What Omnichannel Service really means

True omnichannel means giving businesses the ability to talk to the right customers, in the right place, without sacrificing context along the way.

We were already heading for a digital-first world, but social distancing really sped up the process. Amid a global pandemic, brands needed to be able to connect with customers in more ways than one.

Businesses that took an omnichannel approach have reaped the rewards by becoming high performers. According to recent research companies that provided omnichannel support performed better across key customer experience (CX) metrics, such as faster response times and higher customer satisfaction scores.

Success starts with understanding how omnichannel differs from multichannel—and why that matters. It also requires a business to determine how an omnichannel customer service strategy can create a better experience for its customers, support agents, and other teams across the organization.

What is omnichannel customer service?

Omnichannel definition: Omnichannel is a customer experience strategy that creates connected and consistent customer interactions across channels.

When businesses take an omnichannel approach to CX, they end siloed conversations by consolidating channels and customer context coming from those channels under a single source of truth. This enables teams to reference the customer information they need when they need it—regardless of the channel they’re using.

For example, someone might choose to contact customer support via a chatbot. If their issue is going to take a long time to resolve, they might be given the option to receive their response as an email. Or, they might be referred to a live agent they can talk to via chat or phone. The agent who assists them will then receive all the relevant context, meaning the customer won’t have to repeat themselves.

The ability to move interactions seamlessly from one channel to another is what defines a truly omnichannel customer service experience.

What does omnichannel mean in other contexts?

There are different kinds of omnichannel experiences, depending on your customers’ needs and expectations. Beyond communications, the term omnichannel is also used in retail and marketing. Although the specific details are different, the concept is fundamentally the same: one consistent experience regardless of channel.

An ecommerce company, for example, might enable customers to make purchases through channels beyond its website, such as inside a messaging thread of a social channel or mobile app. The business might also make product suggestions or send personalized offers to the customer based on their shopping history.

Imagine a brand sends you an email or push notification that tells you one of your favorite items is on sale. You take a look at the online selection but don’t buy anything. Later, you get a retargeting ad on Instagram that convinces you to take another look. This time, you buy and receive your order and shipping confirmations via SMS. Congratulations—you’ve just experienced an omnichannel marketing and retail experience!

Omnichannel vs. multichannel: What’s the difference?

Many companies boast about providing “omnichannel” experiences, but what they usually mean is simply “multichannel.”

• Multichannel means being everywhere your customers are. It’s about providing multiple communication channels, but not necessarily connecting them to one another. A multichannel experience might allow customers to contact support via chat, phone, or SMS but not to continue a conversation from one channel to the next.
• Omnichannel means going a step further and providing a consistent communications journey for your customer. An omnichannel experience is one where the conversation history and context travels with the customer from channel to channel—allowing agents to provide better, more personalized support.

Context is crucial for delivering the type of experiences customers have grown accustomed to in their personal lives. You want to know who your customer is, where they’re coming from, and what they’ve talked to you about in the past.

But context is frustratingly tricky to maintain in a world of countless disconnected communication channels. Customers now contact companies through various chat apps—including Facebook Messenger, Line, and WhatsApp—in addition to email, SMS, mobile, and web chat.

While it’s tempting for businesses to view the proliferation of channels as an inconvenience, the truth is, not all channels are created equal. In real life, a crowded bar might be a good place to start a conversation, but it’s nice to be able to move somewhere quieter for more privacy—in other words, every conversation has its proper place.

1. When customers want to be notified that an agent has replied to their message

Let’s say someone is browsing your business’ website and pings you with a question via your custom web messenger. Maybe your agent isn’t able to answer right away. Or maybe the user has a little back-and-forth with a bot but then has to run before the issue is resolved. Rather than hang around your website, the customer would probably prefer to receive a notification via Facebook Messenger (or email or SMS) once someone has replied to their message.

Most web messengers prompt a user to enter their email address, but in the modern messaging age, it’s nice to give customers more options. And when the customer is available to continue the conversation, they can do so on the new channel without skipping a beat.