For omnichannel to work, channels need to complement, not compete
More and more companies are focusing on providing an “omnichannel” customer experience and to achieve this state of seamless cross channel customer interaction, companies are primarily focusing on two things: a) adding new digital capabilities and/or b) integrating digital and traditional channels i.e. how to connect the online and offline experience.
But omnichannel is not only about how you engage with customers but essentially how you operate your business. It’s a new way of thinking in designing of business operating model: one in which you put the customer in charge within a guided journey facilitated by the firm. It touches every aspect of the business from how services are provisioned, how customers are supported, how offers are pitched to even how products are billed. The companies that ultimately succeed in creating a true omnichannel experience are the ones who see it as a new way of doing business rather than just delivering an online and offline mix.
Omnichannel is now a ubiquitous term but it still means different things to different people. Within a single company, there can be a very wide range of understanding about what omnichannel is, how to achieve it, and how to measure it to demonstrate success.
An omnichannel experience can be translated into different objectives for different companies, and includes some of the following:
- Identifying the customers more accurately
- Tracking a customer from digital to physical (and vice versa) e.g. when a customer researches products online and buys in a physical store
- Improving the efficiency of internal processes from being high-touch, high-cost to more automated
- Increasing conversion rates
- Reducing the overall cost of sale across channels
In my experience, companies are aiming to achieve one or more of these objectives (sometimes all).
Experience has also taught me that within a single firm, we see varying objectives for success depending on the business unit and the channel talking. In their desire to quickly deliver results and (perceived) imminent threats by competitors or digital disrupters, companies rush to make large scale investments in a myriad of initiatives. Often getting little or no improvements to their omnichannel experience.
Companies should take the time to plan and align their view of omnichannel upfront. Whilst being agile and going for incremental achievements (rather than a big bang approach) is preferred, it is important to first clarify your objectives, strategies and measure of success upfront to ensure that everyone within the organization speaks the same language.
The next most important step is to break down the silos that exist between channels. The biggest barrier for channels working together is frequently the organisational structure, whereby reporting lines vary by channels. For instance, retail and other physical channels may sit under sales, eShop within technology, the mobile app within marketing and call centre with customer operations. Each channel also has different objectives, target customers, KPIs and incentives.
This model does not encourage cross-channel capability development or lead/opportunity management. In fact, many times a company’s channels are competing amongst themselves for customers and sales. I have come across numerous examples where customers contact another channel in the same company to get a better deal!
Siloed teams, operating around individual channels, will not foster the collaboration required to enable omnichannel.
To truly provide an omnichannel experience to their customers, companies have to align all sales channels (and indeed all sales and service touch points) into one organization. Create a central sales and channel function whereby all channels report into one part of the organisation. Think about it this way: if you were setting up a new business, would you put all your sales channels under one umbrella or across multiple divisions?
A single team must be accountable for channel strategy, commercial planning, reporting and process design (e.g. end-to-end customer journeys). Further, budget and investments decisions need to be evaluated using metrics which optimize investment in improving the omnichannel experience (rather than having these decisions being made on a channel specific basis).
This needs to be supported by a single set of objectives, KPIs and incentives across all channels which focus on increasing overall sales. This may mean establishing new KPIs to track cross-channel sales and sale activities, as well as cross-channel customer behaviors. (This also implies that incentives and commissions for channels need to be adjusted so that they are based on the overall company conversion rate and derived in a way to avoid channel conflicts).
Finally, all sales staff — the people who ultimately deliver and make or break your customer experience — need to be empowered. to make decisions regardless of the touch point in which the customer originally interacted.
But omnichannel is not only about how you engage with customers but essentially how you operate business. It’s a new way of thinking in designing of business operating model: one in which you put the customer in charge within a guided journey facilitated by the firm. It touches every aspect of the business from how services are provisioned, how customers are supported, how offers are pitched to even how products are billed. Indeed, we find that companies that ultimately succeed in creating a true omnichannel experience are the ones who see it as a new way of doing business rather than just delivering an online and offline mix.
