Omnichannel Strategy, What does it really mean?

From print ads to online and in-store shopping to social media marketing, the question that still lingers, “Are businesses able to create an effectively seamless, consistent and “undisrupted” experience for customers ?”

As more businesses lean towards the use of a multi-channel approach to engaging with customers, consumer demand is growing for a service that is able to seamlessly cover all channels, from physical to digital, in the US alone, over 213 million adults access the internet with an average of 4 different devices. Customers are more connected, empowered, and have more control over the buying process than ever before.

Understanding the Customer Journey

Long gone are the days where the Customer Journey followed a linear direct path to purchase, what used to be illustrated by the traditional “Marketing Funnel”; Awareness, Consideration, Evaluation, and ended with the decision to Purchase, is now a journey that spans days, times, locations, and channels, switching from digital channels such mobile, social media, blogs, and websites to storefronts, magazines, newspapers or billboards.

Today’s customer’s journey cycles through the stages, customers enter and exit relationships with businesses at much less predictable points going backward as well as forward in their journey, or circling back to previous providers and choices. Customers are frequently checking out other options online while in physical stores; more than a fourth of customers who search for information in-store end up buying in a different channel.

Businesses, on the other hand, are able to leverage new technologies to develop personalized marketing strategies, and to deliver a superior customer experience that educates and engages the customer, but how can this be done?

Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing focuses on creating a seamless customer experience across all channels of engagement with customers. Integrating the in-person or physical customer interaction such as in-store experience, printed ads face to face interactions at events or with salespeople, with digital interactions such as websites, social media, mobile, or self-serving platforms. Omnichannel marketing integrates those channels into a holistic approach that unifies every touchpoint the customer has with the business. Or as in the words of John Bowden, Senior VP of Customer Care at Time Warner Cable

“Omni-channel anticipates that customers may start in one channel and move to another as they progress to a resolution. Making these complex ‘hand-offs’ between channels must be fluid for the customer”

But what does that mean for businesses?

To be able to understand what that means on the operations side of the business, let’s explore an in-depth example of how the customer journey works in an omnichannel approach.

Let’s assume that while scrolling through your Instagram stories, you see a promoted story post for one of the well-known electronics stores, featuring a sale on selected items, from the ad, you click on the link that takes you to the store’s website to view the items on Sale.

After viewing the website, you decided to purchase a new gaming console that is on sale, you engage with the Digital Agent or Chatbot sitting on the website to ask questions about the features of the console which the AI-powered Chatbot is able to answer you in free text method, from there you are able to add the console to your cart and check out online using the same chatbot you were engaged with, securely providing your payment information, while you do, the chatbot asks about the delivery method, one of which is in-store pick that is available this evening instead of waiting for three-day delivery. You also ask the intelligent agent about the availability of the item in the store near you, so that chatbot connects to the store inventory system and verifies the availability of the console with the color, storage size that you requested. Excited about your new console, you ask the chatbot for in-store pickup!

You walk into the nearby store where you can find a clearly labeled area for online order pickup, providing your order number and promptly receiving your brand new console. You return home to connect your console while receiving guidance and support from the store’s Automated Support agent (chatbot) via text messages on your mobile phone.

Of the channels used here (social media, the store’s website, automated intelligent Chatbots, SMS, and the bricks-and-mortar store) the entire customer journey was uninterrupted. This is a simple example of how an omnichannel approach would look like from a customer point of view.

To be able to execute this, every business is supposed to invest into developing its own omnichannel strategy that offers its customers the best user’s experience. Understanding the business’s goals and initiatives, and aligning them with the efforts of the different teams, from products, marketing, sales to customer support and customer success. Integrating, of course, the right tools and technologies that will automate and optimize the process for a seamless customer handoff among the different stages of the journey.

Harnessing the power of Context

A no brainer for marketers that still can be easily overlooked is Context. Focusing on context within an omnichannel strategy allows marketers to takes into account the customer preferences, history, devices, platforms used, in the right place, and at the right time to deliver the right content or experience to the right person, making all the difference for a business moving a prospect along the stages of the journey to losing her for competition.

Closing Thoughts

In a 2015 KPMG 2015 Global Consumer Executive Top of Mind Survey, Jeanne Johnson, Head of omnichannel at KPMG, explained how, traditionally, company departments and processes were siloed, limiting their ability to manage and efficiently integrate new sales, promotion or distribution channels. This linear business model has been disrupted as the digital world has consumers “coming at manufacturers and retailers from all directions — and not just through their own channels or in a predictable order.”

Technology advances can quickly disrupt what a business has worked hard to establish. Companies like botique.ai are providing businesses with tools that are able to automate end-to-end customer interactions using conversational AI, while integrating with backend systems to facilitate the customer’s journey from the very first stage of recommending content, answering questions, providing quotes, to sales, and providing customer support. Providing a seamless conversational omnichannel approach that makes it easy for any business to harness the power of AI within its omnichannel strategy.