Omni Channel Customer Experience

Omni Channel Customer Experience

What is Omni Channel?

Omni comes from the Latin word Omnis which means universal. Omni channel customer experience is about providing seamless experience consistently across all channels. Having multiple channels that allows customers to contact you does not serve the purpose, it’s about ensuring that all the channels are connected integrated and are consistent.

Power to the customer

Deloitte research shows 81% of Australia’s population owns a Smartphone and is projected to 91% by 2017 according to Australian communications and media authority. This is clear evidence of how well today’s customers are connected and informed than we have ever seen. Companies can no longer decide which channel they would prefer to be contacted anymore; the customer decides which channel they would prefer and when they would prefer to be contacted.

The recent benchmarking study revealed the below insights on customer preferences from a contact centre perspective:



Source: Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Summary Report 2015

Benefits of Omni Channel

Optimising & Integrating customer touch points through effective data management/ automation

Understanding the intricacies of individual transactions, as well as the context of customer behavior over multiple contacts and channels is paramount. Omni channel could help you gain valuable insights into your customer’s life style, preferences and habits. For example, if someone is researching a holiday to Cairns on your website and has requested for some advice from your staff regarding visas through online chat, and contacts a little later, their call can be automatically be routed to the visa department for Australia and finally may end up purchasing a travel package from your company with confidence over a call. You would have effectively converted a prospect to a customer just by the experience provided and intelligent automation.

Customer Engagement

According to Aberdeen, companies who integrate contact centers within their Omni-channel strategy enjoy a higher customer retention rate and a higher customer lifetime value –both clear indicators of increased customer satisfaction. The ability to provide consistent customer service via all touch points is one important reason for the increased customer satisfaction. Businesses that ensure delivery of a seamless consumer experience across multiple touch-points enjoy a 7.1% increase in customer retention rates, compared to 4.9% annual erosion of the customer base within other firms. In addition to retaining more of their customer base each year, Omni-channel CEM (Customer Engagement) users also improve the lifetime value of these buyers by 4.0% annually, compared to a 23.3% decline in client value across other organizations. The below graph indicates success of companies with Omni-channel programs in driving additional top-line revenue for the business.



Research by Customer experience board shows that 58% of the callers have visited the web before calling and 34% of the callers are on the web when they are talking to a Customer Service Representative. It is stated by marketing expert, Dr. Jeffrey Lant that in order to penetrate a consumer’s consciousness with your brand, one has to make contact with the prospect a minimum of seven times. With the numerous channels and devices available for interaction, it means optimizing and seizing the opportunity at each touch point to provide a consistent experience.

Let’s look at this scenario how would your customer feel when one of your team member David is having a conversation with them for example on the 20.07.2015 and advises that “Thank you for your enquiry through our web chat system on the 19.07.2015 I hope I was able to answer your query through web chat. Would you require more information on the same or can we sign you up for the Gas connection since you have been our loyal customer in electricity”. The Omni channel experience allows customers to seamlessly move from a chat to a phone call and connect with the same agent to ensure they do not need to repeat themselves again.

Would the above have a better impact or imagine a customer needs to advise you that they were searching online for some offers and they did check your website yesterday and they came across this offer? Every customer contact is an opportunity to create an emotional trigger. It occurs not necessarily when a customer’s issue is resolved, but when the customer is made to feel special and wanted. Customer then connects with the services and perceives the brand’s value emotionally.

Competitive Advantage

Guess what sometimes the customer wouldn’t mind paying more for the seamless experience that you provide against that of your competitors so you might be able to create a niche market for yourself purely based on Customer experience. Research shows that 57% of companies can relate improving customer experience levels to revenue / profit growth. Telstra differentiated itself from its competitors by providing superior mobile network and high speed 4G services and demands a higher rate compared to other providers for the same.

In a nutshell an effective Omni-channel strategy would provide a unified customer view by aggregating data across various channels and touch points, provide a personalized customer experience by enabling customer recognition, personalized selling & service, and tailored communications, contextual intelligence, and digital commerce.