As more consumers seamlessly use multiple devices throughout their day, is your organization prepared to provide a cohesive omni-channel experience?

How the Omni-Channel Experience Affects Customer Journey | Union

How the Omni-Channel Experience Affects the Customer Journey

“Omni-channel experience” is the latest marketing buzzword, but what exactly does it mean? According to<a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/think/docs/twg-how-people-use-their-devices-2016.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Google</a>, we spend 170 minutes per day on smartphones, 120 minutes on our desktops, and 75 minutes on tablets, excluding time on work devices. Consumers are switching from phones to tablets to laptops without missing a beat and<a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/think/docs/twg-how-people-use-their-devices-2016.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> 20 percent of people</a> use a second device concurrently while using their computer.
It comes as no surprise then, that people expect their experiences with your brand to be the same no matter which device they choose to use. 
66 percent of device owners find it frustrating when content is not synced across devices.<a href="http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/news-room/pdfs/201603/032116AdobeGetPersonalReport-Final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> - Adobe</a>
If your business isn’t already optimized for an omni-channel experience, you are missing opportunities every day. 
<h1>Multi-Channel vs. Omni-Channel</h1>
It’s important to note the distinction between the two. Your current experience is likely multi-channel based. Your <a href="https://union.co/articles/mobile-marketing-campaigns-present-and-future">mobile site</a> is responsive, your app is easy to use, and your desktop experience has it all. But what happens if someone adds to cart in your app and then comes back via desktop? Does your customer service phone number provide the same service as your email or Twitter?
Simply put, the omni-channel experience is the seamless integration of every touch point available to your customers across all mediums and devices. 
<h1>Losing Out on E-Commerce</h1>
While mobile shopping continues to rise as a tool for research and comparison, many people fail to pull the trigger from their phones. While browsing and researching on mobile can be an enjoyable experience, checking out is often cumbersome. Many users will research on their phones, add an item to their cart, and want to purchase it later. If the cart in your app isn’t synced with your desktop experience, you may have just lost a sale. Utilizing abandoned cart emails to remind shoppers to come back later can make a huge difference in your abandonment rate. If they don’t bite from the first email, send a follow up when the product is almost sold out, or offer a coupon to recapture the potentially lost sale. 
<h1>Customer Service</h1>
55% of consumers reported regularly using two or more <a href="http://www.northridgegroup.com/The-State-of-Customer-Service-Experience-2016" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">communication channels</a> to contact a company or brand before an issue was resolved. If a customer has to restate their issue a second time, and explain the steps they’ve gone through to resolve it, it is both frustrating for the customer, and redundant for your customer service department.
Breaking down the silos that exist between departments means that any member of your customer service team will have all the information they need about a customer’s history, no matter which channels they’ve been using. 47 percent of customers would take their business to a competitor within a day of experiencing poor customer service. Creating an <a href="//blog.accessdevelopment.com/customer-loyalty-statistics-2016-edition" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">omni-channel customer service experience</a> means your customers won’t fall through the cracks between those channels. 
<h1>Personalizing Your Strategy</h1>
81% of consumers prefer sites that suggest products based on their past searches or interests, but if a user adds a product to their cart in your app, how do you follow them back to their desktop?
Incentivizing users to sign up, log in, and share information is one of the best ways to connect your channels and tailor your marketing. Offering special coupons for members is a highly effective way to overcome the issue some consumers have with sharing personal data.
A whopping<a href="http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/news-room/pdfs/201603/032116AdobeGetPersonalReport-Final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> 90 percent of device owners polled</a> in a recent Adobe study said they would be comfortable sharing a piece of information about themselves to improve their experience. Despite this, only 28 percent of marketers polled have ever used<a href="http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/study-customers-especially-millennials-hate-when-you-fail-to-deliver-cross-device-experiences/636442" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> cross-device identification</a>.
A seamless experience means learning as much about your individual customers as possible, increasing the communication between departments, and creating company-wide standards for all facets of your business. When a customer can add a pair of shoes to their cart in your app, see those shoes when they sign in on desktop, and then get an email reminder when those shoes go on sale, you not only make a sale you would have missed, but increase brand loyalty and engagement in the process.
Don’t let a poor experience hurt your customer journey, ensure that your brand experience is seamlessly excecuted across platforms and customer touchpoints.

How the Omni-Channel Experience Affects the Customer Journey

Valtech + Union is a creative &amp; performance marketing agency that creates omni-channel campaigns, unleashing creativity on a data-driven world, helping brands produce memorable, measurable and repeatable results. Obsessed with data-driven performance, we believe every marketing dollar should be viewed as an investment. Our clients expect a meaningful return and we prove the ROI of our work with quantifiable data.