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Omnichannel: Concept, methods and tips

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What is Omnichannel?

Omnichannel or even spelt as Omni-channel refers to one type of retails available for customers which integrates different shopping methods. Omnichannel combines the online as well as offline experiences for the customer and interact with them more efficiently. 

Example:

The H&M store has offline stores as well as online shopping experiences for its customers to spread their options and give those services according to their convenience. You can choose a dress from the online store, go to the store and try it on yourself. Later on, you can pay them through online payment methods. Then they might send you a feedback form through SMS and you can tell them about your shopping experience.

The services can be product delivery, query solving, taking experience feedbacks, promoting the products, etc. In today’s fast running world, customers want enough options on their hands to reach out to the providers and connect to them. An omnichannel solution opens an optimum experience by integrating all the factors of customer engagements.

What are Omnichannel surveys?

As there are more channels for the customers to connect it, there are also more customer touchpoints. As the producer uses the omnichannel approach for sales and marketing, they can also use it for customer feedback. As you spread the services over various online platforms like Facebook, websites, google ads, etc. you can also conduct a survey for customers over the same platforms where you make sales and conduct marketing. Customers these days look for easy contact with the company and multiple channels working all together will help you achieve that. 

Perks of Omnichannel customer survey:

  • Timely: you can schedule a survey right after they have interacted with the products. This gives you real-time feedback and if there is any issues or customer queries you can solve them right there. 
  • Convenient: especially asking customers to give feedback can produce the chances of them not taking it. It can push customers away from taking the survey if the survey is going to take their time and energy only without them getting anything in return. The trick is to slide in the feedback questions as they are on the channel and there is a high chance customers will share their views.
  • Customizable: your omnichannel feedback will tell you how your strategy and customer reach is working. You can determine the efficiency. Hence, you can decide when and how to ask for a survey from your customers. 
  • Integrated: customer feedbacks give the idea about how satisfied they are with the service they are getting. You can make changes to your service deliverables. 

What are different customer feedback omnichannel methods?

Let us discuss the various methods you can conduct to raise customer satisfaction:

  • Phone and email

Understanding the commonly used means of communications are phone and emails, targeting these sources prove to be very effective. Send the surveys through these platforms, they need not have to be long or detailed. Just a couple of questions can be useful too. 

  • Social media

What comes right next to emails? Social media platforms attract the most traffic of targeted audience. People spend most of their time surfing through social media and that is where you can target to get the most responses to your surveys. You can take a survey using simple polls on stories that are easier to interact with. Though, with simplicity comes high risk too. Companies should have a clear strategy on how to use social platforms without getting it to backfire on the company image.

 

Online Surveys
  • Field surveys

Offline surveys work just as efficiently as online ones. Though it takes man force and huge time investments, it is proven to return the effort. Customers tend to develop a trusted relationship with the company during face-to-face interactions and issue solving.

  • Applications

How much mobile phones are connected to each of our lives is no surprise. It would be safe to say that our lives are running on mobile phones. Companies can provide customer care applications. This makes it easy to connect to the customers and allows to have various options too. It makes it easy to follow up using notifications and giving feedback sections. 

  • SMS

Well, isn’t it obvious? SMS provides the needed reach to the customers. SMS invitations are the common method of attracting customer attention. SMS bots can follow up the actions and you can also schedule timely messages regarding the survey invitations.

What is the difference between Multichannel and Omnichannel?

As you can see from the image above, both multichannel and omnichannel approaches use various interactive options. Those options being the phone, social media, websites, offline stores, etc. the main difference that sets the multichannel and omnichannel approaches apart from each other is the way the omnichannel approach allows the integration of all those channels. It makes it easy for the customers to change the channels without starting over with the interaction. Customers make changes to platforms while researching a particular product before buying it. Let us take an example of how omnichannel can help the delivery of service in such case;

Example:

 Let’s say you are looking for a pair of sneakers to buy, you surf the website of ABC company and decide to put the decision on hold. When you shift to your Facebook profile, you see an ad showing you various types and offers for the sneakers you were looking for from the company ABC. 

Now, a multichannel approach would have a customer explicitly go and search for the sneaker products lead on all the platforms of the company ABC. 

This is how the omnichannel approach surpasses the multichannel approach. 

Why do you need omnichannel survey software?

As studied earlier, how the omnichannel approach stands out in the marketing and survey sector, there are obvious reasons to prefer omnichannel survey techniques. Using various omnichannel survey software makes it easy to carry out your surveys and analyse them for business insights. Such software helps you to carry out complex surveys with ease. Customers like to have easy interchanging platforms for products where they can get a more knowledge base. Integration of various channels can be challenging and this is where you will an omnichannel survey software.

Well, then why use any other survey software when Voxco is proven to be the world’s leading omnichannel survey software. Voxco provides conduction of complex, face-to-face, online and various surveys, with ease. Trusted by 450+ global clients in 40+ countries, Voxco is the perfect place to boost your customer survey experience. 

12 Tips to offer an omnichannel customer experience

According to SurveySparrow, there are 12 tips to offer an efficient omnichannel customer experience:

  • Respond faster on social media

Social media is the best way to engage customers. But when you are doing that, it is important to make sure that your service is available 24*7 on the platforms. That is because as the customer can ping your chat at any time of the day, they will expect you to be available to attend to them immediately. In such cases, you can frame FAQs that can solve the most commonly asked questions and customers don’t have to put an effort to make them and wait for the answers.

  • Customer empowerment

To avoid making the customers wait to talk to the agent to solve their problems, you can provide them with the solutions beforehand. Provide them information about the product and its working. Layout the solutions to the possible problems that can occur while using your products. Customers tend to surf through the company websites first when they face any issues. So you have to present them the necessary possible solution which is easily found on the website’s help desk, etc. 

  • Live chat

If a customer still has some questions even after surfing through your website, you can provide them with the live chat option. It is generally located at the right bottom corner and customers prefer immediate chat rather than carrying out a long process of calling and waiting for the service to be provided.

  • Emails

Email marketing has proven to be a powerful means of promoting the products. Everyone has emails and do formal conversations over it. You can provide the relevant links and direct them to the upsell. A Forrester study says that 54% of the consumers prefer emails to report their queries and 75% of the customers expect the reply within a day. 

  • Real-time engagement

Engaging with your customers in real-time is important because customers are impatient. They have a lot of options on their hands and it is easy for them to switch from your product to the other. So, you must keep them engaged while attending to them in real-time and solving their queries as soon as possible. 

  • Rewarding employees

As important it is to care about your customers, it is just as important to care about your employees too. Keeping them motivated and satisfied is going to result in their better performances. Influence them to work based on milestones, tell them about their rewards and build healthy relations among the workspace.

  • Review customer interaction

Studying your customer interaction can help you thrive in the market world. Stay connected to them and keep checking their preferences. Understand how your services are benefitting them and how satisfied they are with your products. 

  • Be empathetic

Be understanding and considerate regarding the customers. Solve their problems with patience and respect. Do not make them wait or get frustrated as this will result in them getting bored of your services. 

  • Provide data

Let the customer have enough information about the product they are using. According to Zendesk report, 50% of customers prefer to solve their issues. This will spare some time and effort on your end too. So invest in making the customer independent by giving them as much knowledge as you can. 

Explore all the survey question types possible on Voxco

Explore all the survey question types possible on Voxco

  • Provide updates

In case of longer queries, expect customers to be ok with waiting for the solution and keep on updating them on how much of their issue is being solved. Don’t make them feel ignored by ghosting them and never getting back to them soon. Make your business transparent with your customers. 

  • Find out customers’ preferred channels

Track the activities of your company on all the channels. The study which of the channel is having a large number of interactions. This way you can plan out a strategy to enhance your marketing over that particular channel as well as you can plan something to lure customers into the different channels as well. 

  • Hire correctly

As we say, small drops make an entire ocean. The same is the case with the team you are building. Make sure you are recruiting the right talent in your company and they are well trained in their fields. Make sure that the employees are working parallel with the company’s goals, ethics and strategies. 

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