Omnichannel: Is your brand ready?

Source: Unsplash

Is your brand on all platforms? 

We aren't only referring to social networks: do you have a website? Communication channels such as WhatsApp, Line or Facebook messenger? Do you have a physical store?

If you have check marked on all these diffusion windows, you are on the right track in building an omnichannel strategy for your brand. But something is missing.

On social media, customer service is warm and friendly, but once they arrive at the physical store, those who attend are bitter and have no energy. You have ruined your brand's omnichannel experience because you could be on all platforms; still, customers don't feel that they are interacting with the same brand. This could harm their purchasing decision since many want to feel the same "flow" through all platforms and devices.

Nowadays, customers have too many devices to look for products, not just desktops, because, as you may have noticed, mobile marketing is the most popular nowadays. As a result, buyers tend to jump from different devices throughout their customer journey. A recent report from PYMTS found that average consumers own 6.8 personal devices, and the "high tech" ones own even more with 12 personal devices. 

For example, in the retail area, 87% of them recognize that omnichannel is a crucial strategy because they need to offer a seamless experience across all touchpoints.

The omnichannel experience is the complete package for the occasion and identity of your brand, so in this article, we will analyze its virtues, its difference from the multichannel and if your brand is ready to adopt this strategy.

Let's start then!

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What is Omnichannel?

First, let's get a little fancy and interpret this composed word by its origins. So, what does the term Omni mean? 

According to the website Etymonline:

 Omni-

Word-forming element meaning "all," from Latin Omni-, combining form of Omnis "all, every, the whole, of every kind," a word of unknown origin, perhaps literally "abundant," from *op-ni-, from PIE root *op- "to work, produce in abundance."

The term channel explains itself since it is the medium we use to share or communicate our message, and in this case, our message is to sell our products and services.

Source: YouTube.

Now, we must clarify that the omnichannel strategy goes beyond being on all social networks and channels. Instead, the focus is on making your experience so seamless, positive and user-friendly that they can purchase any touchpoint of the customer journey. And these two words, seamless and positive, were qualified as the top reasons for customer churn by 67% of people in a Harvard Business Review study.

In the same made through 14 months, they tried to understand the customer behaviour, and after interviewing 46,000 shoppers, they found out that:

• 7% of the buyers were only-online shoppers
• 20% of them were store-only shoppers
• A whopping 73% of them used multiple channels throughout their shopping journey

As we can see, the dizzying pace of life and internet access from every corner makes the omnichannel our best option to meet the demands of our audience. For this, it is necessary to invest in all the channels you are so that they are all at the level your brand requires. To better explain this, we'll differentiate between an omnichannel and a multichannel strategy.

Omnichannel VS Multi-Channel Marketing

Although we have already studied its etymology, it may happen that when you listen to omnichannel and multichannel, you think that we are talking about the same thing. However, it is not to be picky, but there are some essential differences between the two.

In a multichannel strategy, you will take your brand to different platforms, for example, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The choice of media is made by studying the platforms your audience is most around. Once you have all the channels, you can enjoy the growth this can provide you, but there is a small problem.

Your channels are being managed by different people who are not on the same track of mind, and it's like two different agencies managing Facebook and YouTube. The consequence is what we've already said: your brand doesn't feel like a consistent experience across all your platforms, which causes some dislocation for your users.

The benefit of omnichannel, and the reason it's adopted by most companies today, is the seamless user experience we've already discussed.

Source: YouTube.

In this way, let's suppose you have a 50% discount on your website. One of your users saw it and decided to contact your brand to find out more about the offer. When sending a DM through Instagram, the community or person responsible for responding to the clients doesn't know much about it. This worker doesn't directly contact the clients, which causes them to redirect the potential client to the website.

So how would the client react?

An article on the customer journey said that the map towards the purchase must be fluid, not that it gets stuck in one of the steps. Therefore, there is a high probability that the customer will decide to decline his purchase if all the answers are not given almost immediately.

The omnichannel strategy seeks effective customer service. The customer can be redirected directly to the next step of the customer journey without any problem since all its channels are appropriately interconnected.

Many may be concerned that each platform monitors our online movements. It makes us think of those types of spy movies in which they watch us from our cameras or any device. However, as far as we know, their only purpose is to personalize sales so that we buy more.

How do you start your Omnichannel strategy?

Okay, let's see how we can build an optimal omnichannel experience for your users.

The first thing we must do is understand how your users behave on the networks and what the perfect map would look like so that their journey in your different touchpoints is easy to navigate. For this, you can get the help of Predictive Analytics or CRM, which will give you all the data you need about their behaviour and needs within your company. This technology also helps you personalize experiences according to your types of customers, so you will further improve their experience in the customer journey.

Now, we need to plan the messaging personality of your brand. How is your brand?

• Exclusive
• Friendly.
• Adventuress.

By choosing a series of values that define your brand, you can create a communication manual that all your employees can have so that customer service has that special touch that represents your brand. It's like a brand culture that makes everything feel magical and beautiful when you enter a Disney park. It is here where you build that identity that will be the same on all your platforms, your workers will learn from them, and they will pass that spirit on to everyone who attends. Create a customer-centric work culture!

Source: YouTube.

How to use Omnichannel Strategy for a Mobile App?

Smartphones are one of the most used devices by our audience. Lisa GevelberGoogle's VP of Marketing confirms this; she said that 96% of the users reach out to their smartphone to find answers, and 70% of the smartphone users turn to their device before making an in-store purchase. That's why having an application for your business is an excellent idea to add a new channel to your omnichannel experience.

Your application must have a fluid onboarding system that allows users to appreciate all the features. Then, it would be best if you kept them updated with all kinds of offers or even extra information that adds to the experience of your app and that they do not want to uninstall. For example, if you have a blog or videos that add valuable information to your brand, show them on a tab.

It then uses custom notifications to re-engage with inactive users, with proper messaging to accomplish the purpose.

This will undoubtedly be an excellent addition to your strategy. However, you should also ensure that your website and other platforms have a mobile-compatible version so that everything remains in harmony.

3 Brands that did Omnichannel Strategy successfully

Before we finish, let's look at three brands that have taken full advantage of the omnichannel strategy.

Let's see!

PayPal

In a recent move, the fintech company expanded access to the returns services with Happy Returns, a function that allows PayPal to Checkout any merchant at no extra cost. This omnichannel solution saves customers from the annoyance of visiting a different website or app to use the return service by giving them a QR code that can take them to their item. Once they scan, they receive the refund immediately. 

Then, to make it even better and user-friendly, the company partnered with Ulta Beauty to increase return bars to 1,300 locations in the United States.

Source: YouTube.

Amazon HUB

With the Amazon HUB, the giant retail company manages to break down the barriers between online-offline channels without generating friction between the two.

When ordering products online, we do not feel the immediacy of acquiring the product immediately. Still, the waiting time becomes even less with the options the company offers.

For example, Amazon Hub Counter is a pickup station where the staff takes your packages, and then you can go to the nearest one to claim your purchase immediately.

Similar are the Amazon HUB lockers, safe places where your products will be taken, and you can choose when to look for them. These lockers are currently located in the US, Germany and the UK.

Netflix

Hyper-personalization is vital for an omnichannel experience. Netflix's algorithm can do this by basing its recommendations on real-time and behavioural data to deliver those movies and shows you'll probably want to watch. This is done through natural language processing and machine learning that help the streaming company create experiences based on the specific likes of each client. No matter what device you use, whether a smart TV, tablet or smartphone, it will catch the same information to provide the content you like.

The director of product management at Netflix, Saki Takeda, mentioned that omnichannel strategy is key to a customer experience policy but warms business owners to avoid blind expansion of channels:

"The top things to avoid are expanding channels blindly for the sake of 'being omnichannel' or 'needing to show the brand presence,' and creating unnecessary silos by segmenting/grouping support agents per channel."

Omnichannel Strategy.

Is your brand ready?

The correct answer is yes, and it would be your best option.

While an obvious answer would be that imposing an omnichannel strategy depends on a large budget and a huge team, the reality is that even when you have a small business, the best you can do is manage the networks yourself; in this way, the message always will be precise since the owner and creator of the content is the same one who manages all the accounts.

Now, a little more money will never hurt any company, which means that the more profits, you can improve your omnichannel strategy, investing in advertisements such as ads, billboard banners, and even placing your brand on Hollywood films.

Interconnecting all our efforts to achieve even better results is the best idea to achieve the success of our brand. Meanwhile, we will continue offering articles to help you better manage each of these strategies.

See you in the next article!

Feel free to contact us to see the unprecedented growth of your business.

Feel free to contact us to see the unprecedented growth of your business.

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