Multichannel, Omnichannel, What's The Difference? Hint: It's About Customer Experience And Retention

By Jessica Foreman

It’s not unusual to hear the terms used interchangeably. But when it comes to guiding and perfecting the online customer journey, multichannel and omni-channel solutions are anything but interchangeable. They are as different as yesterday’s solutions and tomorrow’s best practices. And what exactly is that difference? A more than 90 percent increase in year-over-year customer retention rates when omni-channel approaches are used, according to one study by Omer Minkara, Research Director for the Aberdeen Group.

That impressive gain isn’t hard to explain. It’s no secret contemporary consumers have high expectations of their online customer journeys. Holistic omni-channel solutions have the depth and versatility to align perfectly with those expectations, and that makes for a satisfied customer.

What’s In A Word?

Boiled down, when it comes to customer experience, multichannel means using some or all of the platforms available to engage with customers. A clear majority of online retailers now do that, reaching out to their customers through online store and mobile apps obviously, but also through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. For those businesses, each channel forms a discrete contact point, generally carrying its own message, look, and feel.

Omni-channel means utilizing the whole spectrum of available channels as well, but with the addition of the revolutionary integrated features that are the future of customer experience management. These include technologies such as cutting-edge analytics and chatbots, the remarkable bits of code that can stand in for a human and carry on an intelligent conversation, performing customer service and customer relations tasks traditionally done by flesh and blood reps.

According to Nanorep, chatbots represent a whole new era of interaction, and they bring significant changes to countless customer experience programs — particularly to those offering social customer service.

The Messenger Makes The Difference

Multichannel customer engagement typically treats each channel individually, without providing customers with the same message, look, or experience whichever channel they choose. Each engagement and each interaction through each channel essentially stands on its own, giving customers a serviceable experience, but certainly not a seamless one.

An omni-channel solution, on the other hand, is all about seamless engagement. It offers a unified experience across all platforms and devices that meshes perfectly with today’s shopper’s lifestyle and expectations. It recognizes, for example, a customer might engage multiple times on multiple devices — say on a smartphone, tablet, and laptop — in the course of doing business, from researching a product to adding it to a wish list to completing the transaction.

At every step, the customer experiences a consistent look and feel and message, and can pick up where he or she left off, completely avoiding the frustration of having to adapt each time to a new environment. Chatbots are one of the key innovations that make it all possible, providing unfailing consistency in messaging and make interactions personal and simple for consumers as they guide them through their digital journey.

If that sounds like the future, that’s because it is. In one sense, retailers have had multichannel solutions pretty much forever — or at least since the first brick-and-mortar store branched out into the catalog business as well. With that step, they were creating multiple sales channels, not so different from an online store and app are today. But they did so with the awareness each of those channels largely stood on its own, each offering customers a different experience.

The omni-channel solution turns all of that on its head, and chatbots are the steady, helpful, hassle-free and unified voice today’s consumers want to hear.

Jessica Foreman is a Durham University graduate specializing in business and lifestyle based writing. She has developed her skills on projects surrounding The British Broadcasting Company and running a print and online based magazine whilst at university. She is currently looking towards starting her Masters in Mobile and Personal Communications as well as broadening her horizons through traveling.