The customer perspective hasn’t become centered, it has been made that way by the companies that offer services and products and value the customer’s experience above almost everything else. Some tools such as Bitrix24 help in achieving just that.
With the focus largely shifting towards marketing, sales, and customer service in the previous years, it’s time to focus on all the possible channels to reach the customer and achieve the desired goal. This article talks about omni-channel experience business integration and examples.
The name says it all! We can use all the channels to cater to the customer and provide as many leads as possible. As a business, we want our potential customers to have undisrupted access to our offer and to the support that comes with it.
This means that you, as a customer, will have support anywhere you look for it for a particular product or service. There are huge advantages to integrating this kind of approach into any kind of business:
Better customer experience: There’s a choice available to the customer, they can choose their preferred channel. They don’t have to call if they don’t want to, and this makes them value the support even more.
Better reach: The fact that a business is available on all the channels means that it will have a better reach. More customers will be able to talk to you and others about your product or service.
Greater gains: When the service you offer or the product you offer is available on a variety of platforms and channels, the customer will be more likely to buy or use it because it’s much easier to come by.
Issue resolution streamlining: Imagine you’re in a situation where immediate support is preferred, but you don’t want to have to call support and then explain and wait for the resolution, you can always use the first available channel to get the issue resolved.
Customer loyalty increases: With ease of access to any aspect of support and faster resolution rates because of the channel availability of your services and product, customer loyalty will increase.
An omnichannel experience is a customer-centric marketing, servicing, and selling experience. It’s a holistic way of catering to the needs of the customer from a plethora of platforms and placing your product or service on their map through the use of all available channels.
It’s not very obvious why multi-channel and omni-channel experiences are different, but let’s try to explain it. In a multi-channel experience, you as a customer, have access to multiple channels to get the product or service, get the necessary support, etc.
It’s pretty much the same with an omnichannel experience. You have access to multiple channels, but the key difference is that all the channels are synchronized and connected. With multi-channel, that’s not the case.
A multi-channel experience in customer service is quite common. You can contact support directly for a resolution, and then try to contact them through any social media platform with the same queries, likely, they won’t know what you’re inquiring about.
From an omni-channel experience perspective, your issue will be in the registry and you’ll have a seamless experience across all the platforms where support is provided for this particular service or product.
Streamline your customer service today by making Bitrix24 your central hub for all customer care channels.
Try NowAgain, marketing is an integral part of getting your business on the actual market. So, omni-channel marketing is much like an omni-channel experience, a type of marketing that tries to reach out to potential customers through all channels.
This doesn’t mean that only your ads should appear on all people’s screens when they’re playing a game, using an app, or watching a YouTube video. It means that some kind of metrics need to be accounted for in terms of people’s interests so that these people get an omnichannel marketing experience.
To start marketing using an omnichannel experience you need to think about a few important things. Still, you need to kind of scaffold the approach and create a good foundation for it so that it all works well:
Basic Channels: This will include your social media profile or a website if you have one. Stay consistent in posting, engage with potential customers, and try to answer all their queries as quickly as possible.
Accessible Solutions: Marketing is also about customer support, think about solutions for possible issues, and have them available on all the channels you’re using. They should be easily accessible to the customer.
Consistent Messaging: Avoid boilerplate content, but do try to stay consistent across channels in your messaging. Instead of noting down the details of the customer, try classifying the issue by type.
Accessible CTAs: Your omnichannel strategy should include appropriate calls to action for specific device types and platforms. Don’t use the same unoptimized CTA everywhere.
Support App: If necessary, and you think it might contribute to customer satisfaction, it can be a good idea to develop an app. But, bear in mind that it demands additional investments. It might be better to use what you’ve already got.
Now that you have some idea of what an omnichannel experience is, what are its benefits, and the most important points of creating an omnichannel marketing strategy, we’re going to discuss some of the best omnichannel experiences out there.
This list of 25 omnichannel experience examples will help you understand the term ‘omnichannel’ better, and probably nudge you in the right direction if you decide to take this holistic approach and improve your business.
Disney has it all. The company started with cartoons and developed into an unparalleled franchise. Their iconic characters are often used as masks at children’s birthday parties, and they have a lot more to offer.
They set the example with an omni-channel experience at every step of the way. When you enter their website on your desktop or your phone, the responsiveness is the same. If you don’t seem to manage, here are some things that help:
My Disney Experience: With this, they immerse you into their world, you have an option to plan your trip, make reservations, get a personalized itinerary, reserve dining, and much more. They make everything available.
PlanDisney Panelist: If you have issues planning your trip, you can talk to a planDisney Panelist, and they’ll help you through it. They can even help you set up your Magic Band on which you can order food, store photos, etc.
Help Center: Finally, if there’s still something you don’t understand, but you don’t want to interact with people to figure it out, you have the Disney help center. Just enter your query or a keyword in the search box and you’ll very likely find an answer.
Amazon is incredibly customer-centric. When you go to Amazon, you can find whatever you need. You can easily buy anything from Amazon, not only on the website but also through their app or in-store.
Now, there’s one key aspect about Amazon that makes it an omnichannel experience advocate. It’s Amazon Prime, the service you need to subscribe to only once to get everything you need and more across all channels:
Same-Day Delivery: You get same-day deliveries if you subscribe to Amazon Prime, and you get them for free.
Release-Date Delivery: When you pre-order something, you get it on the release date. It’s delivered to your doorstep for free.
Gaming: There are a ton of free game subscriptions as well as a free Twitch channel subscription.
Streaming: You can watch movies and TV shows on Amazon Prime if you have a subscription.
Reading: Finally, you can borrow books, magazines, etc. to read on your Kindle for free.
So, Amazon Prime sets an example of how to use all the channels to provide everything to the customer in one go.
Another great example of an omnichannel instance is the Starbucks Rewards app. With this app, you’ve been served, in terms of being able to locate the nearest store, and you can order and pay through the app.
So, there’s no need to wait in line, plus you get a recommendation from the app based on your previous orders and what the selected store has in its inventory. After a while, you’ll get rewards such as discounts or free food, etc.
When you log into Spotify on all your devices, the activity is stored in your account. It’s synchronized as well, you can play songs on your phone from your laptop and vice versa. There are no major differences in the experience when you use the app regardless of the device you’re using it on.
Apple set an example in omnichannel retail a long time ago. Apple products and services have been for sale on all channels and platforms for a long time. Their physical stores are well in sync with their online stores, apps, and platforms.
They provide a seamless experience for the customer and even a seamless customer journey. As a customer, I can pre-order an Apple product, and I can trade in my old device, by mail if I choose to get a discount on a new purchase.
If I need any support on using any Apple product, I can take a class on it, or I can ask by chat, email, phone, etc. It’s truly a holistic experience.
Pizza Hut started very well, they had their website, they had third-party apps, and call-ins for ordering. The business was going great, but it wasn’t as great as can be. So, what they realized is that they need to increase their reach.
They expanded to the use of WhatsApp to get orders from customers. So, there was a bot that would process orders on the messaging app, and they’d get more orders, and to top it off, you had in-app payment already available.
Sephora took it a notch further with their virtual try-on tool for makeup, and it was something incredible because you could see which shades of mascara would be the perfect fit for you, and other types of makeup.
The feature is still available through their app in some countries. They provide other features on their website to try to accommodate the omnichannel experience for their customers. Here are some experiences that you might find interesting:
Complexion Routine Builder: This beauty quiz lets customers immerse in a beauty salon experience where they can pick their primer, foundation, concealer, and other setting products.
Fragrance Quiz: Customers can easily discover their favorite scent using the fragrance quiz offered by Sephora.
Brow Quiz: You can take a quiz to discover exactly what you need to get your best eyebrows.
Lip Quiz: How do you want your lips to look? The best way to do this through Sephora is to take the Lip Quiz.
Target has its omnichannel experience provided through Circle, and the benefits are that you’ll redeem 1% when you shop at Target, and you’ll have different deals, a birthday discount, community support votes, and Target Circle Partnerships.
The reason this beneficial experience for the customers and Target is an omnichannel experience is that you can earn every time you shop. So, you can do it in-store, you can do it online through your account, and you can even use the Target app.
Oasis has a website that provides a seamless user experience, and a free mobile app that is available on Android and iOS. They have touch screens and devices in their stores that help customers enjoy their shopping experience and make it easier for them to find what they’re looking for.
Their website works perfectly on all devices, and their mobile app is available on iOS and Android. But the fact that you can find all the required information for your particular account on the app or the website is amazing.
You have a help section that gives you an overview of the airport and other important rules to know before embarking on a trip. Of course, like many other flight companies, they offer loyalty points to their frequent flyers.
The Bank of America has a website that’s not a pain to go through and an app that’s as easy to navigate as the website. Of course, this is all very secure. If you have a question you can have a chat with a representative or you can simply go through the help section.
You can easily transfer funds, pay bills, and deposit cheques. There are physical locations as well that cater to other needs such as cash deposits. So, they are available wherever you may need them.
They provide a cohesive customer experience where customers can go online, offline, and back online without much change. They have prescription refill reminders and pill reminders that remove the pain points of going to the pharmacy and waiting in line to get a refill.
When you confirm the email reminder to refill, they send a second email when the refill is ready for pickup. You can use the scanner from the app to scan the barcode and generate a refill prescription. You can also refill by phone. There are also:
Virtual doctor appointments: Walgreens provides you access to a doctor from your home. You can set up a virtual doctor appointment thanks to their partnership with MDLIVE.
Fitness rewards: You can earn points for the store when you track your progress with a fitness device, like a fitness bracelet a smartwatch, or even your phone, you just have to turn it on.
Digital geofencing: If you provide location permissions and you’re near a Walgreens you’ll receive a notification that you can swipe to open up your app with a bunch of coupons available.
This story is a little different. Timberland used a piece of software called Omnichat to redirect online visitors to salespeople at their physical stores. Their website launched a WhatsApp shopping service so that their customers can have a smooth shopping experience without even leaving the comfort of their homes.
Cart abandonment is one of the most common situations when a customer changes their mind at the last second. That’s where Timberland used Omnichat’s remarketing feature to send reminders through WhatsApp, Facebook, and LINE and increase their sales.
This retailer used an old-school marketing approach to create an omnichannel experience. They used billboards, but these billboards showed their inventory to the viewer, and a call to action that their viewers should use on Twitter at that time.
The customer should tweet on Topshop’s Twitter account with the hashtag #pleats or #leather. Topshop would reply to the tweet with a curated shopping list for a customer’s in-store shopping. They increased their sales tremendously just by increasing their reach.
REI did something incredible, they integrated their online shopping experience with their in-store shopping experience. So, the inventory that you would see online available in a physical store would actually be available there. They’ve integrated real-time inventory tracking into their business so that customers don’t get disappointed when they reach the store.
Benefit Cosmetics created an omnichannel campaign that made their sales go through the roof. They used Bloomreach Engagement to deploy the Blush Launch campaign. Email played an integral part in providing the foundation for an omnichannel marketing strategy.
There was a pre-launch, launch, and post-launch phase, but it all led to customers being very happy because Benefit Cosmetics had every bit of information they needed to keep the customers satisfied in one place.
The Nike omnichannel strategy and experience are based on the Nike app that was launched in 2018. They provide a healthy lifestyle experience through the Nike app, but you can also use the app to reserve products in the physical store so you can buy them afterward.
Another great example of an omnichannel experience is Best Buy’s omnichannel shopping where they have implemented real-time inventory filters to show which inventory they have in-store.
The best thing is that you can order online, and you’re encouraged to do so, so that you may go to the store and pick it up. The real-time inventory improves satisfaction as customers know that the product is there, now, and they can even pick it up today.
They have an eCommerce website with consumer packaged goods. They sell protein bars and they use three more channels, Amazon, Email, and Social Media. As a customer, when you visit their website, you get to know the benefits of their bars.
Then, they publish the product on Amazon so you can easily have access to it, and there’s a lot of detail about the product making it easy for you to see all the benefits. Finally, they promote buying the product on Amazon through the use of social media.
They implemented the VTEX InStore solution. This means that they integrated the digital and physical sales channels. The app is available on smartphones and tablets. You get a personalized experience based on the data you choose to provide.
The sales associates have access to the inventory of the entire e-commerce which comes in handy when there are no products in stock in a store that the customer is searching for, the associate can find it instantly and provide support.
It’s all bricks and clicks at Bershka. They’ve achieved an omnichannel experience for their customers by providing their customers with an app to search through the shop and scan interesting products.
When you finish shopping you can pay right away, or you can choose to try the scanned products. A shopping assistant does the thing that you choose. Another omnichannel example is the possibility of calling an assistant for help from the fitting room with a tablet.
They’re customer experience-centric. This means that they have made it easy for the customer to buy anything across all channels. But the best thing at Crate & Barrel is that they have also incentivized their sales force.
Their salespeople have accounts that track changes both in-store and virtually as long as the salesperson is logged into their account. So, they get a commission when someone buys furniture thanks to their initiative.
They have a website available, this is their main channel of catering to an omnichannel experience for the customer. However, the most successful channel they implemented was the SMS channel.
It’s very successful because they use data they gather to target the experience of their customers and help them come to a decision to buy their products. Of course, there’s geotargeting as well, and it helps drive foot traffic to their physical locations.
They are present on social media, they have a website, and they have an app, but there is a gap between those things and the physical stores. So, to fill that gap, they opened small-format stores.
When you go to a small-format Nordstrom store, you get the omnichannel experience because you can go online and order a pickup or even issue a return, and there are many other services like express alterations or freestyling help.
When you go to their website, it seems like a simple one. Beeztees is a B2B wholesale omnichannel retailer of pet products based in the Netherlands. This is a great example of a B2B company having an omnichannel customer experience. Their platform has several advantages:
Encompassing info: You can see the product inventory and details among other things on multiple mobile devices. There’s ordering information you can follow, and you can see the inventory in real time.
Delivery type: As a customer, you can choose the specific delivery type for your pet product. Do you want it in your store or do you want to pick it up from the store?
Tracking systems: The retailers have the possibility to know where their shipments are at all times because of the tracking systems Beeztees integrated into their website.
Streamline your customer service today by making Bitrix24 your central hub for all customer care channels.
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