Omnichannel: Planning and personalisation key to a successful strategy
Omnichannel in retail is the biggest trend in 2019. It combines everything from brick-andmortar stores through e-commerce and social media to mobile, into a fully integrated shopping experience.
With multiple channels, there are a variety of opportunities for customer communication. Customers want to be able to seamlessly move between channels. To deliver an omnichannel strategy successfully, the retailer should map the customer journey and consider how each channel can be leveraged to improve the user experience.
Planning and personalisation are key to creating a successful omnichannel strategy.
We have talked about personalisation in previous blogs. Targeted communications that are relevant and useful, can create lasting customer loyalty, and drive revenue growth. However, if a contact strategy isn’t integrated, communication will be disjointed which could be hugely damaging for your brand. The more sophisticated the personalisation, the more individually tailored the customer journey.
Anthony Jones, CEO of Motivait, said: “Nobody owns customers. The customer owns the customer. Building relationships to ensure that the customers will connect with you across various channels in the omnichannel strategy is vital but challenging.”
Planning is essential to bring all the channels together across the whole organisation to ensure customers have seamless movement. Rolling out new initiatives can take a long time and with technology changing every year, deciding which channels to focus on can be difficult. The successful retailer needs to be attractive, available, convenient and supportive to its customers.
Echo-U has produced a report called ‘Individuality and Influence: The Customer is in Control’ on the future of retail and changing customer behaviour which highlights omnichannel as a key trend. It is available to download from the Echo-U website here: https://www.echo-u.co.uk/newcastle-university-students-deliver-retail-research-projectto-outsourced-customer-contact-centre-echo-u/
