6 Tips For Omnichannel Customer Engagement

Currently, customers do not take a linear shopping journey anymore. They engage with sellers on multiple channels, such as going to the website, making orders online, and picking up products in-store. That being so, it is challenging for store owners to engage with clients through various platforms actively. The article will provide you with the most useful tips for omnichannel customer engagement. 

Celebrate together

Have you reached the 5000th registered user on your site? When your store reaches significant milestones, let’s celebrate these events with your customers. Try to make them feel like they have contributed to your success. 

If special events are upcoming, such as Christmas – the most significant holiday season- you can also share the joy with customers. 

Here are simple ideas to help you celebrate with your shoppers:

• Offer great discounts on items at online and offline shops
• Decorate both your site and your brick-and-mortar store on the holiday season that customers can immerse in the holiday spirit. 
• Create a minigame on your website and offer customers to pick giveaways in-store.

Respond to feedback

A part of successful customer engagement is to take time and listen to your target customers. It is not enough to reply to any reviews and comments, you need to show that you value their contributions. Online interactions are even more crucial when other customers can be visible to your responses. 

For omnichannel businesses, it is highly recommended to maintain an online and offline presence and respond both to positive and negative feedback. If you make any change based on customers’ suggestions, you should let them know about it.  

Co-create new things

Do you have any upcoming plans, such as redesigning your site, releasing a catalog, launching new products, etc.? If your answer is yes, let’s try to reach out to your customers to help you create things or at least give their input and suggestions. Your clients will feel proud that they were part of the process to make your products better. On the other hand, you also get a deeper understanding of customers’ needs and preferences to serve them more. 

For instance, you can open a contest that customers participate in and share their ideas about new product developments. Clients are enabled to submit online or fill in a form at the physical store which will be collected by a sales associate. People whose ideas are implemented will receive a prize. 

Create consistent content both online and offline

Let’s try to offer exclusive and responsive content that is unavailable to the general public. Store owners can restrict only members to view it and customers will be required to log in to your site.

In recent years, with the development of the Internet, almost all retailers rely heavily on digital platforms to communicate with customers, such as social media, online newspapers, emails, blogs, etc. However, omnichannel businesses should pay attention to integrating online and offline content in a consistent way. 

Let’s see an example of effective omnichannel engagement: a store owner promotes new arrivals online with postings on social media and offline with flyers, posters, and standees. Besides, she provides magazines – a collection of tips on the blog for customers to kill time in waiting for checkout. 

Personalize your customer experience

According to Epsilon’s research, 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. If a business treats its customers as individuals rather than a faceless group, it not only boosts sales but also shows authentic customer engagement. 

A good starting point is to refer to customers by name. Omnichannel retailers can use a POS (point of sale) system to store customers’ data online and identify shoppers at physical stores based on facial recognition technology. With the POS, store owners can keep track of purchase history at the individual level and generate custom product recommendations. Implementing an omnichannel engagement plan is never easy. Let’s try to get the support of technology!

Keep your customers in the loop

Lastly, if you are regularly publishing content online and offline, it can’t randomly come to a grinding halt. You should continue to update online and offline materials on a daily basis. It is the easiest way to create an omnichannel engagement strategy. For example, when they do not have a need to shop or they can not come to your store due to social distancing.  

Final words

In the relationship era, engaging with customers is a top priority for any business, especially omnichannel commerce when it is more complicated through various channels. Instead of looking for a single way to connect with them, omnichannel retailers can try to apply technological solutions, such as a POS system to simplify the process of omnichannel engagement and forming long-term relationships with shoppers. Contact us for the POS free trial and the most excellent service worldwide!