As the digital era of technology has progressed, the number of channels available to customers is increasing at an exponential rate. From smart television to social media apps, companies around the world are seeking to utilise these various channels to improve customer experience. In particular, the telecoms sector has taken advantage of such advancements by investing in developing what are known as channel strategies — a vendor’s plan for reaching customers via products and services. The central goal for channel strategies is to boost customer satisfaction by, for instance, providing better user interfaces or improving the integration of processes across multiple channels.
However, customer dissatisfaction can often arise because of certain channel strategies that are being developed in silos. Thus, one solution that many companies have used to address this issue is known as the omni-channel approach. In this blog, we will discuss the benefits of the omni-channel strategy and how it can help your business to improve.
What is the omni-channel approach?
The omni-channel approach, as the name suggests, aims to provide customers with a consistent, seamless, and highly personalised experience that caters to their needs. The primary goal of the omni-channel approach is to reduce the disconnect which customers feel when interacting with your company’s services.
The approach functions by consolidating multiple communication channels such as websites, wearable gadgets, phones, and others. By increasing channel interconnectedness, your company will be able to view inventory across all channels, which provides a myriad of useful benefits that we will describe later. According to a study completed by Loyalty360, “businesses that adopt omni-channel strategies achieve 91% greater year-over-year customer retention rates compared to businesses that do not”.
Why use the omni-channel approach?
Though broad in its applications, it is important to clarify what sort of situations a typical company may run into that call for the omni-channel approach. Below, we will highlight two hypothetical but common experiences that your telecoms company may encounter with customers. For the sake of convenience, we will refer to the hypothetical company as 123:
Jane has recently purchased a mobile phone from 123 but is having trouble with a particular device setting. She goes to 123’s online website and uses the real-time “click to chat” to gain help. For 10 minutes, the chat agent asks Jane a series of questions in hopes of assisting her, but she does not obtain the answer she seeks and subsequently calls customer service. The customer service representative, however, proceeds to ask her the same questions as the chat agent, causing Jane to grow dissatisfied.
Harry is comparing a variety of phones and their respective plans on 123’s website. A particular phone catches his attention as it says that the phone comes with a discounted plan. Visiting the brick-and-mortar store to purchase the phone, a store representative notifies Harry that the discount he saw on 123’s website is unavailable. Disappointed, Harry looks for alternative options from another brand.
The list goes on with potential scenarios that your company may or may already have encountered. But as you can see, the absence of an omni-channel approach can be truly devastating for businesses, both financially and in terms of reputation. So how exactly an omni-channel strategy can help your business? The next section is focused on the benefits your business may obtain by adopting the omni-channel approach.
Benefits of the omni-channel approach
- Improved customer experience
This benefit has been mentioned frequently throughout this blog but is still important to reiterate once more. With the development of more and more channels from the consumer side, the need for seamless integration between such channels is essential. By increasing interconnectedness, consumers can interact with your company in a much more natural and unconstrained manner.
- Increased customer retention
Though somewhat of an offshoot from the first benefit, implementing an omni-channel approach also boosts customer loyalty. According to a study completed by the Harvard Business Review, customers who shopped once at an omni-channel business were 23% more likely to return to that business as well as recommend it to friends and family than customers who have shopped with single-channel businesses.
- Improved data collection capabilities
With increased channel interconnectedness, your company will be able to track customers over multiple channels which allows you to provide them with a more tailored experience.
Telecoms sector example of adopting an omni-channel strategy
We will now present a real-world example of the omni-channel approach in the telecoms industry. Several years ago, British telecommunications company Vodafone had run into an issue with their services. Operating each of their consumer channels in silos, Vodafone’s data was unsynchronised, making it very difficult to track consumer activity and manage data. Introducing new services or products took far longer than usual, and competitors were catching up with the company at a frightening rate. Seeking to enhance their customers’ digital experience, increase e-commerce sales, reduce overall costs, and launch new offers quicker, Vodafone decided to implement the omni-channel approach.
The result Vodafone was able to achieve by adopting an omni-channel strategy:
- Customer interactions were automated from end-to-end
- Digital sales increased by over 45%
- Net promoter score increased by over 3 times
- Sales conversion rate increased by over 30%
Conclusion
To conclude the topic, the capabilities of the omni-channel approach are certainly astounding for all industries across the board, especially the telecoms sector. If your company has encountered or may encounter an issue with customer satisfaction rates, then an omni-channel strategy is the one you should consider for your business. With its numerous benefits, an omni-channel is a valuable investment that eventually will bring results in the long term. If you need assistance with data analytics, customer satisfaction rate improvement, or automating your business operations, seek help from our Ei Square expert team.
About the author: Mark Roychowdhury is a Copywriter Intern at ei² niche consulting for #data #insights #performance www.eisquare.co.uk