We often come across the concept of omnichannel nowadays and hear about its importance when establishing relationships with our users.
In this opportunity, we are going to delve into the concept to understand how it can benefit our e-commerce and how we can adopt this type of approach.
Decades ago, in the early stages of marketing, communication was one-way. This means that at that time, the company was the only one that issued the messages and the consumers only received them.
Today, that concept of unidirectional marketing has become obsolete, and it is essential that we rely on the new technologies of the digital age to communicate directly and reciprocally with our customers. This is where omnichannel acquires an indispensable role.
What is omnichannel
We call omnichannel or omnichannel a type of communication strategy with our consumers through a wide variety of channels, but in which the experience is comprehensive and transversal.
What does this mean? That a user who speaks to us through, will have exactly the same type of experience that he would receive if he communicated with our brand through the chat of our e-commerce or any other means.
This type of strategy also contemplates that the same user can communicate with the brand through.
In order to deal with this, it is important that we are prepared to correctly continue with the experience that you received in the previous channel.
Let’s think about it this way: the first contact with a brand could be through a message driven by the reaction to an advertisement, then the user could continue requesting advice and interacting through WhatsApp, to finally solve their final queries in the bubble of chat of our business.
Even the contact could continue post-purchase, through , where we will have an opportunity to build loyalty.
Difference between omnichannel and multichannel
We talk about communicating with the customer through different channels. But this description also fits perfectly with the concept of multichannel, and this can lead to confusion. What is the difference between omnichannel and multichannel then?
Basically, a multichannel strategy seeks to be present in the different media preferred by our consumers, but maximizing the experience and performance of each channel separately.
In other words, the experience may vary if the user interacts with us through Instagram or Facebook, for example.
While this approach has been strongly embraced by businesses for many years, differences in experience can create friction in the buying process.
The difference with an omnichannel strategy is that in the latter we will focus on providing the same experience, fluid and continuous, through all the channels in which we are present.
In this way, we stop seeing the experience as something isolated by channels, and we can adopt a more general approach.
How omnichannel works
Every omnichannel strategy works based on the premise of integrating all the channels used by the brand, with the ultimate goal of providing a complete and comprehensive experience for the user.
We can achieve this through different technologies and practices that we will analyze later in this article. But this strategy is based on the user experience or user experience.
The term user experience (UX) refers to the feeling that a person develops towards a brand, based on all the interactions and experiences lived with it.
The user experience is developed through all contact points: advertising, social networks, website or e-commerce, web applications, customer service systems, etc.
It takes a fundamental role in terms of UX. Being that if a user perceives a good experience in some brand channels, but faces friction in other media, it is possible that his experience is distorted. A strong omnichannel strategy will be the key to making sure this doesn’t happen.
What is omnichannel marketing
Omnichannel is not only applicable to customer service and customer experience processes, but it is also an extremely useful practice to consider in our digital marketing actions.
The concept is the same: implement a comprehensive strategy through the different channels.
In this case, we will make sure to integrate our advertising messages and experiences. With an omnichannel marketing approach, we will be able to design a personalized experience based on the behavior and needs of our users.
For example, if we know that our users are particularly interested in a specific product, we can generate valuable content on Instagram by teaching the different ways to use said product, targeting specific advertisements to people who have shown interest in it, and offer promotions through email to a segmented list of users, among other practices.
With this example we have accompanied the user in an integral way through the different stages of the process and we have optimized all their interactions to provide a continuous experience.
The only thing left to do then would be to integrate our communications. If a user initiated a claim through the web, it is essential that he be able to continue said claim through his preferred means without experiencing friction during the transition between channels.
Benefits of implementing an omnichannel strategy
The center of any omnichannel strategy is the user, and as long as we prioritize the user, the benefits will be numerous and immediate. Our goal should be to provide our consumers with an optimal experience.
For this, we will have to review all our communications, adopt new technologies and strategies, and train our care teams. Once achieved, some of the benefits we will receive are the following:
- Better customer relationship and user experience.
- Makes it easy to transition between devices and channels.
- Better brand image and digital presence.
- Increased customer loyalty and cknowledge about our consumers.
- Major (Return on Investment).
- Lower percentage of cart abandonment.
- Differentiation from the competition.
How to provide an omnichannel service?
Now that we are clear about the concept, how it works and its benefits, it is time for us to analyze the different ways in which we can contribute to the creation of an omnichannel strategy.
- Get to know your brand strongly. It is important that you have well defined the whole of your brand, its values, its mission and vision. This will allow you to develop a solid communication strategy through the different channels you choose.
- Know your consumer strongly. In this way you will know what his needs are, his concerns, his concerns and interests. Thus, you will understand in greater depth how to communicate with your users.
- Define your channels. This may vary over time as new social networks and means of communication with your users emerge. But it is important that you understand what channels your potential customers are currently on and where they would feel most comfortable interacting with your brand. For this you must rely heavily on the previous point.
- Train your team. It is important that everyone knows how to respect the tone and voice of the brand. As well as follow the new communication guidelines defined based on the knowledge you have of your consumers. From the interactions of your customer service advisors, to the graphic design pieces and marketing advertisements, everyone must follow the same guidelines in order to provide a comprehensive experience.
- Support you in tools. Conversational CRMs such as the one from allow comprehensive management of all your brand interactions in one place. This also allows the unification of data and enables learning. Also, in the case of Snappy, you will have a virtual assistant with artificial intelligence that you can train to provide an omnichannel experience. You can request a free trial by installing the app from the .
- Constant measurement. Make sure to regularly monitor conversations to identify needed changes. Also, the unification of data will allow you to find patterns to continue learning more about your customers and be able to adapt your different acquisition, conversion and retention strategies.
Examples of omnichannel strategy
Here are some examples of well-implemented omnichannel strategies, so you can take inspiration from the biggest:
- Netflix: It is the star brand when it comes to exemplifying good marketing practices and customer experience. The omnichannel can be reflected immediately, not only in their social networks where they focus on providing the same type of experience, but also in the platform itself. You will be able to start consuming content on one device, and resume it on another, from exactly the same place where you left it unfinished.
- Starbucks: Implemented an excellent omnichannel system combining the mobile consumption experience with the offline consumption experience, through its mobile application. Thanks to it, one can be part of the loyalty program, acquire points and redeem them in physical stores, transferring the Starbucks experience to your mobile device.
- Amazon: Uses data to create personalized interactions for its users, no matter what channels they engage with. On the other hand, they unify all the data they receive through the different media in a strong backend that allows them to design a successful user experience.
- Disney: Its My Disney Experience tool positions it as a benchmark company in terms of omnichannel. It fuses the digital and physical worlds, allowing users to manage every part of their Disney trip through any device.
conclusion
Implementing an omnichannel strategy is not a simple process and we will probably have to rely on technologies such as chatbots with artificial intelligence, CRMs, and different tools.
But today it is essential that we focus all our efforts on improving the experience of our customers. In this lies the key to the success of our business and it takes great importance in the brand image that we will build in the mind of the consumer.
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