What is an Omnichannel Customer Experience?
If you’re wondering how to take your business to the next level and still have no clue what steps to take next, let us introduce you to the power of Omnichannel Experience!
Omnichannel customer experience involves advertising, selling, and supporting customers across various platforms, and making the whole process seamless. The keyword here is “seamless” because this sets Omnichannel customer experience apart from Multichannel customer experience.
While aiming for an Omnichannel customer experience may pose challenges for some businesses, it’s something you can’t afford to ignore. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with all the information you need to know. Stick with us to gain valuable insights throughout this article!
Why is an Omnichannel Customer Experience Important?
Today, when we want to purchase something, we can read reviews on our smartphones, laptops, or desktop computers. When we want more hands-on experience, we visit stores or events. Whenever we have questions, we can simply talk with a chatbot, and with the convenience of eCommerce, a final purchase is a breeze. These are just examples of how you tend to encounter various platforms on a daily basis, as the offline and online worlds are all blended in.
As a business, one of our main goals should be to ensure that customers feel their purchasing journey is effortless and smooth. After all, if the process becomes irritating, customers may not want to buy more products from us. And we certainly don’t want our customers to feel that way.
That’s why brands must aim to maintain consistent branding and convey consistent messages across all channels. These two factors play a crucial role in impacting the quality of customer interactions and ultimately fostering greater customer engagement.
Major Benefits of Implementing Omnichannel Customer Experience
Focusing on omnichannel customer experience can provide benefits for both your business and your customers. Here is a list of some advantages you can gain from adopting this approach:
Improved Customer Retention
According to a study from Harvard Business Review, it is clearly stated that “The more channels customers use, the more valuable they are.” This means that customers who utilize multiple channels tend to spend around 4% more on each shopping occasion in-store and 10% more online compared to single-channel customers. Furthermore, as they use additional channels, shoppers tend to spend even more money in the store.
Stronger Branding
Since Omnichannel commerce can boost brand awareness, this can lead to a stronger overall brand presence. As a result, a stronger brand will also encourage customers to develop brand loyalty. All of this can have a positive impact on your business in the long term.
Increased Revenue
Statistics from ClickZ show us that Omnichannel customer experience can significantly increase the number of purchases. When customers interact with three or more channels, they tend to make purchases 250% more frequently compared to those who use only one channel.
Collect Better Data
We can’t deny that the more channels we have, the more data we can collect. Omnichannel journeys can serve as an excellent source of valuable customer data. This can help you gain customer insights so that you can make improvements to your products, services, and promotions in the future.
How to Build and Improve The Omnichannel Customer Experience
Now you know the importance and benefits of Omnichannel customer experience. In this last section, we will break down the steps that will allow you to implement this in the real world. The list is as follows.
Understand Your Customers
The first step is clear in itself. Omnichannel customer experience approach is a user-centric approach. So, before designing an omnichannel customer experience, you can try mapping out the customer journey. This illustration will help you identify the steps, possible gaps, and issues, as well as the touchpoints in between that can lead to closing a sale.
Mapping the customer journey is a crucial step in truly comprehending your customers’ experience. This map is the key to creating a seamless and satisfying customer experience, and it will serve as your ultimate guideline when developing omnichannel marketing strategies and plans later on.
Follow the Leaders
A lot of big brands around the world have already paved the road of Omnichannel customer experience before us, and many achieved great success. Even if some brands didn’t achieve the desired outcomes, you can still learn from their marketing strategies by observing them as case studies.
One of the most notable examples is Starbucks. Starbucks tries to provide a premium user experience by rewarding customers with a free drink when they sign up for a membership card. This card can be used on the app, website, or physically, and the points will be updated seamlessly across all platforms, making the whole process super convenient.
While using big brands as models may not guarantee identical results, they can serve as valuable guidelines to help you find your way.
Use Tools and Resource
To create a seamless omnichannel customer experience, having the right tools and resources is absolutely essential. One advice we can give is adopting a ‘single customer view’. Single customer view is a holistic compilation of data about customers that can be viewed in one place. With a single customer view, whenever your customers interact with your company through various channels like live chat, video and voice calls, mobile apps, and other methods of communication, you’ll have more convenience as it allows your business to pick up right where your customers left off, regardless of the channel they access.
Another piece of advice we can give is to create personalized experiences for your customers, such as offering product recommendations according to the collected data. Personalized customer experience goes a long way in making your customers feel valued and understood.
Develop Your Mobile Capabilities
Developing your mobile capabilities may initially seem trivial, but we can assure you that it’s far from it. In today’s world, people rely heavily on their mobile phones for various activities. However, not every brand has fully mastered mobile-friendly platforms just yet.
Imagine when someone clicks on your website and realizes it’s optimized for computers, not mobile devices. Most of them would probably prefer to switch to other mobile-friendly websites. Not having a mobile-friendly design will affect your customer experience, which, in turn, also impacts your SEO ranking in the long run.
In fact, there are mobile-friendly analyzers available to help you assess how your business is performing in this aspect.
Conduct a Content Analysis
Regardless of the platform your brand is on, having great content for your customers is an absolute golden rule. However, defining what exactly constitutes “great content” is not always straightforward. It can vary depending on the nature of different businesses. Some may rely on creative and engaging content; some might benefit from informative and clear-cut material; while some businesses may focus on writing keyword-based blogs and pages to rank higher in search engines.
That’s precisely why conducting a content analysis can be tremendously helpful for your business. It enables you to gain valuable insights into the preferences of your users from various demographics, so you will understand what kind of content resonates best with your audience.
Improve Your Response Times
When you’re a customer asking questions to companies or brands, how soon do you expect to receive a reply? As fast as possible, right? The answer is a resounding yes, and the statistics back it up!
Studies clearly demonstrate that 50% of consumers anticipate a social media response within an hour. Therefore, as a brand, it’s crucial to have a job position dedicated to handling these inquiries promptly, in order to make your customers feel appreciated and heard. Remember failing to respond quickly enough can significantly influence how your consumers perceive your brand in the long run.
Take Your Omnichannel Approach Offline
When we talk about Omnichannel customer experience, most people immediately think of expanding their online channels, such as using more social media platforms. However, it’s important not to overlook the offline channels as there are a number of marketing opportunities out there waiting too.
Events, direct email, magazine ads, branded merchandise, and radio may appear niche and outdated to some, but it’s crucial to recognize that every industry and business is different. For some of you, these analog channels might be the perfect market fit, and you won’t know until you give them a try. Therefore, remember to integrate these offline channels into your omnichannel strategy and explore the potential they hold.
Rethink In-Store Consumer Experiences
Everything changes by the time, similarly, in-store consumer experiences does too, as not everyone enjoys window shopping like they used to in the past. According to a study, over 80% of consumers now prefer to use online channels for browsing and researching before making a purchase.
In your marketing plan, one of your primary goals should be to facilitate a smooth transition for consumers from online to offline shopping. This can be as simple as displaying the number of products in stock, helping them decide whether it’s worth a trip to the store. Alternatively, you can get creative and add something more exciting, like an online game on your website that offers discounts to customers who win.
Choose Your Channels Wisely
While we may have emphasized the importance of exploring various platforms in this article, that doesn’t mean you have to be on every single one of them. It’s essential to consider your capabilities in handling each platform effectively.
Omnichannel marketing isn’t about being present everywhere; rather, it’s about strategically choosing the places where your target audience congregates and creating a positive user experience. Sometimes, it’s better not to use a platform if you can’t manage it well. You should not bite off more than you can chew by putting your message where it won’t be heard. Focus on being present and engaging where it truly matters.
Keep It Consistent
Last but not least, if you have followed all the steps and the results are not as rewarding as expected, it might be beneficial to invest more time and closely examine your plan. Your brand is composed of numerous elements – from small elements like your receipts and your employees’ shirt logos to more significant aspects like your social media pages, emails, apps, and websites. All these elements contribute to your brand perception, so you should strive for the best in every aspect.
Keep in mind that consistency is the key to developing audience loyalty and fostering stronger customer relationships.
This is The Way
As customers, we all desire to feel heard and understood. Embracing the power of Omnichannel Customer Experience can significantly enhance this aspect for both your business and your valued customers. If you’re unsure of where to begin, there are technologies available to lend a helping hand, and that’s where Mandala AI comes in.
Mandala AI is specifically designed to empower your business team and help them reach their full potential. Conveniently monitor each social media platform, gain valuable customer analytics and insights, and receive easy-to-read reports. With this powerful tool, you can work smarter, saving time in the process.
Experience the possibilities for yourself with a free trial starting today at https://www.mandalasystem.com/. Let’s explore how you can leverage your business to new heights!
