/ The importance of an omnichannel strategy
Alexander Wijninga
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5 min
Over the years, online developments have challenged the customer service industry considerably. Where people once went to a physical shop and picked up the phone with questions, there are now dozens of social channels where contact between the customer and a shop takes place. That brings quite a few challenges with it. One of those challenges concerns the omnichannel strategy.
With an omnichannel strategy, the various channels on which a customer has contact with your company flow seamlessly into one another. Whether the customer buys a product in a shop or online, asks a question via Facebook or Instagram, or submits a complaint by email or telephone: the impression the customer has of the company stays the same. However the customer experiences your company, positively or negatively, the customer journey is the same at every touchpoint.
Although more and more marketers are convinced that a good omnichannel strategy is of great importance to a company's success, there are still few companies that can claim to have implemented one well. In this article you can read about the importance of an omnichannel strategy, examples of an omnichannel strategy, and five crucial steps for implementing it.
The terms ‘omnichannel’ and ‘multichannel’ customer contact are often mixed up. There is indeed a strong overlap between these two terms, but they certainly do not mean the same thing. With a multichannel strategy a company uses several channels to maintain contact with the customer; a website in combination with physical shops, for example. Although the shops and the website belong to the same brand, they are often seen and approached as separate silos, with little interaction between the two. This produces a completely different experience of the same brand. In a multichannel strategy the same channels are involved as in an omnichannel strategy, but they are treated as separate company silos.
An omnichannel strategy ensures that those separate channels do not merely exist alongside one another, but are interwoven. So the difference between multichannel and omnichannel is the unity and consistency between all the channels used. It often happens, after all, that the same customer has several contact moments with your company through different channels. With an omnichannel strategy the focus is placed on the same experience of your company, regardless of the channel the customer uses to get in touch. The channels have to flow seamlessly into one another.
This does not stop at your company's branding. The way your customer is addressed by your customer service has to be the same as the way your warehouse staff respond to your customers. But think also of stock levels, in physical shops and online, of loyalty schemes (such as a customer card) physically and/or through an app, of home delivery of an order or collection in a shop. All these small contact moments flow into one another, which sometimes makes it a complicated process. It is therefore important that your omnichannel strategy is properly worked out before you implement it.
The importance of an omnichannel strategy lies in the combination of user-friendliness, speed and authenticity. Certainly when the number of competitors cannot be counted on two hands, it is important that the customer recognises your company immediately. Whether it is a poster in a bus shelter, a shop on a busy street or a sponsored post on Instagram, every expression has to be recognisable. Recognition creates trust, and makes you stand out faster among the competition. The same applies to the way your staff address the customer: when customer service comes across as friendly and approachable, but the warehouse employee as blunt or absent, that sends mixed signals about the experience of your company.
On top of that, the ease with which a customer now contacts a company has grown enormously; the great diversity of channels means the customer can receive an answer through whichever channel they want. And in this digital, online world, preferably as fast as possible too.
Implementing a successful omnichannel strategy often takes time, and creativity. We can imagine that the explanation above does not yet capture the imagination all that much. To paint a better picture of what an omnichannel strategy involves, we have written down a few concrete examples below.
Amazon started as a ‘simple’ sales site and has grown into one of the largest companies in the world, one that has worked out its omnichannel strategy down to the last detail. Amazon's goal is to put the customer genuinely at the centre, and they include every expression and department in that.
To be able to put the customer truly first, for instance, Amazon has instructed its marketers and UX designers to optimise all processes in a customer-friendly way. From shopping to ordering: the experience of Amazon has to be as pleasant and memorable as possible. They therefore spend a lot of time uncovering the pain points in this process and in the customer journey. Think for example of ‘Amazon One-Click’, which makes the whole purchasing process a good deal easier.
Amazon also puts the customer at the centre by investing heavily in logistics, warehousing and delivery. These departments work with technical feats, and that is why ‘Amazon Prime’ could be brought into being. With an annual Amazon Prime subscription the customer gets benefits: think of same-day delivery, special discounts, offers, Prime Video, and so on. The secret of the way Amazon works customer-centrically has to do with integrating all channels in the backend. By analysing the data extensively, Amazon can respond even better to the customer's wishes.
Another good example is the American chemist Walgreens. They work with a points system that flows seamlessly across all touchpoints with the chain. You get points for both online and in-store purchases, but also through activity measurements when you connect a fitness app to your customer card. You can also fill in surveys or get vaccinated in the shops, for which you get points again.
An example of a company closer to home: Albert Heijn. Albert Heijn has set three goals for its omnichannel strategy: more customers, more choice, more locations. Albert Heijn has several offline and online contact moments, and lets these flow into one another by building a strong online brand, offering an easy and inspiring online shopping experience and offering a broad assortment at any time of day, to everyone.
The channels flow smoothly into one another: think for example of an online shopping list visible on every device, personal offers in the app based on customer data, or an optimal route through the shop based on a shopping list. On top of that you find the loyalty card in every channel too: from the app to the checkout and the Allerhande.
Watermelon's software gives you the possibility of bringing various online channels together in one platform. Here you also build customer profiles, so that you can offer a personal service to every customer. That way you can offer the same service whichever channel a customer question comes in on.
Read on in our whitepaper "benefits of chatbots".
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