What It Is, Benefits, & Deploying Guide

According to a research, in 2021 marketers that used three or more channels earned 494%¹ higher order rate than those using a single channel. That underlies the importance of using multiple messaging channels to reach out to your audience and provide a seamless customer experience.

As consumers are becoming more comfortable using chatbots when shopping, companies should use chatbots to create their omnichannel messaging platform.

This article will discuss:

• What omnichannel messaging is
• What are the benefits of omnichannel messaging are
• How companies can create an omnichannel messaging platform
• What the use cases of omnichannel messaging are

What is omnichannel messaging?

Omnichannel messaging is a subprocess of omnichannel marketing focused specifically on creating a communication strategy for communicating with your customers via multiple channels, including:

• Email
• SMS
• Social media
• Webchat
• Messaging apps

An omnichannel messaging strategy is achieved by deploying a chatbot across different touchpoints for an integrated, consistent, and seamless communication and customer experience across multiple messaging channels.

What are the benefits of omnichannel messaging?

The following are the benefits companies can gain from leveraging omnichannel messaging:

1. Increased efficiency

1.1. Reduced repetition

Deploying an omnichannel messaging platform eliminates the need for customers to repeat information, if they change their messaging channel. This is achieved by businesses storing customer data from all touchpoints in a CRM and then feeding it into the chatbot.

For example, a customer might start asking questions about a product on the company’s website and continue the conversation on Facebook Messenger after some hours. At this point, the customer mentioning their name, or inputting their email address, should be enough for the chatbot to continue the conversation from where it was left off.

1.2. Automation opportunities

Omnichannel messaging opens the door to automation. For instance, while chatbots are answering questions or creating personalized messages, customer service reps are freed to focus on more complex tasks, like handling escalated complaints or assisting customers with complex transactions.

2. Customer retention

Companies with a “strong” commitment to omnichannel customer service maintain, on average, 89% of their customers, compared to 33% with a “weak” commitment.

By implementing omnichannel strategies, businesses can ensure that messaging conversations with customers remain consistent and seamless across all the messaging channels, fostering customer loyalty and increasing satisfaction.

3. Increased sales

Omnichannel messaging can lead to increased sales in the following ways:

3.1. Selling from anywhere

Omnichannel messaging allows businesses to be where their customers are, providing various platforms for interaction. This translates to the company being able to sell across all messaging channels and devices. So if a customer needs help purchasing something, they can reach out on different messaging platforms and receive a timely service.

3.2. Abandoned cart recovery

Because data is captured from different channels, if a customer abandons their cart on the website, they could receive an SMS, push notification, or email to remind them to check out.

3.3. Timely engagement

• With customers’ consent, their geolocation can be used to send them a notification or promotional offer, to lure them in, whenever they are near a physical store
• Consumer behavior and preferences can be tracked across all channels to estimate when they are the most active/receptive, by looking at app engagement, for example. This can help businesses schedule their interactions with them accordingly
• Companies can predict client needs by gathering app or website purchasing and behavior data. And then, the chatbot can send a reminder/offer at the optimal time.

How to create an omnichannel messaging strategy?

The best practices for creating an omnichannel messaging strategy include:

1. Understand your customers’ journey

Map out the different touch points your customers have with your brand across all channels. This could include visiting your website, engaging on social media, calling customer support, or visiting a physical store. Understand how they transition between these channels.

2. Understand your customers’ preferred channels

Identify the communication platforms your customers use the most. These could include Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, email, SMS, or your own website.

3. Choose the right chatbot provider

Selecting the right chatbot that supports integration with as many channels as possible is the most crucial step in the omnichannel strategy. That’s because the whole premise of it lies in the ability of your automation tool to support multiple messaging channels.

Haptik, for example, offers a chatbot usable for omnichannel messaging, integrable with:

• WhatsApp
• Instagram
• Facebook
• SMS
• The web
• Google Business Messages

Haptik’s chatbot needs development only once, but can be used in multiple departments like sales and marketing. Netmeds, a trusted Indian pharmacy with a century of experience, relied on Haptik to create and deploy a chatbot on their website, WhatsApp, and Google Business Messages to resolve patient queries (Figure 1).

4. Build your chatbot

Design your bot’s conversational flow, like the questions it will ask and the responses it will give. Based on your needs and your chatbot provider’s capabilities, your chatbot’s sophistication and flexibility can range from rule-based to those leveraging generative AI capabilities.

5. Develop a consistent brand voice

The chatbot should use a similar tone, style, language, and visuals across all channels. This consistency helps in creating a seamless and familiar experience for the customers, regardless of their used channel.

6. Integrate it with all the messaging channels

No-code chatbots usually have pre-built API integration with the most popular messaging platforms that you can add to the chatbot’s functionality with a few clicks. And if a specific API isn’t available pre-built, you could build it by entering the API’s URL, configuring it, and testing it.

7. Connect with your CRM or database

A CRM, or a central database, is crucial to an effective omnichannel platform. That’s because they:

• Eliminate information silos and allow a unified view of all customer data
• Track customer preferences, enabling the chatbot to use the data for personalized messaging, marketing campaigns, product recommendations, or custom content
• Enable seamless communication continuity between channels

8. Test and optimize

Test your chatbot on all the channels to ensure it works as expected. Collect data on its performance, customer interactions, and feedback. Use this information to continuously optimize the chatbot’s responses and overall performance.

9. Launch and monitor

Once testing is complete, you can launch your chatbot, all the while monitoring and updating it based on customer feedback and changing needs.

What are some of the use cases of omnichannel messaging?

1. Retail

In retail, omnichannel strategies can provide customers with a unified shopping experience, whether they are shopping online from a mobile device, a laptop, or in a physical store. Retailers can use different channels, like SMS, email, mobile apps, and social media, to send personalized offers, product recommendations, and shopping cart reminders.

Learn more about retail chatbots.

2. Healthcare

In healthcare, a multichannel messaging platform can streamline the patient journey by integrating appointment scheduling, reminders, health advice, and telemedicine services across multiple communication channels.

Explore healthcare chatbots in more detail.

3. Banking

In banking, an omnichannel approach allows customers to seamlessly transition between online banking, mobile apps, and physical branches. Customers can receive account updates through SMS, start a loan application process online, and complete it at a branch.

A successful case study in Bank of America’s Erica chatbot that allows customers to schedule appointments, answers their questions, executes demands, and provides financial tips on Bank of America’s website and mobile app.

Explore banking chatbots in more detail.

4. Customer support

Customer care departments can use omnichannel messaging to provide real-time support to customers across multiple platforms. Customers can initiate a chat with customer service on a website, then transition to a phone call, or even social media without losing context or having to repeat their issue.

Explore customer service chatbots in more detail.

For more on chatbots and marketing

To learn more about how chatbots are used in marketing, read:

If you want to invest in a chatbot solution, visit our data-driven list of chatbot providers.

Read our conversational AI whitepaper to learn more about the topic:

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And if you have any questions, reach out to us:

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Sources

1. “What we can learn from omnichannel statistics for 2022.” Omnisend. April 5, 2022. Retrieved on August 2, 2023.

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