The significance of omnichannel CX in business

Businesses are in a constant struggle to evolve with digital transformation so that they can identify customer needs and expectations accurately. This is because consumer requirements are constantly shifting and are becoming a key determinant in the decision-making process.

Setting up a successful omnichannel consumer experience (CX) strategy helps businesses gain valuable and accurate insights into consumer behavior and interactions.

What is an omnichannel experience?

An omnichannel experience can be defined as a user experience that is strategically planned to extend across all channels, devices, timeframes, and modalities. It incorporates a consistent and seamless brand value, messaging, tone of voice, design, and customer service.

Alternatively, when a customer gets the same kind of experience from a company regardless of the medium or channel used, whether you communicate with them online, in a store, over the phone, or any other channel, it can be described as a truly omnichannel experience. It is almost as if you are dealing with the same person who is taking care of all your needs in a holistic manner while you sit back and relax.

Why build an omnichannel CX?

The first thing businesses must understand about creating a true omnichannel CX is the significance of consumer journeys over devices and channels. This is because the by-product of a well-designed omnichannel platform is an excellent customer experience. Businesses should consider switching to an omnichannel CX platform when they want:

Deeper insights into the consumer journey

To get a bird’s-eye view of a consumer’s journey, an omnichannel CX strategy is highly effective. It brings together all the customer interactions in one platform, giving a comprehensive overview as well as a deeper insight into how the business can improve.

Higher customer retention

Through an omnichannel CX, consumers have the option to engage with the business through their preferred channels all the while experiencing a frictionless transition throughout the interaction. This positive customer experience and higher customer satisfaction lead to effective consumer retention.

Increased Consumer Lifetime Value (CLTV)

A company that strives to provide a consistent service and experience to its customers commits to working with them lifelong. As a result, these omnichannel customers are the most beneficial for the business. Due to the streamlined communication and approachable point of contact in an omnichannel CX strategy, consumers prefer to return time and again eventually becoming loyal customers to the brand and increasing the CLTV.

Better employee experiences

Working with a robust, flexible, and efficient system empowers employees with a positive experience at work. Hence, retaining talent is significantly easier and so is keeping them motivated and engaged, eventually ensuring a richer contribution to the business.

The benefits of an omnichannel CX

There are several advantages to switching to an omnichannel CX platform:

1. Rising consumer loyalty – Consumer loyalty arises from delivering high-quality service both before and after sales. Studying and analyzing consumer data and reaching out to customers with relevant offers are effective ways of demonstrating an understanding of the customers’ requirements no matter how personalized or complex they are.
2. Improvement in sales – Implementing several entry points improves the likelihood of customers selecting a particular brand. Therefore, an omnichannel strategy can help give sales a boost.
3. Superior customer service – Omnichannel consumer support and CX go hand in hand. Having multiple channels active can often make it difficult for the contact center representatives to keep up with all interactions, which can potentially lead to the loss of a prospective client. An omnichannel strategy allows a 360-degree view of customer data in a single platform, increasing the possibility of delivering superior service.

Developing an omnichannel strategy

Businesses that hope to create an omnichannel CX must ensure that their marketing goals, objectives, messages, and design are consistent across all channels. Customer service and experience improve when all these elements are considered and included in an effective omnichannel strategy.

Building a cross-functional team of all-star stakeholders

Harnessing a broad range of skills and experiences helps drive the omnichannel strategy forward by supporting its implementation. Marketing, IT, UX, operations, sales, customer service, and fulfillment are valuable players in businesses.

Teams should work together to establish the goals and methods required for a seamless omnichannel transition, acting as advocates for the journey in their respective areas of influence.

Unifying measurement programs

Bringing together channels and all measurement processes, such as website analytics, social media management, CRM, email management, contact centers, etc. on a single platform gives a 360-degree insight.

A contact center solution that boasts omnichannel support will immediately act as a solid backbone for the business’s strategy and make transitioning into the new centralized space as easy as possible.

Introducing standardized measurements

Some of the most valuable data is qualitative in nature and is generated from sources like online reviews and social media. The need for a standardized way to measure and track customers across their journeys, therefore, becomes imperative to be able to successfully compare two different systems or to set business-wide goals. Businesses should opt for a platform that can gather and interpret experiential data in the most effective manner.

Applying a journey-level approach

Starting from the customer’s perspective with journey-level approach groups together all the elements that are from a single customer’s experience. A customer journey may include onboarding (becoming a new customer), usage of the product or service, and renewal of service or a repurchase. Customer journey insights should consider the broader context like why a customer approached the brand and where they plan to go next.

Application of analytics to the entire dataset

Insights that are obtained through analytics on generated datasets consistently ensure top-notch consumer experience. The advanced analytical tools examine the data across an entire customer journey and highlight the probable causes of both favorable and negative outcomes.

There are ready-to-use analytics dashboards that monitor performances at an agent level, team lead level, and organization level that businesses can rely on for improving operational efficiency, quality, and workforce management.

Consumers are no longer just embracing omnichannel experiences but are expecting them. They don’t make distinctions between different channels, and they’ll expect brands to do the same, and deliver an omnichannel customer experience.

HGS Agent X will help your business create a true omnichannel experience for all your customers using Contact Center AI.