Why you should provide an Omnichannel Customer Experience

If your business has a digital presence, you would most probably know that your potential customers come from various sources like the physical store, site or app. Since today’s customers are present everywhere, you should also be available everywhere. While being available on all channels is important, something much more important is to provide the same level of service across all the platforms. Hence, comes the need for an omnichannel approach.

What is an omnichannel customer experience?

An omnichannel approach can be described as a process where businesses unify all their channels to ensure that they work together to provide a seamless experience across all channels. Businesses can use this approach to streamline various departments including marketing, sales and customer support. When it comes to customer support, an omnichannel approach means unifying your customer service channels like chat, SMS, social media, WhatsApp, etc. The idea here is to ensure that you have a coherent brand image across all the platforms. By providing an omnichannel customer service, you can enhance the experience of both potential and existing customers.

How to provide an omnichannel customer experience? As mentioned earlier, customers use different channels to reach your business. To engage with all the customers efficiently, it is important to unify all customer data. Creating a centralized hub that contains all the customer data is the most important step in omnichannel customer service. Businesses can use a CRM to centralize customer information from various sources like call, mail or social media. By doing so, the business will be able to quickly understand customer needs and cater excellent support to them.

The next step is to listen to customers. Superior customer experiences can only be crafted through personalized services, which can only be done by listening to the customers. Businesses do not have to actively acquire information but just efficiently extract them from all the departments that interact with the customers or potential leads. The sales and marketing teams are a great example as they might receive customer feedback. To provide a seamless customer experience, it is important to understand the enormous potential of every available channel. By creating an ecosystem where all teams and channels complement and work with each other, businesses can reap immense benefits.

An informed customer is a happy customer. However, not all customers would wish to reach out for help. Some would prefer to resolve their queries themselves. Therefore, self-help materials like tutorials, FAQs and guides need to be created. By populating all channels with self-help material, the business will increase customer satisfaction. It is important to note that the material need not be in the same format across all the channels. You can use a range of materials including site FAQs, YouTube tutorials, WhatsApp FAQs, chat helpdesk, etc.

What are the benefits of omnichannel customer experience?

It is estimated that businesses that use an omnichannel approach achieve 90% higher customer retention than those who don’t. This is simply because the omnichannel approach adds several benefits to a business. The following points showcase the benefits of providing omnichannel customer experience.

Personalized Service

It is no secret that customers value a personalized service. Since today’s customers reach via different channels, it is hard to continue a conversation when they switch channels. With an omnichannel approach, businesses can streamline customer information and provide personalized customer service across different platforms.

Convenience

While some customers prefer social media, some prefer WhatsApp. Therefore, it is important for businesses to have the same level of service across all the platforms. With an omnichannel approach, customers can conveniently reach the business through their preferred channel and rest assured that they will get the best support.

Increase Conversion & Retention

All potential leads are not instant customers. Sometimes, potential customers might back off without making a purchase. This is especially true when they feel that they are not valued. With an omnichannel approach, businesses will be able to engage with all customers instantly and earn their trust. Businesses will also have an easier time re-targeting existing customers and make them feel valued and respected. These factors have a huge impact on both customer conversion and retention.

Cross-platform Capabilities

In this digital age, your business needs to be mobile-friendly. Since the premise of omnichannel is streamlining multiple channels, it has huge cross-platform capabilities. For instance, businesses can ensure that customers get superior customer service across various mobile-friendly applications. This is a superior benefit that could boost your sales.

After looking at the benefits of an omnichannel approach, it is evident that businesses can grow much faster by providing an omnichannel customer experience. We hope that this article has provided an overview of the omnichannel approach and help you grow your business in this digital world.