Companies that successfully create a seamless, omnichannel experience across engagement channels with their customers forge stronger customer relationships. In the age of the digital economy, it is essential that companies strive for this to stay ahead of their competition.

Analyst houses such as IDC have predicted that investment of time, budget and energy into omnichannel integration technologies will be a top priority for CIOs wishing to stimulate growth in sales. However, in recent research of business leaders in the UK about how they’re responding to the challenges of the digital economy, we found that over half (67%) of businesses had not yet enabled customers to interact with their organisation on every channel. Nearly half (42%) also acknowledged that a lack of innovation in this area could be harmful to their company’s future prospects.

The benefits of implementing an effective omnichannel strategy are clear. With omnichannel options, companies realise higher purchase conversion rates and benefit from 360-degree insight into customer buying patterns with an enhanced ability to track consumer behaviour across a range of devices. Brands with an omnichannel strategy in place also find that customers are more delighted by, and more loyal to, companies that offer a great user experience.

Significant progress toward omnichannel can be realised through a humble piece of computing technology – ‘Application Program Interfaces (APIs)’. Although APIs predate personal computing, businesses fighting to stand out in today’s digital economy need to understand how critical APIs are to achieving a true omnichannel vision within the ecosystem of a typical customer. APIs enable secure data exchange between devices, apps and different companies’ software platforms to build a consistent cross-channel customer experience. By using insight gained through the connecting of systems, customers are able to access a brand’s products and services on all channels, creating a frictionless customer experience by enhancing an individual’s connected journey.

With this modern truth in mind, we’ve outlined below the crucial steps we recommend businesses take to harvest the obvious benefits of an effective omnichannel strategy:

  1. Develop a business case by exploring new and existing channels. Perform a channel assessment and future-view journey mapping to identify where current channels fall short and discover new functions that would add value.

  2. With the customer experience in focus, envision the seamless channel experience. Consider intersection points with partners, employees and vendors to determine the API ecosystem required to facilitate a connected experience.

  3. Build your channels (with flexibility in mind) according to what you have envisioned for customers. Rationalise your application portfolio to determine which are worth aligning your omnichannel strategy with, and which are not.
     
  4. Sustain channels by continually optimising. Monitor online and offline channel alignment. Use data to personalise cross-channel experiences. Add features to capitalise on unique channel characteristics (mobile vs. website). Do this at least once a month.

  5. Evolve with changing customer needs by exploring unused or emerging channels that can expand business. Think about new ways to monetise data and create revenue streams if systems were further connected via APIs.

 

By Mark Lister, Vice President of Experience Engineering at Ness Software Engineering Services. 

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