How to Build Omnichannel Customer Experience by Integrating Sitecore

Discover use cases and benefits of building Omnichannel Customer Experience by Integrating Sitecore. 

In the currently highly competitive business environment, providing a seamless customer experience across multiple channels is crucial for success. Businesses need to be present and responsive on various platforms, such as social media, websites, mobile apps, or even physical locations. This is where the concept of omnichannel customer experience comes into play. In this article, we will explore this topic further. We will answer the question of what an omnichannel customer experience is, what benefits it offers, and how you can improve it by using Sitecore. If you are a customer service, marketing, or sales manager, then we encourage you to read on.

What is an Omnichannel Customer Experience?

An omnichannel customer experience refers to a holistic approach that seamlessly integrates all available channels to create a consistent and personalized journey for customers. Nowadays, the boundaries between purchasing online and offline are beginning to shrink. Customers often check e-commerce websites during their visits to physical stores, they buy products from various channels – through apps, online stores, and the physical ones, thus they desire a unified experience across all these touchpoints. Focusing on omnichannel communication is the way to achieve that and create a seamless transition between what is online and offline.

An omnichannel customer experience is contrary to the multichannel one. The former focuses on creating one, united approach, while the latter looks at each channel separately. The difference may be presented as a simple comparison:

• Omnichannel: Our customer
• Multichannel: Our e-commerce customers, our Apple Watch customers, our physical store customers, etc.

What are the benefits of omnichannel customer experience?

Before we delve into the topic of how to build an omnichannel customer experience, it is crucial to understand all the benefits of such an approach. Implementing an omnichannel customer experience strategy can yield numerous advantages for a company. These include:

• Enhancing customer satisfaction

By opting for an omnichannel approach, customers are given additional options. They might begin their customer journey in one channel, yet end it in a different one. They are not restricted by the place – real, or virtual – in which they found your products or services. Instead, they might embrace full freedom without having to provide the same information every time they change the channel, letting them transfer from one to another seamlessly.

• Creating a complete customer profile

Unifying data between channels enables companies to cater to the needs of their customers. In a multichannel approach, e-commerce will collect only the data regarding online purchases, while physical stores will acquire data on offline transactions. Yet, while creating an omnichannel customer experience, it is possible to gather them both into one profile. As a result, the client will be provided with highly personalized offers, marketing materials, and loyalty programs, improving their overall experience.

• Improving customer loyalty and retention

By understanding the true needs and preferences of the customers, it is also possible to make them much more loyal and prevent them from running away to your competitors. Since building an omnichannel customer experience strategy enables preparing more accurate customer profiles, the clients feel like your business is the best for them – it satisfies their desires and demands. As a result, they do not look for alternatives – instead, they remain loyal to your brand.

How Sitecore integration streamlines omnichannel customer experience?

Sitecore is a leading customer experience platform that offers powerful tools to enhance your omnichannel strategy. If you are wondering how to create a customer experience strategy that will be unified for all channels, here are the options that Sitecore offers:

• Centralizing data

The first use of Sitecore integration is for centralizing data. Think of this program as the heart of your information system – the place where the data from all your channels is gathered and processed. By integrating Sitecore, you will have it all in one place, which is crucial for creating an omnichannel customer experience.

• Personalization and segmentation

Sitecore’s robust personalization features enable you to tailor content and experiences based on individual customer profiles. You might leverage data such as browsing history, purchase patterns, or even demographics to create custom content tailored to your particular target audience.

• Marketing automation

Sitecore’s marketing automation capabilities empower you to orchestrate personalized customer journeys. All that needs to be done is configuring automatic targeted e-mails or triggered notifications. This allows you to both create better marketing campaigns and save on revenue due to low-value tasks being performed by the system.

How do you build omnichannel customer experience by integrating Sitecore? – Use cases

Since now you know what are the benefits of Sitecore integration, it is time to answer another question: How do you build omnichannel experience with it?

• Creating a single source of truth

Integrating Sitecore with in-store point-of-sale systems might answer your question on how to create an omnichannel customer experience. Purchase history, customer data, preferences – all of these may be unified through such an integration. You are, thus, able to access a complete overview of your business performance, eliminate duplicated data and break down data silos. This leads to a boost in productivity, and transparency and enhances your business’ ability to scale.

• Connecting channels

In traditional systems, data flow between channels is synchronized manually. This also means that customers need to re-input their information whenever they change the channel, instead of that being done automatically for them. Yet, by integrating Sitecore, you can create an environment for omnichannel customer experience, by avoiding all these issues. Measuring customer satisfaction, creating a personalized customer journey, and building unified customer profiles that will travel through the channels along with the customers – this is the way to increase customer satisfaction and thus retention rates.

• Unifying the Content

Content is a critical component of marketing strategies. Therefore, the messages need to be unified across all channels. Sitecore integration enables that, by giving your company a full insight into the customers. Yet, it also has some additional uses.

For content unification to be effective, it has to be done automatically. It is especially important if you desire to send personalized content to each customer and aim to find the best time to do so. You can do that by integrating Sitecore. As a result, customer satisfaction will skyrocket and your clients will be more likely to purchase your products.

The takeaway

Building an omnichannel customer experience and knowing how to improve it is essential in today’s digital age, where the border between online and offline worlds is slowly fading out. By integrating Sitecore into your customer experience management systems, you will be able to enhance personalization by creating unique, customized customer journeys. Adapting an omnichannel approach has numerous benefits: increases customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty and thus stimulates business growth. Therefore, it should be embraced and used if possible.

You might also read: How Put It Forward Helps to Integrate Sitecore XM Across the Enterprise