For several years, industry portals have featured content combining multichannel, cross-channel and omnichannel activities. The dominant postulate is that out of these three approaches, only omnichannel allows you to provide benefits to the client, and as a result – also to the company. At the same time, no one promises an easy way. Implementing this strategy is a complex process. Requiring analysis and reasoning, significant workload and the need to transform business processes. The biggest space for change concerns communication and customer service. Following the development of possibilities and technology, the requirements of recipients have increased. More and more data, descriptions of changes in the image of the market and consumer expectations (both B2C and B2B) prove that the time has come to make all possible efforts to be truly “omni”.
So how do we move from assumptions to action? What to follow, where to start, what to pay attention to? I present a set of basic tips referring to Salesforce Omnichannel solutions.
Step one: analysis
Omnichannel is a strategy and therefore requires an analysis of the current state and careful rethinking of the processes connecting all communication and service channels. First of all, it should be remembered that the omnichannel assumptions are based not so much on presence in all possible media, but on designing interactions between them, as well as outside them (or off-line), in accordance with the steps taken by customers.
It is therefore worth considering how consumers purchase products and services in a given company (because it does not have to be just a store). Where do they look for information, how do they acquire additional knowledge, what device (or devices) do they use to carry out the individual steps of the purchasing process? Then which form of collection or delivery they prefer. How do they contact the company in the event of problems after purchase? The omnichannel philosophy and strategy assumes being where the customer is, offering accessibility and constant quality of experience in the place, time and communication channel that the customer prefers.
Step two: design and selection of tools
Retracing the steps taken by consumers is crucial to creating a model that is the basis for designing the omnichannel sales process. Based on Customer Journey mapping, we are able to indicate the places where the buyer interacts with individual departments of the company and reflect these points of contact in the appropriate service processes or channels for publishing specific content. This approach allows you to create a coherent multiverse of contacts with the brand. In this context, the tool (or: tools) used to conduct individual communication and customer service processes gains importance. It should be able to integrate all supported communication channels and aggregate the previous history of contacts (including transactions) related to a given person (and, if possible, also with their immediate surroundings).
The view in one console of all interactions of a given person allows, for example, to solve a reported problem faster. It improves the quality of work of Customer Care consultants (they don’t have to click through many – according to Salesforce research: up to 10 – views, applications, windows) and consumer experience (they don’t have to describe the same case several times). At this point, we come to an important design tip: it’s not only about what omnichannel solutions allow you to do, but also about what you don’t have to do thanks to them.
Step Three: Implementation
Effective implementation of the omnichannel strategy requires, as already mentioned in the introduction, effort and commitment. It is not only about the design of processes, mapping them in the IT structure, but also about directing people entering into relations with customers to the appropriate mode of cooperation. Omnichannel assumes placing the customer and his needs at the center of the company’s activities and ensuring consistent, high-quality experiences at every contact with the company. Developing appropriate standards of service and building relationships is not possible only thanks to the implementation of an IT solution (although such a solution can greatly facilitate the implementation of the change). It is necessary to convince employees of the existence of a common mission for the entire company, as well as an appropriate level of training, substantive support and a motivation system. It is good to have an IT partner in this change who understands business processes and is able to translate the conclusions from the analysis into the appropriate configuration of the automation tool.
To sum up: the whole rational approach is for the spread of the omnichannel strategy. I believe that this is not so much a mode of customer service as the only right approach. For now, they still give a market advantage, but in a moment (a month or two?) They will become a standard required by both business reality and consumer expectations. It is worth considering the topic now.
