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Creating a solid omnichannel customer experience can mean big rewards for your business. It helps promote loyalty, retains customers, and creates a consistent image for your brand. But many organisations fail to implement an omnichannel customer experience successfully. So, we’ve put together a handy guide on how to improve your omnichannel customer experience in five simple steps.
What is an omnichannel customer experience?
Today’s consumers are more connected than ever before. A 2021 survey revealed over 4.8 billion people use social media, and the average user accesses around 6.6 social media platforms each month. With customers constantly switching between multiple platforms, it’s a huge challenge for businesses to provide a positive experience at every touchpoint. Along with social media, messaging apps can help enhance the customer experience and stay connected with your clients, for example taking advantage of the benefits of Whatsapp Business.
Omnichannel customer experience is a one-stop solution for ensuring people have a positive experience no matter where they interact with your brand. Get it right and it can help to improve customer confidence and the efficiency of your brand.
What are the benefits?
The benefits of creating a omnichannel customer experience include:
Consistency – omnichannel customer experience helps to create a consistent experience for customers across every channel.
Familiarity – Brands that deliver the same experience across every channel create a sense of familiarity, making it easier for customers to remember them.
Customer loyalty – 93% of customers are likely to make a repeat purchase with a company that offers excellent customer service, according to HubSpot Research. Creating a positive experience for customers across every channel can help increase customer satisfaction and lead to repeat purchases.
Increase sales opportunities – Digital market experts estimate that the average consumer is exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day. Reaching customers at different touchpoints can help your brand cut through the noise and ultimately lead to more sales opportunities.
Understand gaps in your current offering – Implementing omnichannel strategies can help you identify gaps in your current offering. For example, you may notice that while most of your followers are on Instagram, customers currently only have an option to purchase your products on your website meaning you could be losing out on vital sales opportunities.
How to improve your omnichannel customer experience
Omnichannel customer experience helps to deliver a unified and consistent brand experience for your customers. Here are five strategies you can use to master your technique:
1. Know your customers
Perhaps the most important step in creating an omnichannel customer experience is taking the time to get to know your customers. Think about who your customers are and where they are likely to spend their time online. Ask yourself:
- How do they behave online?
- What kind of content do they engage with?
- When you take the time to understand your customers and the platforms they use you have an opportunity to create a personalised user experience.
2. Understand your consumer journey
It’s also important to think about the consumer journey and their purchase behavior. Ask yourself:
- Where are they most likely to purchase – in store or online?
- How soon are they likely to make a purchase?
- What entices them to buy – discounts or promotions?
- Mapping the customer journey allows you to rethink your current strategies to better serve the needs of your customers.
3. Gather feedback
Gathering regular customer feedback is important as it demonstrates you value their opinions. It also helps you to gain a better understanding of what’s working and what’s not.
There are lots of ways to get feedback from your customers, including:
Send out a follow-up survey after a transaction
Create an interactive Instagram or Twitter poll
When a customer provides feedback, they expect any issues to be resolved. This gives business owners an opportunity to take on board any advice that can help re-shape the customer experience.
4. Invest in tech
As more customers shop online, businesses need to go beyond traditional customer service methods. Here are three ways technology can help your business improve its multi-channel customer experience:
Chatbots – Today’s customers expect immediate answers. Chatbots use artificial intelligence to respond to customer queries instantly and provide further support.
Drive more sales – Technology systems like Square Online Store make it easy for businesses to expand their omnichannel efforts by selling online.
Reduce time – As the saying goes, time is money. Automation tools such as Square’s scheduling and software app is a point-of-sale solution for booking, payments and more. Automation tools can help business owners deliver a smooth omnichannel experience.
5. Use analytics
Tools such as Google Analytics enable you to sync multiple platforms to the database, which can help to identify obstacles along the customer journey. For example, you may notice your Facebook ad has a strong click-through rate (CTR) but are quickly bouncing off your website.
This could be an indication users are having a negative experience with your website. Identify at which point on your site people are dropping off and investigate what may be causing them to do so. Once you understand the pain points, you can improve it to ensure a seamless customer experience.
Square Analytics also gives you in-depth insights into customer behavior which can help to personalise the customer experience.
Getting started – first steps
Getting the balance right between online and offline customer experience is key to boosting customer satisfaction and brand perception. All channels should work seamlessly to deliver a positive experience for your customers. Here are a few tips to help get you started:
Look at where you currently are – What’s working, what isn’t?
Understand your weaknesses – Where are customers experiencing friction? What can you do to resolve this?
Identify your opportunities – Think about any channels you don’t currently utilise. If you run a physical store, is it time to think about moving online?
Creating an omnichannel customer experience might seem intimidating, but when done correctly, it can reap many rewards. Square can help business owners capitalise on the future of business to sell in new ways and deliver the best experience for customers across every touch point.
