Smart businesses employ omnichannel customer engagement to power all customer interactions and track customer behaviors in one place. This approach isn’t just about making communication easier for customers (though that’s a big part of it); it’s also about businesses staying competitive and relevant.
Customers expect convenience, speed, and personalization. They want to feel understood and valued, not like they’re explaining their story for the umpteenth time. Omnichannel customer engagement is how businesses meet these expectations, building loyalty and satisfaction.
What Is Omnichannel Customer Engagement?
Omnichannel customer engagement means unifying your brand messaging and voice across all communication channels to deliver a consistent and personalized experience throughout the customer journey.
Customers can interact with your organization through various channels, such as email, phone, chat, social media , and in-person, and still receive the same level of service and support as if they were engaging with your brand at a single touchpoint.
Here’s a typical example:
Let’s say you’re shopping online for a new pair of sneakers. You see something you like, but you’ve got questions.
You start with a live chat on the product website. Mid-conversation, you have to head out, so you switch to SMS communication. Later, you decide to call the customer service number for an immediate answer. In an omnichannel world, every step feels connected.
The service rep on the phone already knows your issue and what you discussed via chat and text. It’s like your shopping journey is a well-documented map, not a series of disconnected dots.
Benefits of Creating an Omnichannel Experience
Investing in an omnichannel customer experience might seem like overkill at first, but doing so will yield several benefits outlined below.
1. Increased customer satisfaction
About 75% of Gen Z respondents (and 44% of all ages) in a TCN Consumer Survey say that they have shared a negative review online after a brand experience with bad customer service. Over time, these reviews build up to substantial evidence that can ruin your brand reputation.
A personalized customer experience is exactly what omnichannel engagement offers. It gives you access to up-to-date insights about customer preferences and behaviors across multiple channels simultaneously. Armed with this data, you can customize interactions to your customers’ tastes, meet their expectations, and keep them happy.
2. Improved customer loyalty
According to Deloitte’s Consumer Report data , about 65% of brands with a customer loyalty program plan to invest in omnichannel experiences to drive repeat patronage.
Loyal customers support your business and help you acquire new users through word-of-mouth marketing. They share their experience with your brand on social media and third-party platforms and recommend your product or service to the people in their network.
3. Increased sales and conversions
Omnichannel customer engagement is a key revenue driver for organizations. Deloitte’s 2023 Consumer Report found that repeat purchases, retention, and lifetime value are more than 1.5 times higher (year-on-year growth) for brands that prioritize omnichannel experiences.
Personalization is largely responsible for these results. When you run an omnichannel customer engagement engine, you get a bird’s-eye view of customer behaviors, preferences, and interactions across all your touchpoints. You can use these insights to craft personalized messaging and product offerings that meet each customer’s expectations, making them more likely to convert.
Let’s say a customer visited the shoe section of your e-commerce website but didn’t make a purchase. In that case, you can email them a limited discount on the shoe collection, prompting them to buy.
4. Improved insights into customer behaviors
Omnichannel customer engagement eliminates the guesswork. Instead of making assumptions about customer behaviors, you see their exact actions at every stage in their journey in real time. You can also uncover trends and patterns in customer behaviors, such as the channels they prefer to interact with.
These insights help you refine your customer marketing strategy. Suppose the data shows that customers prefer to speak to contact center agents before a purchase. You can hire and train more agents instead of investing in fancy email marketing software.
5. Increased operational efficiency
Omnichannel customer engagement improves operational efficiency in two ways:
Automates tasks : It uses tools and software to automate time-consuming tasks. Take data collection and analysis, for example. With multichannel marketing, you need to gather and analyze data from separate channels, which can be time-consuming. On the other hand, omnichannel marketing integrates your data sources into one central platform, making it easier to track.
Closes the information gap : It increases productivity when an organization has a system that unifies its data and makes it easily accessible to all teams. Teams don’t waste time searching for information or reconciling discrepancies. They can quickly find what they need to complete tasks.
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Steps for Creating an Omnichannel Customer Engagement Strategy
Now that you understand the benefits of creating omnichannel experiences for your customers, here’s how to create an omnichannel engagement strategy that works for your organization.
1. Understand your customers
Customers are the heart of your omnichannel strategy, so you must start with them. Knowing your customers involves more than collecting high-level demographic information — that’s only a tiny part.
To craft a holistic strategy, you need to know where they hang out, what they like to read and do, and what keeps them up at night in relation to the problem you solve.
How do you gather this information?
Conduct market research : Create a market research survey with Nextiva and administer it to your target audience via digital channels like social media. Offer incentives to encourage participation, such as a free consultation or a premium product subscription for a limited period.
Conduct competitor research : Analyze your competitors’ marketing strategies to see which channels and pain points they prioritize. Use SEO tools like Semrush and Ahrefs to review their websites and see the keywords they currently rank for.
Analyze customer data : Dig into your existing customer data to uncover insights and patterns for different customer segments. Analyze website visits, purchase history, survey responses, social media engagement, and other data sources to learn more about customer behaviors across multiple touchpoints.
Once you have all the data, piece it together to create detailed profiles or buyer personas for your customer segments. Each customer profile should include roles, pain points, preferences, and behavioral data.
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2. Choose your channels
Don’t blatantly copy your competitors’ customer engagement channels. Instead, to reduce friction during interactions, prioritize the channels your customers already use. If your customers have to learn how a new app works just to reach your contact center, it will negatively impact their experience.
If your audience uses a long list of channels, narrow your focus to the ones where they spend most of their time. For instance, if you’re selling to C-suite executives, you’ll want to focus on LinkedIn because that’s where they typically hang out.
Diversifying your channels is also a good practice. Combine digital channels like social media, websites, and emails with traditional methods of communication like phone calls and physical stores. This not only caters to different customer segments but also ensures there are other ways to reach you if one channel is unavailable.
An omnichannel strategy relies on seamless channel integration. Make sure your chosen channels, whether digital or offline, are compatible and work together smoothly. You can sync multiple customer channels on a single platform, like Nextiva.
3. Develop a unified customer view
Data silos are antithetical to omnichannel customer engagement. That’s why you must create one central source of truth for all customer data within your organization.
This process starts with setting up a standard process for collecting customer data across various sources and channels. Specify how often data will be collected and transferred, which tools will be used, and what will happen at the various stages before the data arrives at the endpoint.
Then, integrate all your data sources — from your customer relationship management (CRM) software to your contact center and customer data platform — into a central, well-organized data repository. Enable data sharing across departments so everyone can access relevant customer information.
4. Craft personalized content and offers
Nearly 35% of participants in Deloitte’s 2023 Consumer Report said they would abandon a brand that fails to create a sense of personalization.
To deliver personalized experiences, you need to segment your customers based on preferences and behaviors. Segmenting is relatively straightforward if you’ve already created customer profiles or personas.
Next, develop unique messaging and offerings for each customer segment. For example, customers with higher spending power will receive prompts to subscribe to your product’s premium plan, while those with lower spending power will receive prompts for the basic plan. Use customer names, purchase histories, and interests in your messaging to personalize communication across all channels.
As customers continuously interact with your channels, you’ll collect real-time behavioral data and use this information to refine personalized messaging and product recommendations.
5. Create seamless customer journeys
Any friction experienced during the buyer journey negatively affects customer acquisition and retention. Your business will lose customers (and revenue) if information gaps prevent prospects from completing purchases.
Make it as easy as possible for your target audience to move through various stages of your customer journey. For this, you’ll need a customer journey map : a visual representation of the customer’s various touchpoints with your brand throughout their interactions, from awareness to purchase and post-purchase.
Optimize each touchpoint for a smooth experience. Ensure you provide all the information and cues the prospect or customer needs to seamlessly move to the next stage. For example, in the awareness stage, you should provide educational materials that give the prospect an overview of your product and features, plus a clear call to action to book a demo.
Offer omnichannel support across all stages, allowing prospects and customers to switch between channels seamlessly without losing context.
