In an annual report co-released by Econsultancy and Adobe, B2B companies identified customer experience (CX) as the single most exciting opportunity for 2020, ahead of areas such as content marketing, video and social. With the COVID-19 pandemic causing unimaginable disruption to the global economy, this opportunity has only been heightened to an extreme degree. Brands have witnessed first-hand the consequences of falling short of expectations during a crisis, and they are not keen on repeating that mistake.
When customers have great experiences with you, they keep being customers. The real issue is that most businesses often talk a good game about focusing on the customer, but more often than not. They miss the mark on one of the most simplest but important things; which communication channels to use.
The good news is that there’s a way to integrate multiple communications channels into your CX program without breaking a sweat: omnichannel communications.
Recent data released by Gartner reveals that 42 percent of CEOs say that CX was a key driver in maintaining success with customers. In addition, 80 percent of B2B customers say that CX is by far the biggest factor when considering which vendor to work with.
Fortunately, finding out what to do to step-up your CX game is not that hard. For instance, Hubspot has shared a few takeaways that can apply to any business even if they don’t sell things online. Selling does not necessarily equate to online shopping carts and checkouts. It includes inbound marketing, online marketing, and getting potential customers to respond to a call to action.
Some of Hubspot’s takeaways include:
• Emphasise the story. Tell your story so people can relate to you.
• Enable exploration. Let people “stumble” on new things. Help them find something awesome.
• Showcase the product (and earn press). Product needs to be front and centre
• Remembering to A/B test. Exhaustively test. And then test more.
• Learn From the competition. Someone might be doing it better or worse.
However, we seem to be missing something here. We still do not know which communication channels we should be utilising to improve the customer experience. No matter how fantastic your customer experience program is, customers will want to communicate with you. There is no getting around it. So which of the many channels available should you choose?
The simple answer is all of them.
This is where omnichannel communications come in. You do not pick which channel to use; your customers do. You can offer updates via email, chat, SMS, and push and let customers choose which channels are right for them.
Omnichannel communications are a win-win solution. For you, messages, campaign data, and customer insights are available in one place so you have a complete picture of your customers. For customers, they get messages how and when they want them.
Omnichannel communications solutions completes the CX loop by treating customers to the same experience online, offline, and every time they engage with you. Now, more than ever in the ‘new normal’, it’s that consistency of experience that will separate leading brands from those who fail to adapt.
