Businesses can use different communication channels to connect with their audience. However, companies that don't use multichannel communication risk losing customers who prefer specific channels.
You should incorporate as many customer touchpoints as possible to keep customers engaged and remind them of your value. Notably, omnichannel communication highlights the significance of customer communication by making each touchpoint feel unique, effortless, and personable.
Here, we'll guide you through omnichannel communication, its benefits and strategies, the different types of channels available, and upcoming trends.
What Is OmniChannel Communication?
Omnichannel communication is when a company provides a unified experience across different channels that consumers use to interact with a brand. With a multichannel approach, your business can reach customers using channels like email, SMS, or in-app messaging.
However, it's important to note a few differences between multichannel and omnichannel communication strategies. With multichannel communication, you use different channels to communicate with clients, but each serves its own purpose.
On the other hand, omnichannel focuses on having a single voice for the brand and achieving common goals even when using different communication channels. Additionally, customers can transition between various channels without the need to start over with the conversation or purchase procedure.
You can solidify your brand identity by maintaining consistent omnichannel communication. In addition, businesses are more likely to reach a larger audience and build relationships with prospective clients who may only be active on particular platforms.
What Are the Different Types of Channels for Omnichannel Communication?
Understanding your customer journey map can help you learn more about your audience's preferred channels at each stage of the buying process.
With the numerous options available, let's look at the different types of channels and how companies use them to interact with their clients.
Social Media
Many companies today use social media for brand communication and advertising. About 66% of marketers intended to boost their Instagram advertising spending, while 43% intended to boost their TikTok advertising spending.
Social media can help increase your business's visibility and reach. Posting interesting content and engaging with followers improves brand awareness and draws in new consumers.
Social media interactions also give you valuable insights into user sentiments and service quality. Monitoring comments, reviews, and direct messages can reveal customer preferences, opinions, and satisfaction and inform business decisions. Additionally, collaborating with influencers or brand ambassadors can help increase your reach.
Email marketing is a common way to stay in touch with current customers and reconnect with inactive ones. With 79% of millennials and 57% of Generation Z expressing that they liked it when brands emailed them, emails are useful for establishing and keeping customers' interest.
Using emails, you can maintain customer engagement and encourage them to buy from you again with personalized offers, reminders, or updates. Sending out newsletters regularly also allows you to keep your subscribers up-to-date on all the latest happenings at your company, as well as news in your industry, relevant tips, and more.
SMS
Businesses often use SMS to send customers discount codes, special offers, and promotional messages. You can include links to online stores or mobile applications where your customers can make a purchase.
One common use of SMS is the communication of order status updates by online retailers. Such communications may consist of order confirmations, shipment alerts, and delivery status updates.
Additionally, you can use SMS to get customer feedback by sending polls or surveys. Businesses can gain valuable insights from customer responses and use them to improve their products or services.
Chatbots
Chatbots make it possible to provide support services around the clock, ensuring that you solve customer frustrations on time. For instance, chatbots can automate the process of appointment or booking scheduling, which is convenient for consumers.
You can also use chatbots to convey targeted marketing messages, inform your customers about sales or discounts, and run interactive campaigns to get people to interact with your brand.
Live Chat
Live chat is a convenient option for customers to use. It allows businesses to provide instant assistance to their customers by allowing them to get in touch with businesses whenever they like without having to call or email.
Through live chat, customer service agents can quickly resolve queries and customer concerns, thus improving user satisfaction. Users can engage in live chat while performing other tasks, like web browsing, before getting help.
Push Notifications
Organizations can send targeted push notifications to customers based on their interests and data. By enabling media-rich communication, push notifications are an excellent substitute for SMS. Sending push notifications helps re-engage dormant users, boost product usage, or announce new features.
Push notifications also allow businesses to remind customers of upcoming events like new product releases, store openings, or sales. Additionally, using push notifications, businesses can prompt customers to finish their purchases by reminding them of items they left in their carts.
In-App Messaging
Businesses can provide real-time customer support right within their app with in-app messaging. Customers can directly ask questions, report problems, or get help from the app interface, which makes the experience better and makes users happier.
With in-app messaging, companies can tailor their messages to each user according to their interests, actions, and previous interactions. In-app messaging personalizes the connection between businesses and their customers, inspiring confidence and trust in the business. Taking this personalized approach builds stronger relationships and improves user retention.
Incorporating video and audio in an app can provide an exceptional omnichannel customer experience. You can use APIs and chat SDKs to incorporate in-app messaging faster than building the features in-house from scratch.
What Are the Benefits of Omnichannel Communication?
Your communication strategy should incorporate as many touch points as possible to keep customers engaged. Apart from increased engagement, there are a host of benefits your business can gain from omnichannel communication.
Let's take a look.
Improved Customer Satisfaction
Omnichannel communication lets you reach more customers and engage them on whatever platform they prefer. Giving your customers the choice of which channel works best for them will make their experience more personalized and satisfying.
Also, when running an omnichannel strategy, you can collect customer data insights on which platforms your customers prefer. Such data and analytics can help your businesses understand customer preferences and help you deliver more personalized experiences.
Further, improved user satisfaction can impact your Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) metrics. A high CSAT core suggests that consumers are pleased with your service or product, which, in turn, results in lower churn rates.
Higher Return on Investment (ROI)
With omnichannel, there are many points to deliver value to your customer, resulting in more conversions, sales, and revenue. Omnichannel communication enables companies to connect with consumers through various channels. Engaged consumers are more likely to buy from the brand, which in turn increases conversions and ROI.
Monitoring your customers' interactions across various channels can also reveal a great deal about their shopping preferences. You can then use this data to prioritize the channels that provide the highest engagement.
Lower Churn Rates
Typically, a subscription business can expect an annual churn rate of 5-7%. However, having omnichannel communication strategies means that you can easily cater to different customer preferences, promoting engagement. Higher engagement, increased user satisfaction, and improved user experience can help lower churn rates and promote user retention.
Better Competitive Advantage
Omnichannel communication helps organizations incorporate numerous touchpoints that often result in enhanced customer engagement, thus providing more sales opportunities.
For example, a potential customer may stumble on your ecommerce site through a social ad, and after scrolling through your product catalog, add some items to their cart. If they end up abandoning their cart, you can send them push notifications or emails to encourage them to complete their purchase.
Organizations that embrace multichannel communication show they are committed to meeting customers where they are, which can give them an advantage over competitors who don't offer as many options.
Also, in a world where accessibility preferences and needs vary from person to person, accommodating accessible contact options helps your business attain a competitive advantage.
How Does an Omnichannel Communication Strategy Look Like?
Before you can build and implement an effective omnichannel strategy, you need to assess the communication channels you currently use and determine whether you have overlooked any opportunities for improvement.
Here's what an optimal omnichannel communication strategy looks like.
Multichannel Integrations
Set up unified messaging systems that integrate different forms of electronic communication like chat, email, social media, and text messages. Multichannel integrations ensure real-time communication across all platforms and let customers seamlessly transition between channels without losing context.
Consistent Branding and Communication
When building an omnichannel strategy, your customer service team should strive to maintain consistency between all the messaging channels you decide to use. By remaining consistent, the brand's identity is strengthened, and customer trust is increased.
Personalized Experiences
Businesses can increase engagement and satisfaction by learning user behavior and using that data to send personalized messages and offers across all channels. You can achieve personalized communication by analyzing customer data and implementing artificial intelligence algorithms.
Additionally, it's important to ensure that different communication channels are integrated. For instance, you can allow clients to initiate a discussion on social media and carry it on to a different channel without any change in context.
Cross-Channel Analytics
You can integrate real-time analytics tools that track customer interactions across all communication channels. Performing cross-channel analysis allows companies to gauge client needs and adjust their communication approaches appropriately and quickly.
Real-Time Communication
You can take advantage of chatbots and AI assistants to solve customer problems and quickly answer their questions. Maintaining real-time communication requires aiming for quick response times across all channels. You can also implement strategies like automated routing and prioritization to ensure customer questions are answered quickly.
Omnichannel Communication Trends To Look Out for in 2024
The future of omnichannel communication lies in integrating emerging technologies to deliver a seamless customer experience.
Firstly, the market value for marketing AI is anticipated to surpass $107.5 billion by 2028, from an estimated $15.84 billion in 2021. Thanks to AI and automation, we'll likely see the omnichannel experience become more advanced.
In February 2023, over 35% of marketing decision-makers said their customer journey was "mostly" or "fully" automated. Further, in another 2023 study of US marketers, 73% said their company used generative AI tools like chatbots.
As such, AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants will advance to the point where they can handle common questions and provide individualized assistance across various platforms, allowing human agents to concentrate on more intricate jobs.
Further, communication channels will possibly incorporate technologies that promote immersive experiences, such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). For instance, retailers will be able to use AR and VR technologies to let customers view products before buying them, thus improving the overall shopping experience.
The omnichannel landscape will also likely see voice-based features taking center stage as voice-based communication continues to gain popularity. To take advantage of voice search and commands, brands will have to revamp their communication strategies.
What's Next?
Embracing omnichannel communication lets you capitalize on the significance of proper brand positioning for today's consumers. It's easier for customers to interact with your brand and make purchases when the experience is consistent across all channels.
When you capitalize on increasing engagement and user experience, you can increase your lifetime value, which ultimately results in a higher ROI.
