Tips For Improved Omni-Channel Customer Experiences Part 1

The famous business slogan ‘the customer is always right’ is based on underlying verity that customers are the life-blood of any business, without whom a business cannot survive. No matter whether you are a start-up, a small enterprise or a huge conglomerate, excellent customer services needs to be part of your organization’s DNA. If you wish to be successful, customer services needs to be at the centre of your business model.

The business world is extremely dynamic and in order to survive in this chaotic, fickle and competitive world, you need to actively look at ways to improve your customer services. With the transforming technologies and the advent of social media, cloud, smartphones and tablets, the expectation of customers have transformed exponentially. Today’s customers can no longer be lured with just a static web page, a customer care executive and a toll-free 1800 number.

Today is the generation of technology savvy customers expecting the brands to be engaging and interactive offering unique customer experience at all levels.  Providing good customer services through all the channels wherever your visitors are present is vital. Think of it this way, what’s the point of investing in swankier furniture for your brick-and-mortar outlet, if most of the customers you serve are online. Instead you should be ensuring that your website and your other online mediums are providing the best user-experience possible. The key point here is ‘go where your customers are or risk losing out’. Learn some tips on how to provide an improved omni-channel customer experience:

Understand Buyer’s Journey : 

The first thing which you need to do is to understand your buyer’s journey. The journey of a buyer can vary from industry to industry and you need to have a thorough knowledge of how the purchase happens in your industry before you can start understanding your buyer’s journey. However, no matter what industry you belong to, there are some process which are similar to all industries. The first step in the buyer’s journey is that the buyer becomes aware that they have a desire or a problem and develops interest in the particular products or services. The next step is to gather information and then seek options. After exploring all the options, the buyer finally makes the purchase decision. After understanding your buyer’s journey, you can then influence him or her to purchase from you, right from the time your buyer becomes aware of the desire or need for the product or services.

Determine Your Cross-Channel Strategy : 

Gone are the days when only one medium was enough to be able to sell to your customers. Now, you need to have a cross-channel strategy to be able to go where your customers are and serve them. Cross-channel, also known as integrated marketing use various different messages strung together through all channels from social media, display ads, email marketing, content marketing, tele-marketing, and other traditional mediums. Cross-channel marketing strategy in simple terms is a way to tell users the same story in various different ways. You need to have a cohesive strategy leveraging all channels to reach the same goal. Before launching an integrated marketing strategy you need to ensure that you have a strong integrated messaging which you want to send across.

Be Responsive : 

Keeping your customers happy is vital for ensuring that you don’t lose your clients.  The quality of your service and your responsiveness are major factors in ensuring an enhanced or degraded customer loyalty to your business. The aim of any business when it comes to customer interactions is to generate loyalty. But it is easier said than done.  In today’s fast-paced world, customers want quick information and they aren’t ready to wait around for you to respond. Your business needs to be accessible to your customers and for that you need to be able to respond to your customers as soon as possible. Ensure that you have a team in place monitoring all the channels to ensure agility in response.

Stay tuned for the next post in the series, ‘Tips for improved Omni-Channel Customer Experiences Part 2’ to ensure the best customer services for your business. Follow this blog to get more understanding and insight on how you can build an Omni-channel strategy for the best customer experience.