Providing customers with a consistent shopping and support experience is essential to thrive in an increasingly competitive retail market. According to a Salesforce study, 88% of customers highlighted the importance of a company’s experience, while 76% of those interviewed said they prefer consistent interactions on all platforms and across departments.
These figures prove the onus of retail companies to know what customers need across all platforms and touchpoints. Although this may seem complex, modern customer relationship management (CRM) tools make it possible.
This blog examines omnichannel customer service and why it is crucial in retail.
What is omnichannel customer service?
Customers today use multiple online and offline platforms and communication channels to reach your store. They may show up at your physical store, contact agents at your support center, use your mobile application, log into your social media accounts, or use other digital channels like your website to get in touch. Businesses and retail owners must provide consistent, coherent, and up-to-date support experience across all these platforms.
To deliver personalized customer service experiences, tailor-made for each customer across different communication channels, support reps must have a 360° view of the customers’ lifecycle. Omnichannel customer service ensures seamless engagement and customer service experience by integrating multiple channels into a single interface, providing retailers access to real-time and historical data that helps deliver better before and after-sale services.
The difference between multichannel & omnichannel customer service
People often use the terms multichannel and omnichannel customer service interchangeably. However, they are different. Multichannel involves multiple, not necessarily affiliated, channels, while omnichannel ensures all channels stay interconnected.
Multichannel customer service
A multichannel customer management scheme allows retail businesses to deliver customer support via multiple channels, like social media, website, phone, email, and store. While it provides customers with the ability to reach out through various outlets, it has many disadvantages:
● There is no data exchange between these communication platforms in real-time or otherwise.
● A multichannel CRM environment assumes a siloed approach that often results in frustration and confusion among customers and support reps.
● Each support rep may see a different version of the customer experience.
Omnichannel customer service
An omnichannel customer service strategy uses a centralized system to share historical and real-time data across platforms. All customer interactions are consolidated on a single platform, and everyone who has access to this data will be able to understand the customers’ journey. This has multiple advantages:
● Both your staff and customers will find it more convenient and time-saving.
● For your customers, seeking support before and after sales will be a pleasant and frictionless experience.
● Your support staff will have access to customized insights about each customer based on historical and real-time data on all platforms simultaneously.
The benefits of omnichannel customer service in retail
Improved customer experience across channels
Most customers do not want to wait for support when they need it.
As omnichannel customer service integrates all historical and live data on a single platform, customer service agents can access previous conversations and interactions on a single interface. Hence, they can provide timely and relevant support to customers without the hassle of aggregating information.
Customer loyalty and retention
Consistency is a critical part of building trust and credibility with your customers. Customers with a positive experience with your brand across different channels develop confidence in your business. By delivering a consistent customer experience at every touchpoint, providing accurate and consistent information, personalized recommendations, and reliable customer service, you can ensure your consumers will be more inclined to stick with you than go to a competitor.
An omnichannel CRM helps you implement personalized customer loyalty programs, reward customer advocacy, and track all key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with customer attrition so that you can make proactive efforts to retain them just in time.
Increased sales and revenue opportunities
Omnichannel customer service allows customers access to potential purchases without going through traditional sales routes. Removing the barriers that impede purchasing and providing transparent and connected digital experiences provide businesses with opportunities to upsell and cross-sell during various interactions.
Thanks to the availability of historical data on demand, your support agents can skillfully act as sales agents when opportunities rise.
Streamlined operations and efficiency
One of the biggest hurdles of a multichannel support strategy is that all the data is stored in silos. For example, your social media team may not have access to the customer’s interactions over the telephone. This results in a lack of coherent communication and reduced efficiency from your support teams.
An omnichannel CRM integrates different communication platforms and ties all this data with sales, marketing, logistics, and inventory management. Consequently, all your operations will be streamlined and more efficient.
Centralized customer data for better insights
Implementing an omnichannel customer loyalty strategy gives you rich data and insights. By tracking customer behavior across different channels, you comprehensively understand their preferences, needs, and purchase patterns. Retailers can utilize it to personalize offers, tailor marketing campaigns, and improve customer experience. An omnichannel CRM integrates all this data on a single interface and derives rich insights to plan your further sales and support strategies.
Omnichannel customer service best practices
Although an omnichannel CRM can help you implement omnichannel customer service almost immediately, you must remember certain things before deployment. Here are the seven most crucial omnichannel customer service best practices:
Mobile first strategy
Most retail businesses have not fully embraced a mobile-first approach, prioritizing customers’ shopping and support-seeking behaviors on mobile devices. To implement this approach, companies must thoroughly audit their social media channels, website, in-store policies, and operations to ensure customers can shop and access support seamlessly on their phones and tablets.
If you were wondering what to look for in a CRM, we have covered everything you need to know before choosing the right tool for a mobile-first approach.
Always available, always on
Once you adopt a mobile-first strategy, you must ensure that sales and support services are always available. This means providing 24/7 support via chatbots, live agents, and customer self-service. A suitable omnichannel CRM solution can help you serve your customers in real-time, regardless of where they are.
Fast response times
Ensure faster response and resolution times by giving staff access to previous customer interactions and live data and avoiding unnecessary wait times or repeated explanations.
Omnichannel customer service prevents customers from repeating themselves to support or sales teams, which is crucial for today’s multichannel consumer.
Offer self-service
An omnichannel customer support strategy should include a self-service option. This allows customers to find solutions independently and feel more in control, especially when live support is unavailable or strictly necessary. Provide easy-to-access FAQs, documentation, how-to-use articles, and more to ensure customers can help themselves as much as possible.
Integrate data from all channels
Retail businesses should integrate all communication channels to create a comprehensive database of all customer interactions across all touchpoints to ensure seamless customer support.
Provide real-time inventory information
It is crucial to offer excellent and timely customer service across all platforms. This means providing customers with stock availability and order updates and ensuring that support agents can access real-time inventory and order data.
Secure customer data
When it comes to an omnichannel CRM, it must have the ability to store both real-time and historical data securely. This is particularly important as it ensures compliance with various regulations governing safeguarding customer data and transactions. Therefore, a reliable and secure system is necessary to maintain the stored information’s integrity while also providing customers peace of mind.
Omnichannel customer service helps ensure retail success.
Today’s customers add products to the cart on the website and expect to look at them at your store before actually purchasing their mobile phone right at your store. This means you must amp up your customer service to reflect evolving data and real-time purchase journeys across platforms. Only an omnichannel CRM solution can help you do that.
By choosing a tool that automates seamless shopping and customer support, you invariably enhance customer experience. Consequently, an omnichannel approach is essential for a successful service strategy that supports customer journeys at every stage.
Implement omnichannel customer support for better customer experience and increased sales
Leverage the power of omnichannel customer support to enhance the customer journey and boost your sales performance. Integrating omnichannel support is straightforward with deploying a robust Retail ERP Management Solution. Retail-centric ERP tools empower retailers to deliver holistic support and employ advanced sales strategies.
For instance, Priority’s retail management system facilitates seamless omnichannel customer service, enabling you to cater to online and offline clients across various platforms and touchpoints. Not only does your customer support team have the ability to serve customers across all channels, but your frontline staff and sales team can also ensure product availability on all platforms.
In essence, our retail ERP technology is instrumental in providing a high degree of personalization in retail and fostering effective cross-channel communication. This strategy improves customer satisfaction and drives customer loyalty and repeat purchases, ultimately leading to increased sales and business growth.
Contact us today to learn more about our CRM solutions to help you implement an omnichannel customer service strategy.
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The Author
Moti Lichi
Head of Strategy and Retail International Markets
With extensive experience in product marketing, business development and product management, Moti has a proven track record of driving growth and innovation. He has held significant positions at CNext Ventures and Fundtech, focusing on financial services technology and corporate development. Moti's expertise lies in understanding retail market trends, and leading strategic initiatives. His leadership is marked by a commitment to excellence and a deep understanding of the dynamic nature of international retail markets.