What is Omnichannel Customer Engagement?

Omnichannel

Omnichannel, also known as omni-channel, is a customer engagement process where a business provides access to their products, services, and offers through all channels, platforms, and devices. 

The omnichannel experience allows companies to serve their customers on all available channels for a seamless and comprehensive customer experience. Customers will receive the same experience regardless of the platform or channel they choose to reach out with.

Omnichannel vs. multichannel

An omnichannel environment is different from a multichannel one. Multichannel experiences may offer users a variety of options, however they are not necessarily integrated or synchronized. 

On the other hand, omnichannel experiences not only offer multiple options, but they are connected so that one can move from one to the other seamlessly. In other words, all omnichannel environments have multiple channels, but not all multichannel environments are omnichannel.

Another important distinction is that omnichannel experiences involve all platforms and devices. While a multichannel experience may offer two or three channels, an omnichannel experience must include all channels, platforms, and devices available.

Omnichannel customer engagement

Omnichannel customer engagement involves taking advantage of the omnichannel experience to deliver personalized interactions to customers across all available channels. In today’s world, customers are becoming increasingly accustomed to personalized experiences. Brands who adopt an omnichannel strategy will be prepared to deliver on these expectations.

Benefits of Omnichannel Customer Engagement

Better customer experience (CX)

Providing the optimal customer experience (CX) is essential to any marketing strategy. Customer data and insights can help marketers understand customer behavior and make informed decisions on how to best serve their customers.

An omnichannel experience improves CX by mapping all touchpoints and interactions across all channels to individual customer profiles. This allows companies to deliver personalized experiences based on customer preferences and previous behavior.

Higher customer retention/loyalty

Omnichannel experiences are seamless, consistent, and personalized, which are all important factors for driving customer loyalty. Customers feel appreciated when brands put the time and effort into improving the customer experience.

When a customer has a positive experience with a brand, they are more likely to interact with that brand again and a bond forms between the customer and the brand. Customers look for these brand relationships so they can continue to have positive experiences again and again.

Cohesive brand identity

An omnichannel marketing strategy results in customers having a consistent experience every time they interact with a brand, regardless of the channel they reach out on. For example, if a customer receives a personalized experience on their mobile device, that personalization should be there when they interact from their desktop as well.

A well designed omnichannel marketing strategy will lead to increased brand awareness in the company’s target market. The more customers are familiar with a brand’s products and services, the more likely they are to succeed over the competition.

Higher engagement

Omnichannel strategies result in higher customer engagement, especially when they take advantage of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). AI-powered predictive analytics can learn from customer actions to better understand customer behavior.

Predictive analytics can help a business segment their customer base and deliver personalized experiences based on preferences and demographics. Brands can see at a glance which segments, channels, and marketing strategies need to be prioritized and optimized.

Increased revenue

A major benefit of omnichannel marketing is increased revenue, which is one of the most important measurements of any marketing strategy. The most successful omnichannel marketing strategies segment and personalize customer experiences, leading to higher conversion and an increase in ROI (return on investment). 

Better attributed data/unified customer data

Today’s customers are more demanding than ever before, leaving businesses on the hook to keep up with their expectations. Omnichannel marketing strategies create personalized experiences for customers that expect their needs to be met as soon as possible. 

An omnichannel customer engagement platform helps put the customer first by synchronizing customer data from all sources. This allows brands to grow across a variety of channels and remain competitive as businesses scale.

Challenges of Omnichannel Customer Engagement

Creating a consistent experience

It is not enough for businesses to offer an excellent experience on a single channel. Brands must offer experiences that are consistently excellent across all channels.

For example, when a customer has a great experience on a company’s website, they expect that great experience to translate to the company’s physical store, social media pages, and mobile app. However, many brands find it difficult to create a consistent customer experience across every customer touchpoint.

Unifying customer data

When consolidating multiple channels into a single location, it can be difficult to merge data effectively when channels are not uniform. However, there are a variety of tools available to help companies integrate their channels simply and seamlessly.

Personalizing communication

A strong omnichannel customer engagement strategy requires a personalized customer experience. However, brands must follow regulations regarding data privacy and security when handling customer data. While this can present obstacles when it comes to personalization, it is essential that companies personalize customer experiences to boost engagement and remain competitive.

Considerations for Creating an Omnichannel Customer Engagement Strategy

What channels are your customers using?

Effective omnichannel customer engagement strategies do not have to use every channel possible. Businesses should only invest in the channels that their customers are actually using.

The best way to determine this is to learn where customers are interacting with the brand. This will help businesses decide which channels are the most suitable for their omnichannel customer engagement strategies

What is your customer journey?

The next consideration is to map out the customer journey as customers move from one channel to the next. This ensures that there are no gaps in the omnichannel customer engagement strategy.

Companies mapping out their customer journey should ask themselves how each channel works on its own and how it transitions to the next channel. They should also understand how each channel will lead the customer to make a purchase.

How does your content map to different stages & channels?

Effective omnichannel marketing does not send the same messages through every channel. Instead, content is tailored so that it is relevant to that specific channel.

For example, image-based content performs well on channels such as Facebook and Instagram, while videos do well on YouTube and TikTok. Offering tailored customer support across different channels will result in customers feeling confident and loyal to the brand.

What technology will help you deliver an omnichannel experience?

In order for an omnichannel customer engagement strategy to be successful, it must have a great stack of marketing tools for staying organized, setting goals, and analyzing data. These tools integrate all data regarding products, customers, interactions, and purchases into one central location, unlocking potential growth across channels as the business scales.

How Chatbots Fit Into Your Omnichannel Strategy

Ada

While most businesses understand the importance of omnichannel engagement, more than half lack the resources and high IT investment to have a strategy in place. Ada removes these obstacles with a purpose-built solution for non-technical teams to launch and manage omnichannel customer experiences. 

Zendesk

Ada’s conversational AI platform integrates with Zendesk Sunshine Conversations to provide a best-in-class sales and support experience. With Ada automating 90% of customer inquiries, Zendesk live agents are freed up to focus on more high-value tasks. No one likes listening to live agents that read from scripts like robots, making Ada a go-to solution for Zendesk users of all sizes.

Salesforce

Ada’s one-click integration with Salesforce automatically syncs customer details to the CRM, freeing up Salesforce agents to focus on driving CSAT and revenue. Salesforce users find themselves choosing Ada over Salesforce’s Einstein for its easy-to-use reporting and purpose-built automation.

Gorgias

Gorgias is a helpdesk solution built for eCommerce and designed to turn customer service into a profit center. Ada complements Gorgias by delivering personalized experiences with conversational AI, turning customers into brand ambassadors and helping businesses grow.

Messenger

Ada acts as the first point of contact on Messenger, providing intuitive conversational automation for engaging customer experiences. This can help businesses deploy proof of concept, build content flows quickly, and exceed their targets through an AI-powered Messenger assistant.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a popular messaging platform that can offer cost-efficient customer experiences at scale when combined with Ada’s automation. For example, an AI-powered WhatsApp chatbot can significantly reduce customer wait times and completely transform the customer experience.

Talkdesk

Talkdesk is a cloud-based contact center and CX solution for end-to-end customer support. Ada’s integration with Talkdesk does the heavy lifting so that live agents can deliver more valuable interactions at scale. For example, Ada can help Talkdesk users decrease their ticket handling time by over 90%.

And more.