time and behavioral data to deliver highly pertinent, individualized communications. They delve into the customer’s mindset during their search for certain categories until their algorithm can accurately predict the customer’s preferences. This level of detail in understanding customer behavior ensures a truly personalized and engaging user experience.

8. Make Customer Journey Unique

Leveraging a holistic, personalized, and dynamic omnichannel engagement approach can significantly enhance customer loyalty strategies. The strategy can also be augmented with unique features that provide customers with an exclusive experience like nowhere else. A prime example of this approach is Starbucks, a brand renowned not only for its diverse range of quality coffees but also for its innovative omnichannel customer engagement.

Starbucks’ omnichannel strategy is a stellar example of customer engagement. The brand’s mobile app streamlines transactions tracks rewards, and builds loyalty. A unique aspect is the collaboration with Spotify, introducing a song identification feature in-store. This allows customers to discover new music while enjoying their coffee, and later access these tunes on Spotify. This innovation, combined with its reputation as a work-friendly space, offers an all-inclusive experience that caters to diverse customer needs, making Starbucks a preferred choice over other work-from-home alternatives. Starbucks’ approach showcases the power of customer-centric innovation in enhancing customer engagement.

Omnichannel Customer Engagement is the Future

After many big brands pulled out their omnichannel strategy and created a big impact on the consumer world, we can say that these days people aren’t just buying products anymore, they’re buying experiences. The evolving demands of Generation Z primarily fuel this change; the digitally savvy that appreciates in-store experiences but also expects the convenience of online refunds or exchanges. 

The world of omnichannel can feel like a jungle–it’s full of challenges, and you’re not the only one trying to conquer it. You’ve got to keep track of so many channels, make sure product info stays consistent everywhere, and listen to customers’ feedback on each platform. 

Consider leveraging tools like Mandala Cosmos, an advanced multi-channel management system, perfect for startups, SMEs, or content creators. It offers a customizable dashboard providing an analytics view of your brand’s social media across multiple channels. Mandala Cosmos also enables you to monitor social conversations surrounding your brand or industry. This software can unearth emerging trends, offering valuable insights to seamlessly integrate into your omnichannel strategy.

Final Thoughts 

In conclusion, the success of the Omnichannel approach is not a guaranteed recipe for every brand’s triumph, as it poses its own set of challenges that have led to the downfall of many. Therefore, it’s crucial to strategize meticulously and align your plans with a dynamic, customer-centric approach. By understanding every touchpoint in the customer journey and leveraging advanced technologies, you can create unique and seamless experiences, even in the simplest interactions. Not only does this enhance customer retention rates, but it also transforms mere engagement into tangible sales and cultivates brand loyalty. Ultimately, an Omnichannel customer engagement strategy will drive sustainable growth for your brand, proving that the intersection of technology, strategy, and customer focus is where true business success lies.