5 Brands That Are Doing Omnichannel CX Right
At its essence, omnichannel is known as an approach which offers customers an integrated customer experience. The customers, irrespective of which mode they interact with the business in — website, mobile app, voice call, or even the physical store get a seamless experience when an omnichannel practice is operative.
Even though omnichannel is the talk of the town across industries, it is still a very new concept, meaning there is still time for it to expand in the future. But for a business which is heavily user experience focused, you cannot really afford to wait for the customer experience practice to fully develop before you incorporate it into your processes.
The world’s leading organizations have already started incorporating omnichannel to its fullest.
Here are the working omnichannel experience examples you can take inspiration from.
Disney
Disney is the one brand that has gotten its omnichannel experience perfect, right till the smallest details. It all starts at the well designed mobile responsive website, where in you can book your dream Disney trip.
Once the trip is booked, you can use My Disney Experience tool for planning the complete trip — from finalizing the dining place to getting your hands on the Fast Pass. Inside the park, you only have to use the mobile app for locating the attractions you wish to visit along with the details of the estimated wait time for each.
And if this was not enough, the entertainment giant gives you a Magic Band program. The tool acts as your hotel room key, a photo storage device for storing your trip’s photos and an integration with Fast Pass to keep the vacation moving.
Starbucks
Starbucks, more often than not, is coined to be omnichannel leader. The coffee brand is seen to have made its presence across the globe after every second and third turn, you know why? Because of their well thought of omnichannel strategy.
It does a great job at offering seamless user experience. Every time a user pays at Starbucks with a Starbucks card or mobile or even their physical card, they get to accumulate reward points. The linked application also allows the coffee drinkers to locate stores near them, send gift cards to their acquaintances, order drinks before reaching the store, get access to the new menu additions, and now with Spotify integration, they can even view the songs that are playing in the specific store and add them in their playlist.
The app’s effortlessness highlights the perfect application of omni-channel experience. Misia Tramp, Tahzoo’s EVP of Insights and Innovations does an amazing job at explaining this, “omnichannel involves using data to understand where effort exists in the customer experience and how to remove — rather than add — effort.”
Neiman Marcus
Identity lies at the center of personalization, businesses that don’t get that right, do not talk to the customer’s entirety.
The mantra has bagged Neiman Marcus an award for the 2017 IRT Retailer Innovation Award in Customer Engagement and a place in our list of best omnichannel examples.
Neiman’s marketing team focuses on removing the barriers which separates how their customers interact with the brand via multiple channels. They work on providing a “white glove” experience on every touchpoint. For doing this, the digital channels are made smarter every time a customer interaction happens.
Here’s an example. When a customer regularly looks for 8 or 9 size shoes, the website remembers. So the next time they visit the website, they are shown items in their size, which are available in the brick and mortar store. The website also makes use of the geolocation for including information on the local events happening around the customer or of the new arrivals for the brands the customer showed an interest in. All of this is then incorporated in email marketing and direct mail campaigns.
The brand also closely looks into the web analytics like page views, clicks, and the time spent on every page in order to make inferences about users preference and behaviour.
The Neiman Marcus stores are also the examples of tech done right in retail. They have a Memory Mirror mounted in their stores which enables the users to record a 360 degree video of them trying on clothes in the store, which they then save in the mobile app to take a look later or when they are prepared to make the purchase in-store or online.
They also have a “Snap. Find. Shop.” application which enables customers to take photos of their handbags or shoes which they like. The photos are then run against their database with the help of smart image recognition. If there is something similar in store, it notifies the customers.
Nike
Antonia Hock, Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center’s Global Head said, “Right now, Nike is leading in the retail market by stitching together their app environment to connect seamlessly with the store technology environment — while rewarding loyalty through their NikePlus members through both platforms,” She then continued, “For example, as a NikePlus member, when I open my app in proximity to the Nike Store in NYC, I automatically get updates about the store layout to make my shopping experience easier, and I get prompted to ‘unlock’ specific experiences for the store and the geography. I can scan barcodes in store and order my sizes to be delivered to the fitting room.”
Hock says that the omnichannel customer experience is exactly as seamless when the customers are not in the stores. Nike app continues to personalize the experience through passing product selection on the basis of customers’ interest, which unlocking experience which links to customers’ location and choices.
Timberland
Timberland incorporates a highly connective customer experience in all of its brick-and-mortar branches with the help of near-field communication technology. NFC enables their users to tap on their mobile devices against a chip that wirelessly transfers information between two devices.
Instead of using it for ecommerce, Timberland uses it in-store by giving shoppers a tablet which can be pressed against the signage and products throughout its different locations. The moment the tablet is pressed against the chip, information about the product gets displayed on the tablet. This way, customers don’t have to look for store clerks for information and can see the deals which are offered with each product.
As the customers look at different items, the personalization software starts giving them product recommendations on the basis of browsing history. This, on one hand, creates an individualized experience, and on the other, highlights products which might not be very popular.
