Customers love brands that are omnichannel says new report

OMNICHANNEL is as much of a buzzword today as digital transformation. It’s something that digital marketers and business leaders have been chasing for a while now, but not many have been able to deliver.

Customers too, with or without using those terms, demand omnichannel experiences today.

The term specifically applies to the retail industry where customers can have a similar experience when engaging with a brand whether they’re in the store, on the computer, or on a mobile device.

Businesses outside the retail industry are working on building omnichannel experiences where the customer journey, across various touchpoints, is integrated.

The best example that comes to mind when talking about this is Coca-Cola. The company’s online ads, digital campaigns, and supermarket & canteen experiences are constantly getting integrated to provide the omnichannel feel.

Nevertheless, in the retail space and across the enterprise world, omnichannel is a struggle.

According to a new Econsultancy report, “omnichannel marketing has become a priority for companies tasked with attracting and retaining consumers who have more choice and higher expectations than ever.”

Titled The Omnichannel Imperative, the report surveyed 345 enterprise businesses in Southeast Asia and found some interesting insights.

First, the report highlighted that the ability to deliver campaigns in real-time was quite a task, which required out of the box thinking and a great deal of efficiency.

Obviously, in terms of focus, real-time marketing and omnichannel delivery & engagement came out as top priorities for executives looking to provide omnichannel experiences.

Further, it was revealed that the right way to support omnichannel experiences was to build a unified view of all customer data and journeys. Doing so really helped the brand deliver a high-level experience to individual customers.

Nearly a third of businesses surveyed strongly agree that they take an integrated approach to customer engagement across different channels, leveraging 1st, 2nd and 3rd party customer data, with technology and processes to support this.

However, 18 percent of companies in the region said they do not have such an approach.

Finally, another interesting insight came out of the question highlighting challenges to building an omnichannel experience.

According to Econsultancy, respondents report that issues relating to data were very much prominent:

• too much data to manage (39 percent)
• poor integration across systems (38 percent)
• incomplete customer data across all channels (35 percent)
• an inability to act on data in real time (30 percent)
• an inability to segment data effectively (29 percent), or
• a lack of analytics and/or insights (28 percent)

In conclusion, the marketing analytics and consultancy firm pointed out that omnichannel leaders are significantly more likely than laggards to focus on two things: personalization and a 360-degree customer view.

That’s good news for those listening to their customers and pursuing omnichannel experiences. Those that aren’t are taking a risk they’re probably should try to mitigate right away.

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