Is Your Company Ready for the Omnichannel Experience?

Omnichannel communications and marketing is set to explode this year, but like the new marketing tools that have come before it (websites, social media, digital, content) omni channel isn’t going to be right for everyone—right now. Marketers want to use the latest tools and techniques to get ahead and outcompete competitors, but often we jump into new marketing arenas without making sure that the tool is right for their customers and the company is ready for the changes required.

We all remember websites that were out of sync with salespeople and blogs that started with a bang, then fizzled when people realize that blogging is work. Taking a moment and doing a quick self assessment gives you a sense of where you are and if omni channel messaging is right for you and your market.

Omnichannel communications readiness self-assessment

We created this simple set of yes/no questions to help you gauge if you are ready to deliver an omnichannel experience. These factors are indicators of how mature your messaging program is and if omni channel is the logical next step for you.

We believe that all companies will be able to benefit from omnichannel communications in the future, when each company gets there depends on their niche, customers, and the marketing technologies already in place. Now for the assessment. Just answer each question in your head yes or no and keep a tally of your answers. There are no right or wrong answers here, just where you are right now.

.omni-checklist { margin-bottom: 50px; } .omni-checklist th { color: #ff6002; } .omni-checklist, .omni-checklist th, .omni-checklist td { width: 100%; border: 1px solid #dedede; } .omni-checklist td, .omni-checklist th { padding: 3px 10px; text-align: left; } .omni-checklist td.even { background-color: #f2f2f2; }

Omni readiness checklist Yes/No Are your customers using multiple messaging channels to engage with you? (e.g. email, text messaging, chat, push) Do you have in-house IT resources for messaging? Are you sending messages globally? Do you use a CRM? Do you use marketing automation? Do you use support ticketing software (like Zendesk)? Do you have internal systems that you need to integrate with messaging tools? Do you have a mobile app? Are you exploring customer service over chat? Are multiple departments sending messages to customers? Do you have a support or customer success dept? Do you have automated communications workflows? Do have regular, automated reporting on your marketing communications?

Scoring the assessment

This isn’t a passing or failing kind of assessment; we’re looking at where you sit on a continuum. Based on how many “yes” answers you gave, here’s how to score yourself:

0-5: Messaging savvy, but not omni ready. Looks like you have some customer and marketing messaging on the go, but you’re not at the scale where omni is going to help you…yet. As you start sending more messages, using more channels, involving more departments, and have to integrate more tools, omnichannel communications will help you coordinate your messages and engage with your customers.

6-10: Ready for omni. Your messaging and marketing systems have gotten pretty complex. You’re probably running into problems juggling email, text messaging, push, voice, and chat with customers. You might not have a complete picture of your customers, what motivates them, if they are engaged with your, or if you’re meeting their needs. Omnichannel will integrate your customer messaging from email to text messages, push, voice, and chat into a single view and space. You can create cross-channel campaigns tailored to specific customer segments based on geography, message preferences, and even activities like open and click rates. Omnichannel communications gives you a complete view of customer communications so each interaction provides a positive customer experience.

11-13: Omni savvy. You’re probably on the omni bandwagon or pretty close to it. You know leverage different communications channels depending on customer preferences and are creating holistic pictures of customer communications for sales, marketing, and customer experience/support. The question is: do you have access to all the channels you need? Do you need to integrate push messages in your app with SMS, email, or chat? Would you like to integrate Facebook Messenger into your support or ecommerce flow? You might be omni savvy, but are you omni satisfied?

Now you know, so what’s next?

Now that you have an idea where you are on the omnichannel messaging readiness continuum, what’s the next step? Well, we’d love to talk to you about your messaging needs and in the meantime you might enjoy reading our Marketer’s Guide to Omnichannel Communications series and ebook.

Omnichannel communications is the natural progression in customer relationships and engagement. Omnichannel means communicating with customers like you really are a single company, and not a bunch of separate departments. It’s understanding how customers want to connect with you and providing value each time a customer engages with your brand. It’s more than tweeting, chatting, emailing, or posting. Omni channel is making customer communications a holistic, unified process for connecting and engaging.

Jan 16th, 2017
4 min read