The more technology advances, the more it's integrated into our daily lives and the lines between what we do online and in real life have begun to blur. As people change their behaviors, marketers, salespeople, and customer support reps will need to react.
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With an omni-channel retail, marketing, or service strategy in place, you’ll be reaching your customers where they are and in more places.
They no longer have to search and search to find you because, regardless of the channel they’re on, your team or your products are only a click, an email, a direct message, or a phone call away.
Plus, when you’re on more channels, opportunities for exposure and building brand awareness with new audiences is even higher.
Omni-channel lets customers interact with your company across multiple different channels, but still have the same consistent experience. It also allows them to choose their favorite channel for getting service so they don’t have to, say, get off Instagram and pick up the phone. They can just find your business profile and send you a DM — a seamless experience within one single app.
A frictionless process leaves customers more satisfied, and satisfied customers are more likely to become loyal customers.
Your customers will be happier in the long term if they feel they have several methods to reach your customer service and sales teams, or if they can purchase your product easily regardless of their device or preferred platform.
For example, the number of consumers shopping on social media has grown significantly in the past few years, and, in turn, so has the number of social media users who have sent a DM for customer service (27% increase between 2022 and 2023, to be exact).
Customer satisfaction is the key to reducing customer churn and keeping them returning to you for their needs, and satisfied customers become loyal customers.
Customers want fast service. They expect quick resolutions, but service teams sometimes struggle to provide it.
An omnichannel customer service solution is the fix to this problem. You have the chance to meet customers where they are, exactly when they’re looking for support, lowering your average time to resolution and setting customers up for success.
If you have dedicated reps for each of the channels you offer, you’re lowering resolution time even more because there is someone ready to help as soon as a customer reaches out.
You can also deploy self-serve knowledge bases and AI-powered chatbots to help customers solve common issues on their own. This reduces agent strain and operational costs and simultaneously improves customer satisfaction.
If and when your prospects are ready to buy, they’ll find it much easier to make a purchase if they can find your product on multiple platforms and channels. Offering a multi-channel retail experience also ensures it’s easier for them to purchase from you again or renew their subscriptions, securing recurring revenue.
As you can see, creating an omni-channel experience for your customers is critical for your business's success. That said, what is the omni-channel experience?
The omni-channel experience is marketing, selling, and serving customers on all channels to create an integrated and cohesive customer experience no matter how or where a customer reaches out. The experience should be the same for customers regardless of the platform or method they choose to use.
Your customers can shop online from a desktop or mobile device, by telephone, or in a brick and mortar store and the experience should be equally seamless.
It's important here to distinguish an omni-channel experience from a multi-channel experience. Essentially, it comes down to the depth of the integration between the channels and platforms your business is on.
In a multi-channel environment, a user has access to a variety of communication options that aren’t necessarily synchronized or connected. However, during an omni-channel experience, there are not only multiple channels, but the channels are connected so you can move between them seamlessly.
The difference between omni-channel and multi-channel experiences comes down to two distinctions:
The multi-channel experience is what most businesses invest in today. They’ll have a website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter and use each platform to engage 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 accounts for each platform and device a customer will use to interact with the company — and also creates an equally efficient and positive experience across all platforms.
Creating an omni-channel experience is especially important in retail because whether or not you have an omni-channel retail strategy can determine how much you sell.
Omni-channel marketing is a method where businesses promote their products and services across all channels, devices, and platforms using unified messaging, cohesive visuals, and consistent collateral. Omni-channel marketing ensures you reach customers where they are with a relevant and on-brand offer.
By uniting the strengths of each communication channel, marketing teams can use omni-channel marketing to deliver a more effective brand message. They can also reach target buyers at the right time, increasing the chances of converting them into a lead.
Omni-channel marketing uses the customers' perspectives and interests to optimize the consistency of the company's marketing messages. For instance, on Instagram and Facebook, you might only target users with a certain interest and create collateral that appeals to them specifically.
Omni-channel marketing shouldn’t be done on a whim, though. I recommend creating an organized omni-channel marketing strategy to ensure you always deliver the right content to your prospective buyers at just the right time.
Below I’ll go over how you can start implementing your own omni-channel experience and highlight examples from brands that are already making moves to offer these experiences.
An omni-channel marketing strategy is consistent messaging, visuals, and positioning statements across all channels, platforms, and devices. It's a seamless brand experience for customers and ensures that your brand is presented the same way from platform to platform.
Keep in mind that omni-channel marketing campaigns positively impact your sales and service departments, too. You’re showing customers that you’re on all of the channels and platforms they’re on, so they’ll know to expect a similar experience whether they’re shopping or getting support.
Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.
