Today’s modern and tech-savvy consumers are becoming increasingly meticulous and expect a tailored, personalized shopping experience. They wish to be able to shop anywhere, at any time and from any location. If you are not meeting these expectations, you tend to lose market share. One of the key components to win new customers and stay ahead is to adopt omnichannel strategy. As customers demand a consistent experience across channels and expect everything to be readily available at his fingertips, going omnichannel is the only way to lure customers and exceed their expectations.
Omnichannel is a multi-channel sales and customer service approach that provides customers with an integrated experience across channels. Customer can be using telephone, chat, mobile or internet, experience would be seamless.
Though many companies have implemented and acknowledge the importance of customer experience strategy, but some of them go completely wrong in their efforts and are not able to take advantage of this powerful business model.
Below are 5 key signs your omnichannel strategy isn’t working:
You are Channel Blind
All your channels are disconnected and are working in a separate silo. Social media team may not have access to a phone and a call center agent might not have an email address. This leads to extreme channel blindness and keeps the customers from having a seamless experience as they have to work hard to shift between channels.
According to a research from Accenture, while nearly all customers use more than one channel to communicate with companies, 65% are frustrated by inconsistent experiences.
There might be inherent challenges including cost expenditure that companies face while integrating different channels, which prevents them from providing a smooth omnichannel experience. But customers don’t care about this as they simply like to have a flawless buying experience. They should be able to start their journey from any channel and take it to completion on any other channel. It is critical that all of the sales channels are working in conjuncture with one another to allow a convenient buying process. If a customer has purchased online and wants to return or exchange the product in-store, the responsibility lies on the company to create a painless experience. After all, this is what omnichannel customer service is all about.
Failing to Leverage Mobile Devices
Nowadays, customers use their smartphones and tablets to open their emails and visit a company’s website. However, it is highly unlikely that they will make a purchase on their phones, especially in the same session. But not all companies use technology to embrace these incidents. In fact, they try to change this behavior. Whereas, brands should capture this information and use it to create a more relevant experience the next time the customer comes in contact to them, regardless of the device. For example- if a product catches the eye of the customer in an email, the company should use this data and showcase the same product with related offers, discounts and unique features, the next time the customer visits its site.
Not Using Omnichannel for Product Inventory
If a certain product is selling well in a particular city online, the brands should ensure that the same product is fully stocked in their physical stores as well. However, many organizations are still not leveraging their omnichannel data in different and unique ways to get the most out of it. They must make sure that they use the data of each channel for product demands and accordingly maintain the inventories everywhere.
Assuming you Know your Customers Well
It is very difficult for companies to offer a consistently good customer experience in every new implemented service. Also, it is also a possibility that the customers might not even use that new service. For example- even if you have enabled a live chat functionality on your website, customers might still prefer calls or email. So, dig well into the customer insights and data and align your future decisions based on them. By properly capturing and analyzing consumer and business data, businesses can develop an omnichannel strategy that suits the needs and requirements of their customers.
Having No Measurement Strategy
You may think that your omnichannel strategy is successful while actually it’s not and vice-versa. This happens when you don’t have any system of measurement in place. It is crucial for businesses to have a solid measurement strategy and they should also be careful of tracking the right KPIs. When you implement a new strategy, you should be able to point out what is working well and what’s not. Only then, you will be able to form your future strategies and deliver a superior omnichannel customer experience. Implement KPIs that are valuable and optimize them to keep a track of your strategy.
