5 Ways to Improve Your Omnichannel Customer Experience

Most companies are aware that offering an optimal omnichannel experience has become a necessity. Whilst some may offer multi-channel options for their customers, this doesn’t always offer the integrated, overlapping service they come to expect when omnichannel is delivered well. Perhaps a brand is great on social media interaction and has worked hard on delivering a great CX, but if it doesn’t seamlessly transfer between its other channels, it isn’t truly omnichannel.

Here at Ventrica, we understand omnichannel customer engagement is only possible with a connected service between different channels. Your customers should be able to pick up where they left off on the channel of their choosing, and seamlessly move between them without having to start again. So, if you’re wanting to help deliver this, below are 5 ways you can start to improve your omnichannel customer experience today.

Getting Omnichannel Customer Engagement Right

First things first, omnichannel experiences are not easy and can take time to develop and get right. It needs to be part of a clear CX strategy so rather than providing what you think your customers want, it’s best to fully understand what they actually want. After all, there is no benefit in offering an omnichannel service if this will not resonate with your customers. However, the stats don’t lie and with almost 80% of customers preferring an omnichannel strategy, the vast majority do want to see this offered by brands.

Omnichannel journeys and customer experience go hand in hand. If you want to deliver the best CX for your customers, it’s hard to ignore omnichannel. The ease of use for customers when looking to make a query, make a purchase, check for updates, or even provide feedback, is much simpler for them when the experience is improved at each touchpoint whilst working together, rather than as a separate experience. Getting it right is hugely beneficial when looking at customer LTV too, with omnichannel shoppers having a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop using only one channel.

Your Omnichannel Service – 5 Ways to Improve

1 – Understand the Customer Journey

Put yourself into the shoes of your customer and fully understand the journey they need to go through when interacting with your brand. Not all customers will do things in the same way, so being able to cater for all is tricky. This is where omnichannel comes into its own, meaning no matter how they choose to interact, they will have a defined journey mapped out already. The difficulty is ensuring implementing omnichannel doesn’t ruin their current experience, as too much change may put them off completely.

Discover what it is they like about the current experience and personalise this as much as possible, helping it stay familiar but more seamless between channels. If they make a query through a messaging app, they should be able to then follow through to continue on the website to complete a transaction. Omnichannel makes this a simple journey with as few touchpoints as possible.

2 – Collect Valuable Feedback

It goes without saying that the only way to understand your customers is to listen to them. Collating feedback from your customers is the best way to understand how your service is working. It also ensures they feel valued and part of the process that drives positive change. You can create surveys around your current omnichannel experience so that customers provide specific detail in this area. What do they like about the current offering? What do they dislike? What would make it a better experience? There’s lots that can be asked and lots to gain in valuable feedback.

This is also an important part of the customer lifecycle, as receiving feedback from those much further along in this can influence retention and loyalty. You’ll want to gauge the experiences of those early in the lifecycle, such as using customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), as well as repeat customers who have experienced your current CX multiple times. This will provide a broad overview of your customers and help you refine the omnichannel experience further.

3 – Make it Easy for The Customer to Interact

If it isn’t easy for them, customers will quickly move on to services with better convenience and a more refined CX. This should be fully formed when mapping out the customer journey, but if the omnichannel experience you are currently offering isn’t up to expectations, improvements need to be made quickly. Work out how your customers find your goods or services; is it organically through your desktop website, or do they reach you through social channels, your mobile site or through live chat? Identifying the journey they take is key to making it easier for them. With purchase frequency 250% higher on omnichannel when compared to single channel, if the omnichannel approach isn’t easy for them to follow, it can mean much less revenue overall.

4 – Focus on Retention

Retention can be a huge problem for companies, especially when the service being delivered is not great. Both customer and employee retention are important to focus on rather than just one. If you have a high turnover of staff, this can make it difficult to provide consistent customer experiences and this will impact your omnichannel offering. This in turn can impact customer retention if they are not receiving the service they expect.

It’s no surprise that customer retention rates are 90% higher for omnichannel campaigns when compared to single-channel marketing, so if the focus isn’t on seamless experiences, companies are missing out on brand loyalty and advocates. The whole business needs to be on board with your omnichannel approach, so if your EX is impacting this, look at ways to engage your employees. Better engagement from your staff should mean better omnichannel customer engagement too.

5 – Reach out to BPO solutions

Sometimes, it can be difficult to deliver what your customers want and expect. Even if you have previously defined your CX and omnichannel approach, staying consistent with it can be a challenge. That’s why seeking the help and support of BPO companies can inject life back into your original strategy. This can be especially helpful during peak periods when you know demand will be high, helping to maintain the high-quality standards and services your customers expect. Reaching out to BPO services can also help innovate your current CX, so if you want to deliver omnichannel solutions but aren’t sure how to do so, you’ll receive the support you need.

Omnichannel Experiences at Ventrica

More companies are becoming laser-focused on providing a truly omnichannel service. Many know that without doing so and improving their current approach, this can lead to loss of revenue, loss of customer loyalty, and a reduced market share. As many as 90% of leaders agree a seamless omnichannel strategy is critical to success, so taking steps to address the improvements you need now will help in the long term.

To discover more about how our omnichannel services get results and our experienced team here at Ventrica, please don’t hesitate to contact us today. We’ll be happy to discuss the challenges your business is facing and look at solutions to help improve your CX.