Have you ever interacted with a chatbot? Was it a good experience? If you poll enough people, you’ll get a mix of answers. Chatbots have potential, but they also have a long way to go.
Ultimately, this is because chatbots are at their best when they are integrated into an omnichannel solution, and that total solution is pivotal for success in today’s economy.
To really understand the role of chatbots in omnichannel communication, we have to take a holistic approach and look at omnichannel as a combined concept. You’ll see exactly how chatbots and other automation can fit into the equation.
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The Importance of Omnichannel E-Commerce in Today’s Competitive Landscape
Understanding the necessity of omnichannel e-commerce is surprisingly easy. Customers have a lot of options regardless of the industry. It’s simple: If you don’t make your customers happy and keep them happy, they will leave you for a competitor.
Omnichannel e-commerce is a system of approaching sales-related communication built entirely around making customers happy. It’s a large concept, and there’s plenty of room for variability, but the core fundamental is that you are using these tools and resources to improve your interactions with your customers in ways they will appreciate.
Considering that, it stands to reason that this is a technology that you can either exploit to your advantage or ignore to your detriment.
The Key Messaging Channels in Omnichannel E-Commerce
Knowing that omnichannel e-commerce is essential, the natural progression of thought is to wonder how it works. Again, it’s a large and broad topic, but you can really start to break it down if you learn about messaging channels, specifically.
Omnichannel communication is about providing multiple means of communication between a business and its customers. What means are popular? How are they useful?
There are five channels that really dominate the landscape.
It’s standard practice to ask customers for an email address when they participate in e-commerce. At the very least, email is how you provide order confirmations and receipts, but it can be a lot more.
You can open two-way email communication, and some customers will prefer this.
You can also pair email with automation. For instance, if a customer fills a digital shopping cart and then leaves it without completing the purchase, you can send an email informing them that they have an open shopping cart.
SMS
SMS functions in much the same form as email, but the messaging is usually shorter and more efficient. SMS messages are great for automated reminders, quick confirmation notifications (such as informing a customer that a payment was successfully processed), and simple inquiries.
Again, you can expand SMS messaging, but in many omnichannel systems, SMS and email will have some crossover for automated messaging. When that happens, you can advance customer appreciation by empowering them to choose their preferred channel.
Social Media
Social media is where omnichannel communication starts to shine, and it’s where the concept of communicating with customers has changed the most radically in the past few decades.
You can use social media to make announcements, push promotions, and build your brand. At the same time, it’s easy for customers to interact with your social media. That enables you to gather feedback, address customer concerns directly, resolve problems, and a whole lot more.
In many cases, social media serves as a central channel for a wide range of communication efforts, and leveraged correctly, it is often your most powerful channel.
Chatbots
Meanwhile, chatbots are reducing overhead and improving response times for customers with questions or needs. As chatbots are rapidly improving in terms of sophistication, they can handle increasingly complex communication with customers.
As a result, customers can ask direct questions to chatbots and receive proper answers. Since chatbots don’t have the capacity limitations of human customer service agents, this resource dramatically improves response times, essentially allowing for instant responses to any chatbot viable queries.
In most cases, customers appreciate fast responses, especially when the chatbots are effective communicators.
Push Notifications
The last primary channel is push notifications. This is the simplest form of communication, and as a result, it tends to have some of the best customer responses.
Push notifications are straightforward messages that can be displayed on phones, computers, or other personal devices. They are completely automated, operate in real time, and are easily streamlined. Used correctly, they are providing customers with specific information that they want.
A classic example is the stock notification. A simple push notification banner can inform a customer that an item they are browsing is out of stock. Conversely, with push notifications enabled, a customer can opt into being notified when the previously out-of-stock item is once again available.
Benefits of Integrating Messaging Channels in Omnichannel E-Commerce
It’s easy to see that each of these channels of communication has a lot to offer the customer experience, and it’s not a large step from there to understand that using multiple channels is generally better than limiting yourself to a single mode of communication, but the concept extends a lot further.
In fact, you can explore a few statistics and facts and see clear, concrete benefits of using omnichannel e-commerce. We can even name some of the primary benefits: happy customers, increased revenue, brand recognition, customer retention, and customer conversion.
Happy Customers
You have already seen the necessity of keeping your customers happy. If you don’t, they leave. How exactly does omnichannel messaging keep customers happy? It offers a few things.
First, customers can pick their preferred means of communication. If they prefer SMS to everything else, they can stick with that, and they don’t have to be annoyed by emails clogging their inbox.
Second, omnichannel communication is flexible. Customers can begin a customer service conversation on one channel and continue it on another at their convenience. This reduces disruption and leads to positive resolution more reliably.
Third, omnichannel communication encourages a wider range of exchanges between you and the customer. Yes, they can inquire about items or sales. Yes, they can receive promotional information. Yes, they can open a customer service support ticket.
They can also just talk with company representatives on social media. They can interact with other customers. They can do a whole lot more than the traditional, narrow aspects of communication, and that opens the door for a transformative experience.
More Revenue
Omnichannel communication, when used correctly, helps increase your revenue. If it makes customers happy, then it’s easy to see how that translates to customer retention, and that’s obviously good for long-term revenue.
Omnichannel technology also makes it easier for customers to shop, which ultimately improves conversion ratios. When you remove obstacles for purchases, you’ll see more purchases go through.
Omnichannel routes also improve revenue by more consistently resolving customer issues, communicating promotions more effectively, and generally giving customers better information that they can use to shop with you more successfully.
Brand Recognition
Last up, omnichannel technology is good for brand recognition. You can imagine how a strong social media presence helps get your brand out there.
When you stay consistent across your channels (more on that in a bit), then the same recognition you build with social media carries over into the rest of your channels. Your promotional emails are easier to recognize. Your SMS updates are more appreciated, and your push notifications are more likely to be turned on.
Basically, you improve your brand by communicating with customers and prospects. The omnichannel approach empowers you to do that better.
Best Practices for Implementing an Omnichannel Messaging Strategy
OK — so omnichannel has a lot to offer. How do you do it?
Implementing an omnichannel solution from scratch is involved, and you will want professional help from a provider like Mitto. Even so, there are some best practices that are good to learn early. They’ll help you get more out of your omnichannel investments from the very beginning.
Your first tip is to use customer profiles. Technology can break down a lot of information about a customer. You can use that to make educated guesses about what types of communication they would prefer. Then, steer into it, and use that information to personalize communication.
Next, be consistent across channels; there are tools related to cross-channel integration that help. With cross-channel integration, a customer can have a single conversation with your company while switching from SMS to email to social media, etc. If your messaging, style, statements, and ease of access are consistent across the channels, your customers will have a better experience.
At the same time, you want to provide valuable information. This concept can help you with consistent messaging, but it also drives up the appeal for each of your channels. Your website should have product information that is useful and easy to find and read. Your emails should give customers something they want. Your SMS messages should have information they will actually use rather than a simple spam message. If creating value is always the goal, you will avoid common mistakes and enjoy better communication.
Lastly, enable self-service. These days, no one wants to be on the phone with a customer service agent to fix a problem. Omnichannel software provides you with a lot of ways to empower your customers. Many customers are much happier taking care of things on their own, provided you make that possible. Automate and streamline processes so your customers can be as self-reliant as they want.
