An omni-channel customer experience is the foundation of today’s marketing strategies and is relevant if you want to deliver delightful experiences to your customers. Are your strategies aligned to deliver omni-channel customer experiences? Let’s find out.
As technology is advancing, it's getting more and more integrated into our daily lives. The line between our real lives and how we interact online has started to blur. With evolving consumer behaviours, businesses need to react on a real-time basis. Instead of providing an experience on a single platform, like a desktop, we need to pursue a holistic approach - an omni-channel experience that consumers can use at their convenience. In this article, we will go through what omni-channel experience means and how this approach can create profitable sales, marketing and service strategies for your business.
Omni-Channel Customer Experience - What Does it Mean?
An omni-channel experience is when a business or a brand is marketing, selling, and supporting prospects and customers across all channels to provide an integrated and cohesive experience at all touch points. Brands with an omni-channel approach enable customers to begin the experience with their brand on one platform and continue on another seamlessly. However, getting there requires the alignment of your sales, marketing and customer support strategies.
Omni-Channel Customer Experience - Why is it Important?
There are multiple reasons why an omni-channel customer experience is important. First, it allows customers to connect with your brand through multiple channels, including in-person, online, and mobile devices. This provides a more comprehensive and convenient experience for customers.
Additionally, an omni-channel customer experience can help to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction by providing a consistent experience across all channels. Finally, an omni-channel approach can also help you to better understand your customers' needs and preferences so that you can tailor your offerings accordingly. All of these factors together make an omni-channel customer experience essential for any business looking to stay ahead of the competition.
Further, it is important to differentiate an omni-channel experience from a multi-channel experience. In essence, it comes down to the depth of the integration between the channels and platforms your brand or business is on.
Omni-channel Customer Experience - Omni-Channel VS Multi-Channel
The difference between an omni-channel experience and a multi-channel experience is that omni-channel takes into account the entire customer journey, while multi-channel does not.
An omni-channel experience is one in which the customer has a consistent experience regardless of how they interact with the brand or business. This could include interacting with the company through their website, mobile app, social media, in person, or over the phone.
A multi-channel experience is one in which the customer has different experiences depending on how they interact with the brand or business. For example, they may have a different experience when they visit the company's website than when they use their mobile app.
Omni-channel experiences are becoming more and more important as customers expect a consistent experience regardless of how they interact with the brand. A multi-channel experience can be confusing and frustrating for customers, leading them to take their business elsewhere.
Omni-Channel Customer Experience - How to Build it?
The first step to creating an omni-channel customer experience is understanding what your customers want and need. You can do this by conducting customer surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Once you have a good understanding of your customers' preferences, you can start designing your omni-channel marketing strategy.
Some important factors to consider when designing your omni-channel strategy include:
- What channels do your customers use most often?
- What type of content do they prefer?
- What is the best way to reach them?
- What are their pain points?
- How can you make their journey as seamless as possible?
Once you have answers to these questions, you can start building out your omni-channel strategy. Some important elements of an omni-channel strategy include:
- A central customer database: This will allow you to track your customers' interactions across all channels and get a holistic view of their journey.
- An omni-channel contact centre: This will allow your customers to reach you through their preferred channel and provide them with a consistent experience.
- Omni-channel marketing campaigns: This will allow you to reach your customers where they are and deliver personalised messages.
- Omni-channel order management: This will allow you to manage orders placed through any channel, providing a seamless experience for your customers.
Building an omni-channel customer experience requires a lot of planning and effort, but it is worth it in the end. By providing your customers with a consistent, personalised experience across all channels, you will be able to build long-lasting relationships and increase customer loyalty.
Omni-Channel Experience - How to Improve it?
There's no doubt that the customer experience is paramount to the success of any business. In today's age of digital transformation, businesses must go above and beyond to create engaging and seamless customer experiences across all channels - from online to in-store. Even with a sound omni-channel experience in place, there's still room for improvement due to the evolving nature of the consumers. Some of the ways to improve it include -
- Understanding your customer better
- Follow top leaders (The likes of Disney, Amazon, Starbucks)
- Get the support you require
- Develop your mobile and tablet capabilities
- Conduct content analysis
- Improve response time
- Take your omni-channel experience and approach offline
- Revisit in-store customer experiences
- Choose your channels wisely
- Maintain consistency
Omni-channel Customer Experience – Examples
Philips
The #NewWay2Shave campaign by Philips was one of the most disruptive omni-channel marketing campaigns that created an instant buzz among the target audience. Young men are sensitive about their appearance, working hard to make an impression. Shaving cuts ruin their day and their skin. This insight drove the campaign and established affinity. The campaign had a 360-degree approach, integrated across traditional as well as experiential platforms, helping Philips garner exponential growth.
The campaign was executed end-to-end by Pulp Strategy.
Pepperfry
Pepperfry is one of the most popular home furnishing brands in India today. The vision behind the brand was to provide a delightful experience to its customers. Pepperfry is achieving this goal by combining its online store with an immersive in-person experience. Customers can pick and choose the product they like online, and then visit the nearby "Studio Pepperfry" to see the product in person. Once at the store, customers can take a tour of the studio along with a design consultant, who helps them find their ideal product and provide suggestions to ensure customers are happy and satisfied with their purchase. So far, Pepperfry has garnered immense customer trust, with numbers showing a 10-15% increment in sales from the studio stores.
Amazon
Amazon, the king of omni-channel experiences, provides its customers with an experience like no other retail brand. Prime members can access the benefits of the membership on any device or platform, the platform automatically syncs user carts when they sign in, and offers a support experience that provides customers with the option to select whatever method they are most comfortable with. All of these experiences increase customer trust and retention, making Amazon a leader in omni-channel marketing.
Spotify
Spotify is another great example of a brand providing an omni-channel experience to its customers, at a product level. Spotify is available on most platforms and devices and has very little variation in its actual user experience. It also syncs your music across platforms, making it easy for users to access their playlists and songs on all platforms. This seamless integration is one of the core reasons why Spotify is the most popular music streaming platform across the world.
To conclude, if you are looking to improve your brand awareness, create loyal customers, boost revenue, and have a lasting impact, you must prioritise an omni-channel marketing strategy. It might not provide an immediate impact, but over time, your consumers will notice the difference. So, how do you plan to leverage omni-channel customer experience and STAND OUT?
If you’re looking for an omni-channel experience for your brand, look no further than Pulp Strategy, one of the leading digital advertising agencies in India.
