How to Build an Omnichannel Communications Strategy for Your Ecommerce Business

Considering the circumstances, many will assume that running an ecommerce business must be a rather lucrative sphere right now. People are swiftly switching to online shopping almost exclusively, even for locally available goods such as fresh produce, meat, and medicine. This boom in online sales is by no means an excuse for your brand to slack off or get lazy in terms of retaining and elevating customer engagement.

Precisely because of the pandemic and the lack of social interactions, humanizing your brand and making your business more available across different channels is more vital than ever to keep customers satisfied, feeling secure, and taken care of. Investing in these elements of your presence will give you a much better chance to grow your ecommerce business and stay relevant.

Alas, most companies are still overwhelmed with individual pieces of their communication puzzle. Handling social media, letting your marketers take care of email newsletters, and allowing your customer support to all work independently can become more of an issue than a perk for your brand. In fact, now is the time to create and refine your omnichannel communications strategy to ensure consistency and engagement at every customer touchpoint. Here’s what you should consider adding to your strategy in the next few months!

Chatbots to the rescue

When you have a very expansive online store, you can hardly expect your staff to respond to every potential query coming from your site’s visitors. Then again, you also cannot afford to not give them the help they need. After all, any ecommerce business worth its salt needs to aim to exceed customer expectations with their online presence.

To provide immediate help and guidance, your site can benefit from using AI-driven chatbots that will quickly and efficiently give answers your customers are looking for. If there’s a more intricate query, they can be put through to one of your staff. This helps in two ways: you’ll reduce your support staff’s workload and your customers will be taken care of every step of the way.

Personalize customer experience

Your ecommerce revenue heavily depends on customer satisfaction, and the more personalized the experience you provide, the more satisfied your customers will be. In simple terms, by fueling personalization in your content output and all customer communications, you increase your chances to boost your revenue and customer retention. 

With the help of different personalization tools, you can automate personalization and customization to a great extent, while retaining the same quality of those customer interactions. If anything, such a strategic, tech-driven approach will improve them tremendously. By sending a personalized follow-up email when a customer abandons their cart, and by offering a personalized discount, you immediately elevate your chances to land a sale. 

VoIP-based systems for true omnichannel support

Voice over internet protocol technology has become the pinnacle of omnichannel support for ecommerce companies everywhere. What’s more, different VoIP platforms have a multitude of features that help customers as well as your staff provide a better service and stay informed in the process. 

For example, you can leverage call analytics to then educate your staff on best customer service practices, collect customer data through targeted surveys, and provide data-supported follow-up calls and emails. Phone calls are a perfect chance to humanize your brand and ensure brand consistency, but also to collate customer feedback, build your review database, and work towards an even stronger omnichannel strategy for the future.

Let your marketers fuel your social strategy

Although chatbots learn from your analytics tools and your marketers define the chatbot’s voice to greet the customers appropriately, you also need to make sure all of your teams keep learning, too. What this means is that each department in your company can benefit from collaborating and sharing knowledge with one another.

Your sales team heavily depends on your marketers, but your social media managers can also benefit from both of the mentioned teams to make sure they provide a friendly, informed service, cross and up-sell when appropriate, and the like. Social media networks are great for building your online presence, as long as you use the data from other channels to enhance the experience and make the interactions more personal and meaningful. 

Think seamless thoughts 

Knowing that customers are accustomed to immediate gratification and zero delays is somewhat of the norm in modern-day ecommerce. You already know that your website cannot load slowly, otherwise you risk losing customers, and that you cannot have them waiting on the line for ten minutes waiting for a customer service rep to help them. 

Seamlessness is perhaps the key piece of the omnichannel puzzle that ties all of your communications into one, unified interaction. Perhaps a customer has seen a Facebook ad about your new line of products. Upon visiting your landing page, they might want to hop over to your store to see the item in person. Whether or not they make that purchase, your customer service reps need to be quick to get in touch, check if the customer is happy with their choice, and do so without delay. This “extra mile” is what will put you over the top, so that they feel like the whole experience is customized to their particular journey, no matter how many pitstops they make, online or offline. 

Omnichannel, above all, requires every brand to put their best foot forward whenever interacting with any customer, be it a potential or a return one. Every touchpoint, every instance of interaction, and every channel where they can see and experience your brand, all of these are vital moments where you define how a person feels about your business if they recognize your brand, and whether or not they’ll trust you. 

A seamless experience and brand consistency can only be achieved with consistent customer segmentation, research, journey personalization, and boosting your own internal operations. The latter part of the equation is what calls for the listed ideas and strategic tips, so use them to your advantage to build an ecommerce presence that will stand the test of time.