Your customers want to be able to contact you on their own terms: when where and how they wish.

Customers do not take a straight path to organisations anymore. Instead, they engage with companies on several channels whilst pausing and resuming their journey along the way.

Over the last 10 years, the way people communicate with business has transformed dramatically. We now have more ways to contact companies than we have ever had before. For example, in person visits (either in stores or in office), phone, email, live chat and social media.

With so many communication channels, both businesses and customers now find it a lot easier to communicate effectively. To ensure your business succeeds you must choose a few means of communication, and make sure the way you communicate with your customers is consistent at every point. This is where omnichannel customer engagement can transform your business.

So, what exactly is omnichannel customer engagement?

An omnichannel customer engagement strategy, in its simplest form, is a marketing strategy that focuses on creating a seamless transition between channels by managing them from a single and integrated platform. Essentially providing consistent interactions with customers regardless of the communication channel they use.

Why should you care about omnichannel experience?

Customer experience has fast become a top priority for businesses and 2022 will be no different.

Customer service research by Microsoft found that 95% of consumers say that customer service is a relevant factor in their choice of brand and their ongoing loyalty. Additionally, statistics have shown that an impressive number of 65% of customers say that good customer service is a decisive factor to buy something. Another 67% note that good service will encourage them to buy some products even if they didn’t plan on doing that (CSA).

Customers no longer base their loyalty on price or product. Instead, they stay loyal with companies due to the experience/customer service they receive. If you cannot keep up with their increasing demands, your customers will leave you.

So, how do companies meet these customer expectations?

Firstly, your business needs to adopt an omnichannel approach to your marketing, sales, and customer support to provide a connected and seamless customer experience. Adopting this approach can increase your company’s reach and boost overall customer engagement.

Current customer engagements drive the demand for omnichannel engagement. Businesses ensure omnichannel engagement is the standard, since many customers use mobile devices, smartphones, laptops, social media, chat, email, self-service, and websites to interact. In addition, they keep in mind that their customers expect their interactions to flow seamlessly from one channel to the next, for example when their customers change from browsing their website to live chat support.

However, when adopting an omnichannel engagement approach, you must recognise the importance of brand consistency and acknowledge each channel as part of an interconnected system. This requires all your business’s brand messaging and image to be highly consistent across platforms. For example, visual design, content, tone of voice, and functionality. Creating consistency among these elements on every channel improves the customer experience, your brand image as well as building trust with your consumers.

With C4B managed chat you can personalise the chat widget with your company logo, brand colours, and fonts. You have total control of the chat widget and chat window to ensure it looks great on your website and is consistent with your brand image. We will work with you to understand your companies’ requirements, providing a bespoke chat solution which meets the needs of our customer.

It is also important to note that consumers expect experiences to be personalised because they know companies gather data from multiple channels. By C4B connecting your team directly with the website visitor in real time, you can build a relationship with your new sales prospect and invite them to the next stage in the sales process.

Looking to implement chat onto your website but not sure where to start? Launch a chat now to speak with a member of our team or contact us here.

C4B – We Power Chat that Drives Sales