Call Center Management Featured Article
Understanding the Vast Differences Between Multichannel and Omnichannel
We’re becoming a nation of multitaskers today. We read the news on our tablets while we watch TV (during the commercials, of course). We play a game on our phone while we have a conversation on social media. We exchange text messages with friends or colleagues while we’re watching a presentation. While many lament the loss of our attention spans and our ability to concentrate on a single task, the reality is that we’re a nation of distracted, multichannel multitaskers, and companies that wish to do business with us need to adapt to this reality.
“…as people change their behaviors, marketers will need to react,” wrote HubSpot writer Aaron Agius in a recent blog post. “Instead of thinking of a desktop experience, a mobile experience, a tablet experience, and an Apple (News - Alert) Watch experience, we'll need to pursue one, holistic approach -- an omni-channel experience.”
Many companies’ idea of “going multichannel” has been to offer a series of side-by-side siloed channels that don’t communicate with one another, and don’t allow customers to switch between them. While it is indeed “multiple channels,” it’s not what customers expect today. They want to be able to start a transaction in one channel, then switch over and finish it in another. Can your contact center platform do that? Not many can today. This is the true “omnichannel” approach.
“All omnichannel experiences will use multiple channels, but not all multichannel experiences are omnichannel,” wrote Agius. “Remember that. You can have amazing mobile marketing, engaging social media campaigns, and a well-designed website. But if they don’t work together, it’s not omnichannel.”
For many companies, designing an omnichannel approach involves mapping the customer journey…every possible route customers can take to resolution, asking questions along the way: What if the customer leaves the house and the desktop experience at this point and picks up a tablet to go? What if the customer is in the aisle at our brick-and-mortar store and wishes to engage with the mobile app? This customer journey mapping process will need to work across multiple departments, so be prepared to sit down with marketing, sales, advertising, retail managers, back-office functions and even warehousing.
“Once everyone understands the goals and objectives of your omnichannel initiative, you can start planning your transition to this model,” wrote Agius. “Including these departments early on will make it easier as you try to shift into an omnichannel way of doing things -- it’s less of a headache down the road when you get people excited in the beginning.”
It also helps to examine case studies and real-world applications for companies that truly get it right: think Disney (News - Alert), Sephora, Starbucks, Crate and Barrel and Nordstrom. While all their methods may not be right for your business, it’s a helpful way to see true omnichannel customer experiences in action.