Omnichannel Engagement

Customers can go through a lot of different touchpoints along their journey. Sometimes seemingly unrelated points of contact are utilized, making it hard to map out a customer’s journey, but they all ultimately have a logical step process connecting them. Omnichannel engagement is where customers interact with the company through several different channels before the point of sale, sometimes going through their entire journey online.

A good omnichannel journey (also called omnichannel engagement) is achieved when the business provides an experience that smoothly links the offline and the online along all platforms to get the best customer experience possible across all points in the customers’ journey. It’s about the pathways the customers take in the journey towards purchase, and how it can cross different platforms and touchpoints before even touching a physical location. Customers like simplicity; they like easy-to-use touchpoints, and the possibility to rely on many of them. The more you are able to spread your net, the more customers you can pick up without them ever seeing your business face-to-face.

Challenges of a seamless omnichannel journey

By definition, different digital platforms function differently. This can prove a problem when you are trying to provide a seamless and smooth experience; if the way one platform operates doesn’t allow you to apply your standard model, it’s necessary to rethink the way you approach it. Navigating through multiple platforms should feel easy, more than actually being the same, as customers care more about the experience than the mechanisms behind your digital assets.

There is also the issue of complexity, with the digital links being easy to misuse. The more complex your channels are, the more difficult it is to keep on top of trends and find ways to check every channel’s performance. It’s crucial to make sure that your customers’ omnichannel journey is the best it can be, but overanalyzing can hamper your efforts. AI software can be of great help when trying to analyze large packets of data, but keep in mind that the AI cannot distinguish between sensible conclusions and not when it comes to feelings, as they are not a purely logical process. In the end, everything should be about the customer and their emotional journey, which is a very human experience.