The omnichannel strategy has become the most normalized way for e-commerce companies as customers are preferring multiple communication channels while reaching a brand. Two decades back, customers simply preferred going to the stores for checking and purchasing products. Nowadays, shoppers are more interested in browsing a brand online with the help of iPads, laptops, mobile phones while comparing different products and services. Omnichannel strategy for any company will make use of the multiple communication and sales channels while interacting with the customers and offering a great customer experience.
Best Practices for Omnichannel Strategy for Agencies
The benefits of a unified omnichannel strategy across all the offline and online channels are unlimited when it is used in a proper way with the aid of cutting-edge technology. Research has found that the businesses that are profound in offering personalized omnichannel customer experience enjoy a 10% increase in the average order value for the time frame of 3 years. In this blog, we are going to explain the best practices for the omnichannel strategy that most successful businesses practice.
1. Create Buyer Personas
The main essence of any business is understanding the customer profile which is also the main point of the omnichannel customer strategy. It includes getting perfect insights into customer preferences, priorities, buying habits, and their interactions across all the communication channels. After getting the insights, pick the preferred channels that need a strong presence so that you can help the customers in making their purchasing decisions.
2. Prioritize Your Mobile Response
In this era of digitalization, the number of mobile buyers is increasing day by day. With the huge usage of mobile devices in the buying process, the omnichannel strategy that you will formulate will keep this activity in mind while adopting the mobile-first concept. Remember if your customers will not get a smooth mobile experience while browsing your website, then 50% of the customers can switch to other brands. Make sure that your brand’s website is mobile friendly and is smooth for making mobile payments and optimize the whole website.
3. Maintain Consistency
Research from Harvard Business Review claims that almost 46,000 buyers find that 73% of the participants use several communication channels as a part of their customer journey. It is crucial for the brand in designing a cross-sales presence so that your customers will get consistent customer service from all channels. If you wish to offer a consistent omnichannel customer experience, you should prioritize the user experience in all the devices while considering their browsing history.
4. Sharpen Social Presence
If you are planning to implement a successful omnichannel strategy across the communication channels, then you need to be proactive to the customer’s queries across all channels. Your omnichannel customer experience is incomplete without a social presence of your brand. LinkedIn studies show that the sales reps having high network activity tend to achieve 45% of more sales and are 51% more likely to cover the sales quotations. Customers sometimes tend to message on the social media platforms of brands and you need to respond within time so that you can convert them into potential leads and offer a seamless customer experience.
5. Keep All Channels Integrated
A brand cannot provide a personalized seamless customer experience if its retail systems do not work properly. An omnichannel strategy cannot be implemented if the systems such as shopping cart, POS System, mobile apps, payments systems, etc. are not integrated into each other. Connecting and streamlining these systems is crucial that will yield values that are essential for determining the results of the current omnichannel strategy as well as the performance of the existing marketing and sales strategies.
6. Enhance Customer Interactions
Customer interactions can be categorized into 2 aspects i.e., they can be either face-to-face or digital interaction. Though customers nowadays prefer digital interaction more, however many customers still prefer to visit stores and want to have a conversation with the persons representing the brand. Creating a personalized and delightful shopping experience should be the main motive of the omnichannel strategy to build a long-term relationship with the customer. All communication channels should be provided with equal importance to achieve this.
7. Encourage Self Service
Self-service and FAQs are considered one of the fastest ways to provide customer experience across all the communication channels. It can be present either on your brand’s website or social media platforms or online communities such as forums. A moderator is required who will handle all the responses and provide accurate direction to the customers so that it can mitigate their issues. Let your customers use their preferred channels and make sure that you are always there to help your customers. Creating a reliable self-service helps customers in solving their issues themselves hence your customer support executives can focus on critical issues.
8. Focus SMS & Email Marketing
SMS and emails are some of the most common channels that customers prefer when connecting with a brand. Sending personalized offers on SMS or segmented emails rather than mass emails are proven to be effective ways of converting potential buyers to permanent customers. Hence, the idea of integrating emails and SMS marketing in your omnichannel strategy while categorizing your audience based on preferences and needs and sending personalized content. Research says that more than 83% of the customers want a personalized shopping experience and offering the same may improve your revenue up to 30%.
Is it Worth the Effort?
If you are thinking of the results of the efforts, you are putting in the omnichannel strategy across all the channels, well the result is versatile. Many companies have witnessed almost 250% higher customer engagement with the implementation of omnichannel retail strategy rather than using mono-channel marketing strategies. The average order value of your brand may increase by more than 13% using an omnichannel marketing platform. In terms of customer retention, 90% more retention you will witness if you are successful in the proper implementation of omnichannel strategy in every possible way of your business.
