What is omnichannel? A CX Network guide

How omnichannel improves brand CX and the channels businesses can deploy to delight customers

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CX Network
CX Network
03/28/2023

what is omnichannel cx

In today’s world most customers demand a channel rich environment. Brands that deliver on this are rewarded, with Aberdeen Strategy and Research finding that organizations with “extremely strong” omnichannel customer engagement retain on average 89 percent of their customers, compared to 33 percent for those with weaker omnichannel customer engagement.

With various customer segments having preferences for the channels they do business on and preferring certain channels for certain tasks, it is critical that businesses make themselves available wherever their customers are. CX Network research has revealed that 64 percent of businesses have noted that customers primarily use digital channels for resolving their issues, meaning a large customer segment may become frustrated if this is not possible.

CX Network's guide to omnichannel covers the traditional and emerging contact channels businesses must offer, offers examples of great omnichannel CX in action and explains where you can find further resources on this important topic. 

Contents:

The definition of omnichannel

Omnichannel customer experiences must not be confused with multichannel experiences, which can seem similar. A multichannel customer experience simply means that a brand or organization has a presence across multiple channels, while omnichannel is the seamless, connected experience of the brand between those channels.

Research by CX Network has shown that most businesses recognize this difference and have made efforts to progress from a multichannel model of customer service to an omnichannel model. Brands that do not recognize the demand for omnichannel experiences, however, risk surrendering entire customer segments to competitors that do recognize the demand.

Traditional customer contact channels

Traditionally, the only means that customers had to raise grievances or provide feedback with brands and organizations was to write a letter or visit a physical branch. This was followed with phone and email channels, and customers were spoiled with the option of instantly contacting a business from the comfort of their own homes.

As brands started to make themselves available across all of these channels, the multichannel model was born. Such a model has issues, however. Many of us are familiar with the frustration of moving from email to phone channels and having to repeat the information already shared.

As technology became more sophisticated, organizations were able to deploy tools to connect and intelligently transfer between this growing portfolio of channels, for example by forwarding email chains to customer agents who are speaking with that customer.

Today we have a plethora of digital channels, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic and the disruption it caused with regard to physical CX. An ecommerce business, for example, may offer the following channel mix:

  • Phone
  • Website 
  • Email
  • Web chat
  • Virtual agent/chatbot
  • Social media
  • Third-party messaging apps 

Many brands use these channels to collect customer data at every touchpoint, often building customer profiles that gather all customer information in one place. In this way brands become truly omnichannel, as information from these centralized customer profiles is shared across all channels, ensuring experiences are connected regardless of where they occur.

Channels to include in an omnichannel strategy

While most brands are likely available on traditional channels such as phone and email there are a range of digital channels available that offer significant advantages when deployed and are becoming more widely expected by customers.

Driving empathy with video support channels

There has been an 47 percent increase in the number of brands offering customer support through video channels since 2020. The rise of the video support channel represents a demand for a human touch in customer interactions in a world that has become increasingly digital since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jan Richards, CX Network advisory board member and head of customer experience for Irish Life Group, says:

“We increasingly need an emotional connection. This is about showing you understand your customer and care about them. The human touch, in person or online, is crucial, as is trust. Years of overselling and data breaches mean it is harder for companies to earn this trust.”

Video support offers brands an opportunity to create more personalized and friendly customer interactions. By adding a face to your customer communications brands can remove that impersonal feeling and make customer interactions feel more like a normal conversation. This makes video support particularly useful for technical installations, complex purchases and even luxury retail.

Use of video also enables customer agents to pick up on visual cues, such as expression, and to respond appropriately if they feel a customer is becoming angry or frustrated.

The rise of mcommerce

With researchers suggesting that 43 percent of ecommerce transactions will take place through a mobile device in 2023, there is no doubt that the channel is becoming increasingly popular and brands that are serious about delivering an omnichannel experience will need a strong mobile presence. Mobile applications specifically are becoming incredibly popular, with 60 percent of customers stating a preference for mobile apps over websites.

Mobile apps have serious advantages over traditional channels, as they can facilitate personalized interactions, enable messaging that bypasses email marketing and offer an endless source of customer data. Not to mention the fact that brands that do not offer a mobile app may be excluding more than half of their customer base.

Many brands already offer incredibly successful mobile apps and, as such, customers will be comparing the experiences you offer with the best experiences they have had with brands. According to Michele Carlson, senior product marketing manager at NICE, this demonstrates the need for brands to deliver on the demands of their customers.

“Technology advancements enable consumers to interact with more brands and more channels than ever before. With more interactions, brands must manage the increasing opportunity for comparisons and higher expectations. The increasing emphasis to meet customer needs on digital channels is rapidly shifting their expectations and, therefore, businesses’ priorities,” she says.

Let customers self-serve with chatbots and live agents

Gartner has predicted that by 2027, chatbots will become the primary method for customer communication for roughly a quarter of all organizations. While the human touch is important to many customers, there are large customer segments, particularly among younger generations, which would much rather have convenience, further demonstrating the importance of being available on all channels.

Not only do chatbots and live chat agents offer customers convenience in that they can provide instant assistance at any time, they also free up time for customer contact agents by handling the simple, rote customer queries for them. In instances where an agent is required, chatbots can handover, transferring the necessary information regarding the customer query.

Kanishk Mehta, product leader of the conversational AI practice at Quantiphi says: “These virtual agents have the ability to perform a contextual handover to a live agent and guide the agent to serve the customer better. As they learn over time and they dramatically improve call containment rates.”

Social media gives brands a chance to get creative

Research has found that half of the customers who have a bad experience with a brand will complain about it on social media and 81 percent of those will not recommend the brand if they receive no reply. This demonstrates the importance of being available on social media and listening to customers who choose to air their frustrations through social media channels.

It has been shown that 64 percent of customers would rather message a brand through social media than call, again demonstrating how easy it can be to exclude large segments of customers simply by failing to be available on a certain channel. There is evidence that brands recognize the importance of social media, however, with 59 percent of businesses stating that they respond to Tweets within 15 minutes.

Offering customer support through social media does not just benefit the customer but can also positively impact a business’s bottom line. The cost of resolving an issue through social media is estimated to be just one dollar, one sixth of the cost of handling the same issue through a contact center.

Real-life examples of omnichannel CX

Sephora’s mobile app 

International beauty retailer Sephora offers us an example of a brand that has taken its mobile app to the next level and designed it with the goal of delighting customers. Sephora had observed that customers would often use their smartphones in-store to pull up external recommendations, reviews or better prices on the items they were shopping for.

The brand decided to remove the middleman and deliver these services directly to their customers though the Sephora mobile app. The app has been designed to emulate the knowledge of a personal shopping assistant or sales associate which provides the recommendations and reviews in a single platform to make shopping easier as well as fun.

According to Sephora, this approach has not only encouraged more spending from customers but has allowed them to build an incredibly loyal customer base. Sephora now has a digital customer base that is so engaged that its Apple Passbook users spend twice as much annually and purchase twice as often as the average Sephora customer.

William Hill's chatbot assistance

International gambling company William Hill is no stranger to huge spikes in customer demand during events like the FIFA World Cup. From an initial FAQ bot that was capable of responding to basic customer queries, William Hill’s chatbot offering has progressed significantly since then with regard to its capabilities.

The William Hill chatbot now has the ability to leverage customer data and personalize conversations and liaises with other bots to automatically solve queries about checking payment methods. William Hill head of self-service Chris Coyle says that the chatbot allows them to reach out quickly to those customers that need assistance most.

“It can be a very serious situation if somebody has done something they should not have done in terms of losing money or spending money they don’t have. We need to be very articulate in terms of how we spot that,” he says.

“We have seen chatbots in the past with dead ends and a lot of chatbots in other sectors and markets that make finding a person for support extremely difficult. It is understandable that the volume of customers can impact this, but our bot is very much geared to get a person to that customer straight away,” he adds.

The channel has been extremely successful for William Hill, generating significant cost savings and prompting the brand to move away from traditional email and voice communications in a drive to become truly message-based.

Where to learn more about omnichannel

Reports and guides

Articles


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