What Is An Omnichannel Customer Experience and Why Is It Important?

Celia Cerdeira at Talkdesk explores the omnichannel customer experience and why it matters for contact centres.

Customers today expect convenience, consistency, and personalization at every touchpoint. Whether engaging through email, chat, phone, or social media, they want to be able to freely switch between channels without interruption.

However, when these various channels are disconnected – forcing customers to repeat information or navigate inconsistent messaging – the result is frustration.

Building a successful omnichannel strategy isn’t just about avoiding these issues; it’s about creating a unified experience that makes customers feel understood and valued at every step of their journey.

Omnichannel strategies can improve customer satisfaction (CSAT) while fostering trust, building loyalty, and leading to long-term repeat business.

What Is an Omnichannel Customer Experience?

An omnichannel customer experience is the gold standard of customer interactions. It goes beyond simply offering multiple ways to reach a brand.

Unlike single-channel models (where customers are limited to one option, like phone support) or multichannel models (where various channels exist but operate independently), omnichannel ensures that every channel works together seamlessly.

Customers want the freedom to switch between channels without friction. An omnichannel experience allows a customer to start a conversation on social media, follow up over chat, and finish the conversation by phone, enabling all their previous interactions to carry over seamlessly.

There’s no need to reintroduce themselves or repeat information. Instead, they get to experience a fluid, connected journey from start to finish.

An omnichannel approach offers more than just convenience – it actively addresses common customer pain points. Organizations typically experience these five key benefits of adopting an omnichannel customer experience:

• Prevents channel congestion: By giving customers multiple ways to engage, businesses reduce the risk of any single channel becoming overwhelmed. This means fewer backlogs and wait times, especially during peak periods when high call volumes can otherwise lead to bottlenecks.
• Eliminates the need to repeat information: Omnichannel experiences ensure that customer data, including past interactions and contact details, is carried across all channels.
• Reduces friction when switching channels: Customers expect the freedom to switch seamlessly between channels without encountering roadblocks. With omnichannel support, they can transition from social media to chat, or from an app to a voice call, without losing progress or repeating steps.
• Improves personalization: Omnichannel platforms unify customer data, allowing businesses to deliver tailored recommendations and communications based on individual preferences and past interactions.
• Enhances customer loyalty and retention: Seamless, consistent service across channels builds trust, making customers more likely to return, recommend the brand to others, and engage in long-term relationships.

What Is the Difference Between Omnichannel and Multichannel?

While omnichannel and multichannel approaches offer customers multiple ways to interact with a business, the key difference lies in how these channels are connected.

A multichannel approach provides various touchpoints – like phone, email, social media, and chat – but these channels operate independently.

For example, if a customer starts a conversation via email and later follows up by phone, the information from the previous interaction may not carry over, requiring the customer to repeat themselves.

While multichannel support increases accessibility, it often leads to disjointed experiences that can frustrate customers.

However, an omnichannel strategy integrates all channels seamlessly. Customer data flows across every touchpoint, enabling conversations to continue without interruption, regardless of the platform.

Plus, omnichannel customers tend to spend more – 10% more online and 4% more in-store – than those engaging through multichannel experiences.

By creating a cohesive, integrated journey, omnichannel takes multichannel to the next level, enhancing customer satisfaction while fostering trust and loyalty.

How to Build an Omnichannel Customer Experience in Three Steps

There are three essential steps to help organizations elevate their customer experience.

1. Identify the Preferred Customer Contact Channels

Omnichannel doesn’t mean a business needs to be available on every imaginable platform. Instead, it’s about identifying the channels customers actually use and expect, so agents can meet them where they are.

Contact centre solutions simplify this process by offering a wide menu of channel options, empowering businesses to engage with customers.

2. Outline the Preferred Customer Journey

Building a great omnichannel experience starts with understanding how customers interact with the business.

The goal is to map out every step of their journey – whether they’re browsing a website, chatting with a bot, or calling customer support – and make sure everything flows effortlessly.

This process is made easier by using AI to route customers exactly where they need to go. This strategy hinges on three key technologies:

• AI-powered routing technology: Automatically analyses incoming voice calls and messages to connect customers to the right agent or department.
• AI-powered self-service technology: Chatbots handle simple queries – like answering FAQs or resetting passwords – so agents can focus on the more complex issues.
• AI-powered agent assistance technology: If the issue needs to be escalated to a human agent, AI provides the right information at the right time.

3. Implement an Omnichannel Contact Centre Solution

Several features set an omnichannel contact centre apart from a traditional call centre:

• Detailed customer profiles: Every interaction between a customer and the business adds data to a comprehensive profile, helping agents provide accurate support based on the customer’s history.
• CRM integration: Omnichannel contact centres connect with CRM tools like Salesforce, giving a complete view of the customer’s profile.
• Contextual routing: Intelligent routing automatically assigns waiting customers to the next available agent qualified to handle their issues.
• Real-time reporting: Customer experience dashboards provide immediate insights, helping companies monitor service levels, staffing, and performance in real time.

A contact centre platform can transform how businesses engage with customers, increasing efficiency, improving satisfaction, and fostering loyalty.

Four Benefits of an Omnichannel Customer Experience

Let’s explore how adopting an omnichannel experience impacts key areas of customer experience and business success.

Higher Revenue and Sales

An omnichannel strategy improves the customer experience and drives revenue growth. When customers can seamlessly move through their purchase journey across channels, businesses reduce abandoned carts and missed sales opportunities.

Personalized engagement at every stage of the customer journey leads to better cross-sell and upsell opportunities, increasing average order values.

In fact, research shows that customers who can use multiple channels tend to spend more over time, contributing to higher lifetime value.

Competitive Advantage

In a crowded marketplace, delivering an omnichannel customer experience gives businesses a distinct competitive edge. Customers gravitate toward brands that make interacting with them easy and enjoyable.

Companies that embrace omnichannel strategies position themselves as responsive, customer-centric organizations that understand and meet evolving expectations.

This responsiveness enhances brand reputation and makes it harder for competitors to keep up. Businesses that invest in omnichannel solutions are better equipped to retain customers, attract new ones, and stand out from the competition in meaningful ways.

Increased Employee Efficiency

An omnichannel platform benefits customers but also makes life easier for employees. By centralizing interactions and customer data in one system, agents can quickly access the information they need to provide faster and more effective support.

With AI-powered tools assisting with routine inquiries, employees are free to focus on more complex tasks, improving productivity and reducing burnout. Efficient workflows lead to quicker resolutions and higher customer and employee satisfaction overall.

More Customer Insights

An integrated omnichannel platform consolidates data from every customer interaction, offering a complete view of customer behaviour and preferences.

With this single source of truth, businesses can track trends, identify pain points, and uncover new opportunities to improve service.

These insights help brands personalize future interactions, optimize marketing efforts, and anticipate customer needs.

For instance, 70% of consumers say a company’s understanding of their personal needs influences their loyalty.

By aligning service, sales, and marketing efforts with customer behaviour, companies can craft targeted strategies that drive better outcomes – including higher customer satisfaction, improved customer loyalty, and stronger revenue growth.

Examples of a Good Omnichannel Customer Experience

A high-quality omnichannel customer experience goes beyond simply offering multiple ways for customers to engage.

Here are a few tangible examples, from various industries, of how a good omnichannel customer experience might look in practice.

Integrated Customer Service Across Platforms

Imagine a customer contacts a tech company’s support team through their website chat for a product question, then decides to call customer service to follow up.

Because the service history is shared across platforms, the representative on the phone already has context and can pick up where the chat left off.

Unified Support for Orders and Returns

A clothing retailer’s contact centre allows customers to initiate a return request through live chat on the website. If they later call the contact centre to check when their new coat will arrive, the agent can access the chat history and previous details, so the customer doesn’t need to repeat themselves.

Personalized Service Recommendations

A contact centre for a phone service provider uses data from past interactions to tailor service offerings. When a customer calls in about their phone plan, the agent can see their usage patterns and recommend plan options that fit their needs and budget.

Escalation Across Channels

A health insurance contact centre might let customers start an inquiry through chat or SMS and escalate to a phone call if needed.

For example, a patient might text in a question about their health coverage but then realize they need to talk to a person to fully understand their benefits. When they switch to a phone call, the agent is already aware of the initial inquiry and can jump straight into helping.

Loyalty Recognition Across Channels

A home goods retailer’s contact centre has access to customer loyalty information, such as points or membership status.

When a customer reaches out via chat or phone, the agent can see the loyalty status and offer relevant perks or coupons based on their status.

Implement an Omnichannel Customer Experience Today

An omnichannel strategy is the golden ticket to more seamless, consistent, and personalized interactions. Identifying key channels, mapping ideal customer journeys, and leveraging the right tools allow businesses to meet evolving expectations and gain a competitive edge.

This blog post has been re-published by kind permission of Talkdesk – View the Original Article

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Call Centre Helper is not responsible for the content of these guest blog posts. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Call Centre Helper.

Author: Talkdesk
Reviewed by: Rachael Trickey