The omnichannel concept has perhaps captured the imagination of many professionals with many companies rushing to claim that their services are indeed ‘omnichannel.’
In recent years, a company’s need to “be where my customer is” has dictated distribution strategies. Driven by evolving customer behaviours and demands, this meant that companies are compelled to offer more channel choices for their products and services than ever before. For example, many predominantly brick-and-motor retailers are now also accessible to their customers through their website, app or even social commerce. The objective (and hope) is that by improving accessibility on newer, contemporary channels, higher sales and engagement will follow.
So, many new concepts have now become popular; multi-channel, omnichannel, phygital, social commerce, mobile commerce, quick commerce, ecommerce, live commerce, m-commerce etc. Out of these, the omnichannel concept has perhaps captured the imagination of many professionals with many companies rushing to claim that their services are indeed ‘omnichannel.’ They have felt that this investment would enable them to better execute their organisation-level customer centricity strategy by making their products or services seamlessly or effortlessly available to end-users.
But often the intent and practice gap can be a bridge too long to cross. While a distribution manager can be forgiven for considering omnichannel investments as another distribution innovation, looked at holistically from an organisation view point what would the strategic insight on this one be?
The many companies who claim they are omnichannel, are they truly so? What is the ground reality?
Today, customers feel that most brands and retailers are more multi-channel than truly omnichannel. For, brands and retailers such as Decathlon, Skechers, Hitachi, Bata, The Sleep Co., Mamaearth, Shopper’s Stop, Reliance Digital, etc. The moment of truth is in the actual customer experience while traversing journeys such as purchase, exchange, and returns, to service queries, etc.
Consider a situation that runs like this; Riya, picks up an outfit at a well-recognized multi-brand outlet in Mumbai and then rushes to catch a flight back home. Over the weekend she finds that it does not fit and walks to store outlet of the brand ( say in Delhi), only to be firmly told that she would need to only return it at the store of purchase… really ? in this day and age?
Such an experience could be backtracked to any one of these reasons; perhaps the technology set up was not as evolved or seamless as claimed. However, specifically in this case, after analysing the complaint the retailer realised the front line executives in the store perceived that product returns not only did not contribute to daily sales but was a cumbersome transaction and therefore at an individual level were politely discouraging.
This denial of service more often than not extends when a customer wishes to execute a ‘cross-channel’ return or asks for a refund. Customers can be turned back because employees perceive that the effort will not be attributed to their daily sales or getting approvals of seniors would be tough or simply the policy to execute a ‘goodwill gesture’ puts the onus on the employees. While it is easier to blame for such poor experience on the vulnerable frontline can we truly exonerate the managerial levels? Food for thought.
While the investments in technology really smoothen a customer’s cross-channel sales or return journeys it may not be a sure short way to success as, it can all fall apart if not backed with an ‘omnichannel mindset’ among all levels in an organisation.
Which throws up an interesting question, is delivering an omnichannel experience just about distribution tech or is it a deep-rooted culture issue? Do failures of omnichannel experience hold the mirror to an organisation’s mindset?
Benjamin Rajkumar, the Head of People Function, CaratLane seems to think it is both. He clarifies that CaratLane’s strategy to deliver an omnichannel experience is as much about an employee mindset as it is about its digital tools and backend processes. After all the design and investments fulfilling a deep customer-centric need can be empathized only if an organisation’s multiple departments are continuously looking through the same lens that has its customer’s happiness at its heart. Hence, he said that the move to omnichannel is not a switch on-off affair but rather a journey and an ever-evolving one at that.
Essentially, while the program may start off as an initiative to execute an organisation’s omnichannel distribution strategy, to be truly successful it would necessarily need to morph into one that becomes a customer experience enhancer and, operationalised using a omnichannel mindset. The latter means evolving gradually and, continuously reviewing and refreshing bits and pieces of the original framework after testing it against the customers’ feedback and wallet share. But, the magic ingredient is the intensity to which it is socialised, rewarded and, recognized to truly entrench it in the DNA of the organisation across its various hierarchical and functional levels.
A McKinsey report on the subject (June 2020) claims that “more than half of customers engage with three to five channels during each journey they take toward making a purchase or resolving a request”.
This mirrors the frustration we subject our customers to. As an example,the report mentions that they found “the average customer attempting to book a single reservation for accommodations online switched nearly six times between websites and mobile channels.”
This is contra-indicative as omni channel experience implies that allowing customers to seamlessly criss-cross across online and offline assets, any one channel should also be able to deliver real-time, personalized and, consistent experiences. This should be irrespective of the customer journey or, its direction (forward or backwards) or how much it supposedly costs the company to deliver it.
The upside is if well executed, omnichannel has the potential to increase customer loyalty and sales but also differentiates brands in a way that supports the brand’s proposition. Needless to say, when there is friction, the expected benefits don’t accrue.
The dilemma of omni channel is summed up by Mamoun Alamouri, Uniphore who admits that the key dilemma are perhaps the words “Omni” and the “Channel”, which unfortunately seem to cue the mindset of “channels;” implying that omnichannel is a channel integration exercise. But, true omni-channel envisages a shift from a ‘channel-centric’ to ‘customer-centric’ mindset, and within this holistic strategy, the channel (just like say technology) is just one enabler and medium of interaction.
So, what is the overall game plan for you and your organisation; Does the investment in omnichannel constitute just a tech development, a channel extension or is it really a larger cultural mindset?
Authored by – Dr. Jacqueline P. Mundkur is Senior Adjunct Faculty(Marketing), School of Business NMIMS Mumbai, Founder The Nxt Levels Advisory and, Independent Director.
