Peter Jobson
January 8, 2024
•
5
min read
You may have heard the term and wondered what the buzz is all about. Contrary to common belief, “omnichannel” means more than just using ‘every channel’. It could be Omnichannel routing for a call center, Omnichannel Engagement for better customer experience or Omnichannel messaging to improve your customer engagement.
Frost and Sullivan describes omnichannel as “seamless and effortless, high-quality customer experiences that occur within and between contact channels”.
In the not so distant past, businesses tried to be present on as many channels as possible, so that customers could reach them for sales and support. This includes:
Multichannel Retail: Department Stores released mail order catalogues as far back as the early 1800s – customers could buy in store, or through the mail.
Multichannel Finance: A bank has physical branches, ATMs, phone banking, online banking, mobile APP banking, and a call centre.
Multichannel Communications: Businesses that previously relied on email and phone for enquiries started talking to customers on Facebook, SMS and more.
Each industry has different channels they prioritize, depending on their needs. While being available to customers in their preferred mode of communication is helpful, there are also downsides to multichannel:
Omnichannel is an approach that puts the customer first, for an immersive brand experience on every channel. As such, there are three key elements to omnichannel:
Omnichannel communications means putting the customer first to provide hyper personalized experiences – where you can have one conversation with your customer across channels instead of starting again every time.
Converting your business to omnichannel requires the right technology solution – otherwise, you may create a disconnected experience.
Consider this checklist before embarking on your omnichannel strategy:
Learn more about how CINNOX can make your business the next omnichannel success story!