Delighting the Customer in an Omnichannel World

0
174

Share on LinkedIn

Gone are the days of one-on-one customer interactions. Today’s customer reaches out to the organizations through various channels – emails, calls, social media, etc. Similarly, while interacting with a brand, customers go through a lot more touch-points today than they did ever before. That implies the brand not only need to be agile in their business strategies but also need to be consistent across channels. This is further highlighted in the Aberdeen report,

“Companies that provide a consistent service quality across multiple channels retain 89% of their customers, whereas companies that do not provide a consistent quality are only able to retain 33%.”

Omnichannel vs Multichannel: Are they different?

Both these terms have been used interchangeably for a long time. Truth is, they are actually quite similar indeed. In case of customer experience (CX), one can understand multichannel in literal terms. “Multi” means many. Customers can interact with businesses using more than two channels.

“Omni” means all. Omnichannel aims to provide a seamless and consistent experience to customers across channels and throughout their customer journey. Omnichannel CX ensures an integrated view of all the interactions a customer has had with a brand – across channels.

Today, a customer’s journey can start anytime and from anywhere. If an organization wants to delight the customer, they can’t afford to have their channels work in silos. There needs to be a proper omnichannel strategy in place to deliver a holistic CX.

1. Identifying the Buyer Persona
Brands need to identify their target audience. This will enable the businesses to form a blueprint of their probable customer journey. Moreover, this will provide an insight into customer likes and dislikes. The business will also be able to determine their behavior pattern, preferred communication channel, etc.

2. Customer-Centric View
The first step to this is implementing a customer-centric organizational culture. Delivering excellent CX should be at the heart of an organization’s core values. The effects of which will trickle down to the agents.

“You’ve got to start with the customer experience, and work back toward the technology.” — Steve Jobs

3. Quick response
Omnichannel presence is not enough unless there is quick query resolution. Having your customer wait or reach out to you for the same issue across channels is worse than having only one channel of communication. A brand is deemed successful only when they are able to resolve a problem at the earliest, irrespective of the channel.

4. Consistent Message
Imagine, you have requested cancellation of an online order and want to know the status of your refund. You track it using the mobile app. But, in the meantime, you get an email which gives you conflicting information. Now you are worried about your money. This is an example of bad CX because of an inconsistent message. An omnichannel strategy will be a success only if there is no communication gap between the agents and technology. It requires agent training to get used to the integration of technology with the process.

5. Agent Training
Agents are the first point of contact for the customers. It is imperative to train and align them with the organization’s goals and core values. One way of honing the agent skills is by giving them the training to deal with irate customers and difficult situations. Getting familiarized with the technology will empower the agent to reduce response time and deliver a satisfactory customer service.

6. Performance Measurement
The most effective way to encourage employees to do something is to acknowledge and reward it. Agent KPIs should be defined in such a way to promote excellent CX.Incentivizing the positive behavior is another way out. Also, appropriate analytics tools should be put in place to track and analyze customer behavior data and feedback. This will enhance customer insight.

7. Performance Measurement
The most effective way to encourage employees to do something is to acknowledge and reward it. Agent KPIs should be defined in such a way to promote excellent CX.Incentivizing the positive behavior is another way out. Also, appropriate analytics tools should be put in place to track and analyze customer behavior data and feedback. This will enhance customer insight.

Conclusion

With the right omnichannel CX strategy in place, an organization can provide a comprehensive and customized CX and can convert first-time customers into long-lasting customer relationships. These delighted customers can go on to become your fierce loyalists and brand promoters. The crux of the matter is, implementing an omnichannel strategy will ensure operational efficiency, employee engagement and most importantly, create happy CX memories

ADD YOUR COMMENT

Please use comments to add value to the discussion. Maximum one link to an educational blog post or article. We will NOT PUBLISH brief comments like "good post," comments that mainly promote links, or comments with links to companies, products, or services.

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here