A Strategic Approach to Improving Omni-Channel Experiences

In our ever-changing world, customer wants, needs, and expectations are ever-changing as well. Keeping up with those changes is how top brands consistently deliver best-in-class customer experiences. But even top brands can struggle in that regard. Here, I dig into one key area where people say brands are falling short and offer some tips for what to do about it.

THE SITUATION

77% of consumers feel most of their experiences are inconsistent across channels and devices.

(Source: Khoros, 2021)

AND

84% of consumers believe retailers should be doing more to integrate their online and offline channels.

(Source: RetailNext, 2021)

THE OPPORTUNITY:

As seen in The Situation, consumers want (and expect) more from their omni-channel experiences. This is an especially important topic since the pandemic drove digital adoption rates through the roof. Consumers who preferred in-person and on-site shopping were forced to explore tech alternatives, and many are sticking with those new behaviors. With that, brands who had omni-channel experience strategies on the backburner are now being nudged to make it a priority.

But, keep in mind, consumer demand for improved omni-channel experiences isn’t solely focused on digital laggards. It also applies to early adopters and brands who are all-in. If omni-channel touchpoints lack consistency, purpose, and value, they can be more harmful than not including those touchpoints at all.

So, The Opportunity I see applies to all brands regardless of their omni-channel presence and maturity. It’s the opportunity to assess, refine, and innovate the customer’s experience as a whole. I’m not suggesting every brand completely pull apart their customer experience and start from scratch – although that may be necessary for some. Nor am I suggesting every brand rushes to increase digital investments just for the sake of it. Rather, I’m suggesting The Situation be treated as motivation to look closely at each and every brand touchpoint. Consider if and how those touchpoints are adding value to the customer’s overall experience; exploring when and where improvements can be made.

While customer experience development is already a priority for most brands, sometimes there needs to be a specific lens to look through. Knowing how customers feel about the current state of omni-channel experiences offers both a spark and a point of focus for getting started.

THE CHALLENGE:

Addressing consumer demand for improved omni-channel experiences cannot come at the cost of personalization and human-centricity. Consumers still want their experiences to be relevant, memorable, and built around their unique preferences.

So, The Challenge is ensuring adjustments in one area doesn’t negatively impact other areas. If a digital touchpoint is added or removed, what effect does that have on the bigger picture? If changes are made to better integrate two pieces, how does that influence a third and fourth?

The challenge is compounded by the fact that different customers and prospects will progress through brand touchpoints differently. Changes that benefit one group may result in pain points for another. It becomes a balancing act between modernizing omni-channel experiences, maintaining consistency and brand identity, and catering to the unique needs of varied audiences.

THE SOLUTION:

To strengthen and improve omni-channel customer experiences, there are two foundational elements that must be addressed.

First, there needs to be a clear picture of your overall customer experience as it stands today. This not only includes a detailed outline of each individual touchpoint, but strong internal alignment regarding your organization’s customer experience goals and objectives. Of course, generating leads and conversions are at the top of the list. But since each individual touchpoint can serve a different purpose in relation to those goals, this becomes a more nuanced process than it initially seems.

Second, having established your customer experience as it is today, what do you want your customer experience to be moving forward? It is surprisingly common for there to be differing perspectives across leadership, departments, and individual team members regarding what “customer experience” even means – let alone the steps involved. So, having clear short and long-term visions will serve as guardrails while further developing your customer experience strategy.

With those pieces in place, your better positioned to address The Challenge of different audiences having different wants, needs, and expectations.

This brings us to The Solution – leveraging data-driven insights to build a holistic Customer Journey Map and create detailed Customer Personas. Including data-driven insights as a central element for both projects will ensure the end results are accurate and reliable while remaining open for updates as markets shift and consumers evolve.

Here are a few tips and suggestions for taking a data-driven approach:

Customer Journey Mapping

At a high level, Customer Journey Mapping is a visual storyline of every engagement a customer has with your brand. This is a powerful tool for understanding your customers’ experiences with the brand itself, but also the products and services you offer.

Visualize the Customer Journey: Create a visual representation of the customer’s journey, outlining all the touchpoints a customer has with your brand – both digital and physical. This can be in the form of a flowchart, timeline, or storyboard.

Segment Your customers: Categorize your customers based on key demographics, psychographics, behaviors, and needs. Different customer segments may have different variations of the initial journey map, so understanding these differences is crucial.

Gather Customer Insights: Start collecting customer data and feedback through various channels such as surveys, social media, customer support interactions, and website analytics. Look for patterns, pain points, and notable events across each touchpoint. These insights will serve as a guide for identifying customer experience strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

Map Emotions and Pain Points: Having laid out the tangible points of engagement, add layers of context to each by mapping customer thoughts, feelings, and sentiment at each point. This is another benefit of gathering customer insights, because you will have data-driven facts rather than assumptions or best guesses.

Identify Key Moments of Truth: Again, leveraging your customer insights, identify pivotal moments regarding customer entrance, exit, decisions, and sentiment along the journey map. Focus on optimizing what is yielding progress toward your goals and making adjustments in areas that are not.

Customer Personas

The key here is going beyond standard demographic information and purchase history. Seek to understand the unique individuals behind the transactions and identify differentiating attributes, such as behaviors, decision drivers, or product/service usage. This will enable your team to walk through the Customer Journey Map while seeing through the lens of specific customer groups.?

Get to Know Your Customers: Develop a well-rounded customer insights strategy to gather feedback on topics like lifestyle preferences, hobbies, interests, and personal priorities. While these identity attributes may not seem applicable to your immediate business objectives, these are important factors in relationship building and brand experience development. With a holistic understanding of the person, you’re better equipped to deliver truly meaningful value.

Describe Their Goals and Motivations: Seek to understand the main goals, motivations, priorities, and influences that drive customer behaviors. The more you know about what they’re trying to achieve by interacting with your brand, the better you can meet – and exceed – those needs.

Create a Narrative: Transform your customer insights into a narrative that brings each persona to life. Give them names, add a photo, and create a fictional backstory. This humanizes the persona and makes it easier for stakeholders to relate to and understand their needs.

(For Both) Involve Multiple Stakeholders: Customer Journey Mapping and Customer Personas are most impactful when applicable to your entire organization. So, ensure each department and key stakeholder has a voice in their development. Including diverse perspectives from marketing, sales, customer support, product development, and others will help ensure a comprehensive and accurate depiction of who your customers are and what they do.

(For Both) Socialize Your Results: Journey Maps and Personas are only effective when they are applied in real-world business scenarios. If held solely within the offices of leadership, the customer-facing team members will not benefit from all they have to offer. Sharing the Journey Maps and Personas across the organization also helps strengthen a customer-centric and data-driven culture while supporting brand consistency and internal goals alignment.

MY ADVICE:

Have some fun with these projects and get creative. These tools represent real people with real thoughts and emotions. If Journey Maps and Personas are too stuffy, mechanical, or dry, they will be lacking the human-centric elements that make them so powerful.

Consider bringing in your marketing or design teams to convert your data-driven framework into a visually dynamic deliverable. By creating a blend of analytics, narratives, and imagery, these documents will appeal to a wider audience and resonate with them on a deeper level.

HOW WE CAN HELP:

The most impactful Journey Maps and Customer Personas are built on a foundation of data-driven insights. This in itself requires a tactful and strategic approach to data acquisition and analysis. From there, the analytics need to be translated into actionable findings that align with your primary goals and objectives. Without prioritizing these steps upfront, the end results may not be as accurate, reliable, or useful as they could otherwise be.

For over 35 years, our team at MacKenzie has been empowering brands to capture, understand, and apply data-driven customer insights in pursuit of their brand development goals. From high-level strategic guidance to ground-level tactical support, we have the skills, experience, and creativity needed to produce actionable Journey Maps and Customer Personas.

YOUR TURN:

I’d love to see your comments and thoughts about building and applying Customer Journey Maps and Personas. Do you have any tips or suggestions for how to get started? How are you leveraging and benefiting these tools today? Did any questions or ideas pop up while you were reading?

By sharing your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions, we’ll foster a collaborative community where actionable insights are the foundation and collective success is the outcome.

Do you have a stat, fact, or trend you’d like me to write about?

Send me a message or share it in the comments. I’ll add it to my list of future newsletter topics!