Omnichannel Customer Journey: Definition, Examples & Actionable Tips

Have you ever wondered how some brands make shopping feel effortless like they’ve read your mind? Whether you’re online, in-store, or scrolling social media, it all just flows. That’s the power of the omnichannel customer journey. In this guide, we’ll uncover what it is, showcase inspiring examples, and arm you with practical tips to create unforgettable customer experiences.

What Is an Omnichannel Customer Journey?

The word “omnichannel” comes from the root “omni,” which means “all” or “every.” Hence, omnichannel marketing refers to having different channels interconnected in a manner that allows you to interface with all of them from one central platform.

This concept is quite different from multichannel marketing, which involves having different standalone channels. In this case, the only way to attend to messages or activities on each platform is to operate them individually, as they don't interact with one another.

As such, we can define an omnichannel customer journey as the summation of the experience your customer enjoys while communicating with your brand via different platforms, so much so that all their interactions are synced. These channels include websites, emails, social media, physical stores, mobile apps, customer service channels, etc.

Benefits of Omnichannel Customer Journey

There are tons of benefits businesses can enjoy from a well-implemented omnichannel customer journey:

1. Improved Customer Experience

One of the cases in which customers interact with brands via more than one channel is when they have issues that require customer support's attention. About 28% of customers express how frustrating this could be since they are forced to narrate the same story to every customer agent who speaks with them.

This is where the omnichannel customer journey comes in. It allows for that much-needed communication among customer service and support channels, giving users personalized experiences they would love and appreciate. This kind of interaction increases customers' satisfaction and keeps them coming back for more. It’s all about convenience and care.

2. Increased Customer Retention and Loyalty

When you accurately address your shoppers’ pain points and offer them a personalized experience, you stand a huge chance of making them repeat customers. This is the foundation of customer retention. Take advantage of the omnichannel customer journey to make them feel valued and well-understood, and they will remain loyal to you.

3. Enhanced Brand Consistency

Launching a streamlined omnichannel marketing strategy will help you achieve a unique and consistent brand identity. This means that the personalized experience a customer gets when interacting with a business through their social media channel would be the same as the in-store services. This is why conducting omnichannel journey analytics either on a regular, monthly, or quarterly basis is crucial for enhancing brand consistency across all platforms. 

4. Higher Customer Engagement

Ensuring seamless navigation between customer touchpoints keeps consumers hooked until the end of their omnichannel journey. One omnichannel customer journey example is when a shopper comes across an ad on Facebook that interests them and clicks on it, they are redirected to either the brand’s Facebook store or WhatsApp business channel. There, they find more details and reviews about the product. 

In a situation where they experience difficulty completing an order, there is usually an in-app message that connects them to a customer representative who guides them through their omnichannel journey. Apart from boosting customer app engagement, this is arguably one of the best ways to effectively implement retention marketing.

5. Increased Revenue and Sales Opportunities

Every customer-centric action you take in your business has a domino effect that ends in positive or negative revenue figures. For instance, customer satisfaction leads to better app engagement, which, in turn, gives you better customer retention results.

Getting all these from your omnichannel marketing strategies ensures that your customers are willing to spend their money on your products or services. In fact, happy consumers not only are more likely to make repeat purchases but also carry out word-of-mouth advertising for your brand by recommending it to friends and families.

Challenges of Omnichannel Customer Journey

Setting up an omnichannel journey system isn't a walk in the park. There are a few challenges businesses face when trying to implement omnichannel marketing:

1. Integrating Multiple Platforms and Systems

Each channel, like your website, mobile app, or in-store system, might work well on its own, but making them communicate seamlessly is tricky. For example, if a customer starts shopping online and finishes in-store, the systems need to share that information smoothly. It takes careful planning, the right tools, and constant updates to make everything work as one.

2. Dependency on Multiple-Point Solutions

Employing multiple-point solutions as part of your omnichannel marketing can cause inefficiency in the omnichannel journey. This is because multiple-point solutions are time-consuming, and not all customers would be patient enough to wait through the whole transfer process before completing an action.

3. Managing and Analyzing Vast Amounts of Customer Data

Analyzing and integrating vast customer data obtained from carrying out omnichannel journey analytics can be stressful and poses a challenge in ensuring a seamless omnichannel customer journey. This limitation occurs due to certain factors like data silos, privacy concerns, real-time processing, and quality of data which can either be outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate, affecting the accuracy of the omnichannel customer journey map.

Key Steps for Building an Omnichannel Customer Journey

These are major steps to take when you want to build an omnichannel customer journey.

1. Clearly Define Your Objectives

One mistake most businesses make is trying out almost every omnichannel strategy they see online without a clear understanding of how it works and without outlining what they aim to achieve. Your objective is dependent on the KPIs you’ve set for yourself and your team and should also be seen in your customer journey metrics. This, in turn, will inform the type of channels you will embrace, the customer persona you wish to serve, and even the tools you will eventually use.

2. Define Your Customer Journey Success Metrics

Certain metrics help you determine and calculate the success rate of your omnichannel customer journey. They include net promoter score (NPS), sales, customer satisfaction score (CSAT), conversion rate, and customer retention rate. It is important to keep track of these key metrics regularly throughout your business omnichannel journey. They serve as a measuring scale that shows whether your brand is growing or dropping.

3. Identify All Customer Touchpoints and Interactions

Customer touchpoints refer to every interaction that a customer has with a brand at different stages of their omnichannel buyer journey. These touchpoints may occur on channels that the brand manages or on platforms beyond their control. Whichever the case, you have a responsibility to find out what these touchpoints are, the kind of information customers are searching for, and the actions you would want them to take at every step of the omnichannel consumer journey.

4. Narrow Down the Right Channels

After identifying the touchpoints, use the information to zero in on the channels you want to cover. Truth be told, you may not offer support for every platform, as doing so may stretch your team and bandwidth until you find yourself unable to deliver customers a satisfying experience.

The right channels should include but are not limited to the leading social media platforms, emails, SMS, customer call center, live chat, and web and mobile push notifications. The goal is to present your brand in domains where your ideal customers spend most of their time.

5. Gather Customer Data, Emotions, and Pain Points

The best way to gather customer data and feedback in an omnichannel customer journey is by conducting a market survey through questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, and many more. You can also skim through the comment sections of your social media platforms and your mobile app’s review on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

While doing this, intentionally look out for your customers’ pain points and brainstorm how to handle them. When customers see that their feedback and suggestions are being considered, changes are implemented, and services are upgraded, it makes them feel valuable and connected with your brand, which leads to increased customer retention and satisfaction.

6. Create Your Buyer Persona

Everything you’ve done, from identifying customer touchpoints to data gathering, prepares you to create the right customer persona. However, since customers behave differently when faced with the same situation, you will need to segment the gathered data. Data segmentation will enable you to sort the customers according to their demographics, geography, and behaviors, helping you get a more efficient omnichannel customer journey map with the right touch of personalization.

7. Map the Entire Customer Journey 

Omnichannel customer journey mapping involves visualizing the customer’s journey to ascertain the possible actions they will take at different points. Hence, it means turning all the steps and touchpoints into a clear, easy-to-understand diagram.

You can use charts, flowcharts, or even sticky notes to make it come alive. This helps you and your team see the big picture, spot gaps, and understand where customers might struggle. A good visualization makes it easier to plan your digital marketing funnel, implement improvements, and keep everyone on the same page.

Building Omnichannel Customer Journey Map: Best Practices

There are a few tips that will significantly improve the results of your omnichannel customer journey map:

Eliminate Data Silos 

A data silo emerges when the customer data collected by a particular team in a company is kept and made inaccessible to other departments. The unification of such customer data becomes difficult when creating an omnichannel customer journey map. Data silos also create a poor customer experience because end users have limited access to information on your channels. It can be eliminated by developing a generalized data storage system accessible to all.

Add Marketing Automation

To ensure a more seamless and efficient omnichannel customer journey map, the use of marketing automation tools and software is a major advantage for your business. Such tools include Google Analytics, HubSpot, Salesforce, etc. They offer many benefits such as the automation of repetitive tasks, 24/7 customer service, streamlined workflow, and the ability to handle tactical jobs, which saves time.

How to Manage Omnichannel Customer Journey for Apps with Reteno

The best way to build an effective omnichannel customer journey according to the industry’s best practices is to invest in a customer engagement platform. This software prioritizes a customer-centered approach by tracking, managing, and enabling interactions between your brand, a prospect, and your customers. It allows you to deliver a personalized experience to your customers and offer real-time communication with them through various mediums, including in-app messages, push notifications, and web notifications throughout an omnichannel customer journey.

Much more than that, CEPs like Reteno help you with proper data segmentation so you can effectively deliver the right messages to your customers based on their unique customer persona. So, if you’re a business seeking to increase your mobile app engagement, boost user retention, and increase sales through the omnichannel customer journey, Reteno is your best bet. Sign up now and take your business to the next level!