What's Omni-Channel and Why is it important?

Recently I had someone ask me if I could help with defining what Omni-Channel is, what are the different ways in which a customers can contact a company and how does a customer benefit from having different ways to get in touch with a company. I thought it would be good to share my answer with everyone, as this might also be an important question you've asked yourself in the past.

Twenty years ago, customers primarily communicated with brands through just two channels; phone and mail. Today, consumers don’t think twice about using a combination of channels for communication, including sending an email, SMS messaging, phone calls, chat and social media.

87 percent of today’s customers wish organizations would work harder to provide a pleasant customer experience. An additional 35 percent expect to be able to communicate with the same customer service representative on multiple channels, such as phone, email, and chat messages. Companies who offer omni-channel customer service even experience 91 percent higher customer retention than their competitors.

Providing multiple avenues for seamless customer communications, or omni-channel communications, is not only convenient for your customers, but it’s a highly effective tactic for enterprise organizations as well.

What is Omni-Channel?

An Omni-channel experience is a multi-channel approach to marketing, selling, and serving customers in a way that creates an integrated and cohesive customer experience no matter how or where a customer reaches out.

An omni-channel approach means there's integration between distribution, promotion and communication channels on the back end.

For example, a customer service representative interacting with a customer in a store can immediately reference the customer's previous purchases and preferences as easily as a customer service rep on the phone or a customer service webchat rep. Or the customer can use a desktop computer to check inventory by store on the company's website, buy the item later with a smartphone or tablet, and pick it up at a chosen location.

So, at its core, omni-channel is defined as a multi-channel sales approach that provides the customer with an integrated customer experience. The customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, or by telephone, or in a bricks and mortar store and the experience would be seamless.

Is Multi-Channel the same as Omni-Channel?

It's important here to distinguish an omni-channel experience from a multi-channel experience. All omni-channel experiences will use multiple channels, but not all multi-channel experiences are omni-channel.

Remember that. Essentially, it comes down to the depth of the integration. You can have amazing mobile marketing, engaging social media campaigns, and a well-designed website. But if they don't work together, it's not omni-channel.

The multi-channel experience is what most businesses invest in today.

They have a website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter. They use each of these platforms to engage and connect with customers. However, in most cases, the customer still lacks a seamless experience and consistent messaging across each of these channels.

An omni-channel experience, on the other hand, accounts for each platform and device a customer will use to interact with the company. That knowledge is then used to deliver them an integrated experience. Companies using this technique align their messaging, goals, objectives, and design across each channel and device.

By aligning these factors together, companies can use these related channels to enhance their marketing and service efforts. Omni-channel marketing can be a valuable asset for businesses that are looking to deliver a better customer experience.

A related omni-channel strain is omni-channel marketing -- delivering personalized brand messaging across diverse channels -- from email campaigns to social media to TV ads. A challenge for companies is figuring out which channels their customers use. Another is delivering a consistent experience across those channels.

Is Omni-Channel Important?

Yes. Globally, enterprise organizations are starting to realize the value of omni-channel communications with their customers. From a customer experience (CX) perspective, this approach simply makes sense for what customers want from brands:

• 83% of customers head to the web first for information, such as self-service information portals on a brand website.
• 52% of customers may be less likely to engage with a brand after a bad experience on one channel, such as a mobile website.
• 62% of customers believe that the quality of customer service they receive over the phone from customer service representatives (CSRs) is a competitive differentiator.

An omni-channel retail strategy improves the customer experience and provides more channels for customer purchase––whether it is on mobile, web, or in stores. The availability of multiple purchasing channels leads to an increase in sales and traffic. In fact, omni-channel customers spend 15 to 30% more than single or multi-channel customers. A joint study by Google, Ipsos MediaCT, and Sterling Brands also found that 75% of consumers are more likely to visit a store if they come across local retail information on the web. By leveraging multiple channels, omni-channel retail not only increases revenue from online retail, but also drives significant traffic to stores, further increasing revenue. 

Increasingly, consumers are toggling between online and offline to research and buy products and services. In a 2016 study, Deloitte found that digital experiences influence 56 cents of every dollar spent in physical stores. Omni-Channel removes the boundaries between different sales and marketing channels to create a unified, integrated whole. This means customers can purchase wherever they are—rather than treating channels as independent silos, omni-channel accounts for the spillover between channels and offers customer experiences within and between channels.

Conclusion

Omni-Channel can greatly help your business customer experience. Today, consumers don’t think twice about using a combination of channels for communication, including sending an email, SMS messaging, phone calls, chat and social media.

The key to a seamless omni-channel experience in many retail industries is a modern supply chain - one that extends delivery across mobile apps, websites, social media and stores. To get there, companies must break down silos between online and physical stores, and manage product responsibilities as one collective marketplace. They also need new technologies, including inventory management systems, and new ways of delivering products.

If you're not in the retail industry and your company offers other services, you can also take advantage of Omni-Channel. The key to a seamless experience here is bringing an unified experience, messaging and branding through all the different channels you have available, and most importantly, making sure that the contact data and client history is available everywhere, independent of the channel the customer is using to get in touch with your company.

If you're interested in improving your customer experience by implementing an Omni-Channel strategy, we can help you. Add me if you don't have me already in your contacts and send me a message.