Although you may have heard of the term ‘omnichannel’, you may not be sure of how this approach could benefit your business.
Omnichannel is a cross-channel approach to sales and marketing. It seeks to provide the customer with a seamless experience regardless of how, when and where they access your business, both digitally and physically. Where this differs from multichannel is that omnichannel offers true integration between all the channels so, for example, a member of in-store staff could access a customer’s previous purchase history and preferences as quickly as a member of team on the live webchat service.
The ‘always on’ culture controlled by consumer demand is a clear driving force behind the growth of omnichannel. This model appreciates the value that a customer receives from the ability to be in constant and consistent contact with a company through various avenues at the same time.
Alongside providing your customers with great customer service and a smooth journey to purchase, omnichannel offers great opportunities for businesses to drive long-term customer engagement to boost sales and profits.
How can your business make the most of omnichannel?
Think of your business as a complete enterprise
The number one tip that will ensure you’re ready to make a success of an omnichannel approach is to view your business as a complete enterprise rather than various segments of online and offline channels. If you view your business as disconnected parts then omnichannel isn’t going to benefit you. Changing your thinking is the first step to develop your business into an integrated solution rather than separate sections with individual sets of inventory, activities, workloads and customers.
Anticipate the challenges (and opportunities!)
With a vast amount of data to manage, adopting an omnichannel approach is unlikely to come without its challenges. It is important to be clear about which communication mediums will fit within your strategy and offer the most support to your customers. However, this is not the only challenge to anticipate. Implementing omnichannel within your existing IT infrastructure can require significant time and resources to do correctly. To make the most of omnichannel, it’s important to consider the full range of potential issues and opportunities you could face to develop a full picture of how you will adopt omnichannel, rather than focusing on one single element.
Adopt a centralised platform
In order to develop an effective and efficient omnichannel model, you could adopt a platform that centralises all your popular platforms in one integrated hub. There are a number of Communications-Platform-as-a-Service models that can help you to overcome that challenges of implementing omnichannel within your existing IT system. A centralised platform can provide you will the tools and support you need to understand how, when and where your customers are engaging with your business and a detailed view of the entire customer journey.
The devil is in the data
Although an omnichannel approach can take a lot of work to set up, you will begin reaping the benefits as soon as you start using the data at your hands. Consumer expectations are sky high in the digital age and if you’re not providing excellent, personalised customer service and a seamless customer journey then you’re missing out on crucial opportunities to convert one-time buyers into brand loyal customers. It will be essential to use the data gathered through the omnichannel approach to cater to your customers’ individual histories, needs and preferences.
Set your brand apart by targeting every interaction and you’ll see return on investment through better customer retention, improved sales figures and accelerated business growth.