What Multichannel Strategies Improve The Customer Experience?

The multichannel customer experience involves the use of multiple channels to attract users. When companies use social networks, the web, email and other channels to attract users, they must ensure the delivery of a continuous message at all points of contact to maximize the customer experience. Because users use multiple devices, companies must also make sure to optimize the experience on smartphones, tablets and laptops.

The proliferation of devices and channels has posed new challenges to almost all organizations, to offer excellent customer experiences and effectively unite the provision of services with the marketing, data and content activity. A good strategy and multichannel execution is becoming increasingly essential for the customer experience of all sectors.

Why Does Multichannel Gain More And More Importance?

Companies must adopt a multichannel mentality when interacting with users, because they use multiple channels and expect relevant and consistent experiences in all of them.

The proliferation of digital devices and channels has added complexity to customer travel, which makes the user experience key. It remains a challenge for many organizations to maintain consistency in all “contact points” of users.

Companies work on customer travel mapping and segmentation, using a variety of actively collected data, to identify specific areas of bad customer experience and create action plans to improve. Others undertake projects using sophisticated tracking and labeling technologies to develop an understanding of the value and role of specific channels, and provide better intelligence to the business on which to base future investment decisions.

A constant barrier to improving the customer experience is the ability to link many different legacy systems and data to provide a unique view of the user that would form the basis of a more coherent multichannel approach. While there are still significant challenges around the multichannel field, there are also some useful technologies that allow companies to develop a better understanding of the motivation and activity of the user.

Higher multichannel experiences can create a significant competitive advantage for organizations, but it is clear that, for most companies, the delivery of a continuous multichannel experience remains a work in progress for many.

What Multichannel Strategies Improve The Customer Experience?

There is a significant benefit to organizations by adopting a more sophisticated multichannel approach, and no less important to ensure more committed and profitable users. A successful approach involves a series of different facets around people, processes and technology.

1) People

• It is essential to ensure the acceptance of high-level leadership for multichannel strategies, as well as work to develop the appropriate organizational culture to ensure that a joint approach offers a uniform and high quality customer experience at all times.
• A top-down and bottom-up approach is a way to drive lasting change within the organizational culture. It is important to adopt new ways of working in the processes, practices and daily skills of employees.
• It is key to ensure the right combination of specialized vertical channel skills, with more horizontal skills around marketing, technology and customer experience.

2) Processes

• Organizations, in which communication is not adequate between departments, need to establish processes to ensure a greater degree of collaborative work, with the need to put the client in the center.
• It is essential that metrics focus on business objectives and align with customer experience.
• The information must be actionable and focused on promoting continuous improvement. The “test and learning” approaches can be useful to develop an improved understanding of the user’s needs, and a more relevant and fluid multi-channel experience for users, especially with emerging channels such as mobiles and tablets.
• Companies can effectively use tools such as user segmentation and customer journey mapping to identify improvements, prioritize investment and create a competitive advantage.
• The approaches should focus on the user, not just the business. Well-integrated approaches from the perspective of customer experience can bring benefits in terms of efficiency and profitability.

3) Technologies

• The use of more sophisticated tracking technologies, analysis and user feedback tools can provide companies with the customer perspective they need to develop a better understanding of the customer journey.
• A single complete view of the user can only be achieved through the alignment of the metrics, the experience in their analysis and the effective union of data through CRM systems.
• While this remains an aspiration for many, others have already begun the process and are learning to improve the efficiency and optimization of multichannel.