Before we go there, let me ask you a few questions:
- Are consumed by all these multiple channels your customers use to reach you?
- Tired of the scattered data on each channel?
- Your care team is overwhelmed by the tons of repeated questions on each channel and unable to focus on critical customers’ issues?
- Wondering if there is a way that makes all these touchpoints into one place under your fingertips?
If your answer to all these questions is yes, then you definitely need to adopt omnichannel in your business.
In this article, I am going to explain the meaning of the term omnichannel, and how it can be beneficial to your business.
What is omnichannel?
Omni means combining form so omnichannel means combining all of the channels (online and offline), your customers use to contact you, in one place. It’s a seamless, unified, and consistent customer experience which is all that it takes to seal the deal for customer retention and satisfaction.
Now let’s take a look at a customer’s experience through omnichannel:
Jack has his own start-up, he is looking for reasonable prices to buy laptops and PCs for his employees. He visits an e-commerce website but has no time to go through all of these options.
Jack then is offered help by the virtual assistant through webchat. He asks about reasonable prices for laptops starting from $500 to $1800. Jack immediately receives automated answers with options of laptops to choose from.
He selected some of them to buy with the help of AI automation. But Jack needs to speak with a live agent so he is automatically sent to chat with one. The live agent could see on the dashboard all of Jack’s previous interactions with the virtual assistant, his info, the channel he is currently on and chatting from, and the transactions he made.
He is able to get all the answers needed from the live agent. Later, Jack receives a WhatsApp message with details of his transaction info and current status to follow up with the process.
After a few days, Jack receives his orders on time. Later that night, he receives an email with an invoice of his orders to complete the payment process. Along with a special offer for customers who buy products with more than $700.
Being so busy, Jack didn’t check his email so he received a friendly phone call from the company’s customer service team to remind him of the payment process.
What are the benefits of omnichannel?
#1 Promote Your Brand’s Image and Credibility.
Well, they say “A customer talking about their experience with you is worth ten times that which you write or say about yourself.”
This is actually very true to the core, if your customer’s experience while buying your products is smooth and effortless, then definitely they will recommend you to other people with no need from your side to speak about how awesome your brand is.
A satisfied customer is the best source of advertisement
But..if your customers’ experience is poor and painful, then you could say goodbye to your business..If you don’t appreciate your customers, someone else will.
Through omnichannel, you can provide your customers’ and potential leads with a seamless and consistent experience they will definitely remember, and make you stand out among your competitors because your customers’ satisfaction comes first. And it’s a deal breaker.
#2 Give your customers a variety of ways to reach you which are convenient for them.
Having a lot of channels to promote your products on makes it easy for your customers to reach you from anywhere they like with no need for a special app to install. They can use all of the most popular online channels (eg:, Facebook, Whatsapp, Website, video calls, etc) and offline channels (SMSs, Store, phone calls, etc) to communicate with you. But they need to be connected in one place so your customer service team doesn’t lose track of their customers’ inquiries and requests and that’s why omnichannel is not just multichannels promoting your products. It’s a unified experience.
#3 Gather your customers data in one place for better analysis.
The more accurate data you have about your customers, the better customer segmentation you can set which will help you create better campaign designs for your target audience, and dazzle them with your best offers and deals. And it will certainly help you improve your business to reach the highest revenue.
#4 Save costs and attain higher ROI
By adopting an omnichannel approach in your business, you won’t need to hire more people on each channel to answer customers’ questions, requests, and complaints which will save you money and effort. And with less money you spend and the high revenue you reach due to customers retention and satisfaction, the higher ROI you will perform.
With omnichannel, you can guarantee a smart, customer-centric, efficient, and seamless service for your audience which will skyrocket your business revenue.
