In today’s market, customers can access a number of devices where they can access information whether it's offline or online. In recent years, the number of internet-enabled device types has exploded from smartphones to smartwatches and soon to folding display devices. Two new marketing terms have come out of this advancement to help marketing teams create marketing strategies. The two terms coined are ‘Multichannel’ and ‘Omnichannel’.

What is the difference between Multichannel and Omnichannel?

Multi-channel marketing is interaction with potential customers on various platforms whether it is online or offline. Multi-channel marketing puts the decision of how to engage with the brand in the consumer’s hands.

On the other hand, omnichannel is a multichannel sales approach that integrates the customer’s shopping experience. The customer could be shopping online or in-store but the experience will be the same and the message conveyed will be the same across all platforms.

How does omnichannel affect customer experience?

Companies tend to get the word out via the maximum possible number of channels, multichannel strategy often adopts two or more channels to engage their consumers; the most popular are social media and email. This implementation will mean the message will be seen, however the experience will be different across the platforms. An omnichannel approach connects all channels to engage with the customer, which ensures the customer gets a wonderful overall experience with the brand throughout each and every channel as well as keeping the message and branding consistent. By keeping the branding and message consistent, this will solidify the familiarity and relationship with the brand. This means that all departments have to be inline with the message and branding to ensure all channels follow the same format and style.

Deploying an omnichannel marketing strategy will eliminate effort from the customer experience. By connecting consumers by multiple channels means there are more options, however omnichannel will use data to pinpoint areas where effort exists in the customer experience and remove it.

Benefits of Omnichannel

Established brands will have multiple channels yet they function in an isolated fashion, but an omnichannel strategy will integrate them and ensure they have a cohesive message and create a streamlined experience for everyone that engages with the brand. The omnichannel strategy will force businesses to look at the customer experience as a whole and make you consider ways to streamline the customer's experience without having them jump through hoops. When deploying an omnichannel strategy all the data is housed in a centralised location, which means that the data gathered can be cross-referenced and compared unlike when reviewing data in isolation. Using an omnichannel approach allows businesses to integrate customer services, sales, marketing, inventory management, resource planning, and more. Integrating all the services means that your business can work efficiently as all teams will have access to the latest information and data, which will prevent delays to get processes underway and maximize productivity to making improvements moving forward.

How do I deploy an omnichannel approach?

Adopting an omnichannel requires a lot of thinking to ensure all current processes, departments, and services are integrated efficiently to ensure decisions can be made effectively to streamline the customer experience. Before making the jump, your brand should consider the following:

• Know the customer – Understand your customers’ wants, needs, and preferences. Why do they use your services rather than use others? This information can be gathered from analytical data and social listening tools to examine customers’ online and offline behaviours.

• Improvement in technology – Smarter technologies will be critical to the adoption of a successful omnichannel implementation. You will need programs and services that have the capacity to adapt the experience to the customer’s preferences.

• Be smart with data – One major aspect of an omnichannel approach is the data that will allow you to identify pain points in a customer’s journey. Combining data from multiple systems will give you a competitive advantage by allowing your teams quicker access to important data. This will, in turn, lead quicker decisions being made and result in initiating processes to be started without delay.

• Review organisation structure and culture – Traditional organisations tend to operate in a silo, however, an omnichannel approach needs departments to be willing and able to work collaboratively at every turn to achieve the same objective. This can be achieved by utilising the right technologies that enable cross-team workflows.

Summary

An omnichannel approach will focus your organisation on customers and what they want as the approach requires the organisation to review the customer experience by looking at the data collected. By housing the data centrally, all departments will be able to make quick decisions more efficiently. Using an omnichannel approach will also ensure that your messaging and branding will stay cohesive no matter what channel the customer decides to use to interact with your brand. However, switching to an omnichannel approach isn’t easy as it will require businesses to review internal processes and upgrade technologies in order to facilitate collaboration as well as adapting to the customer experience.  

Case studies

Disney

The initial interaction is the mobile-responsive website, which allows planning your trip.  Once you have booked your trip, you can use the My Disney Experience tool to plan your entire trip, from where you want to dine to securing your Fast Pass. Once in the park, you can use the mobile app to locate the attractions you want to see as well as view estimated wait time for each ride. Disney has also released its Magic Band program which acts as your hotel room key, photo storage device for any pictures taken of you with Disney characters, and a food ordering tool. The tool also has a Fast Pass integration as well.

Starbucks

The Starbucks rewards app allows you to get a free rewards card that you can use whenever you make a purchase. Starbucks has made it possible to check and reload your card via phone, website, in-store or on the app. Any changes to your card will get updated across all channels in real-time.

Timberland

Timberland gives users a tablet that they can press against products or signage located throughout the store. When the tablet is pressed against the chip, information about that product or offer is displayed. Customers don’t have to seek store clerks for more information and can easily access the deals that are offered for each product. As the customer continues their shop by looking up different items, the software will start making product suggestions based on their shopping history. This creates a more bespoke customer experience but also allows the store to highlight less popular products.