Omnichannel and Omnichannel Experience - networknt/light GitHub Wiki

Omnichannel is a still new and the idea is still developing. People talking about it online at different levels but majorities are limited within a single brand. Omnichannel is about true continuity of your experience. But the key is that it extends beyond a single brand’s universe. Being omniscient is perceiving and understanding all things. Not all things at Best Buy. Not all things at Target. Not all things at Citi. Omni is perceiving all things. And the best way for a customer to perceive everything is to allow them to own their data and experience, then give them the ability to use it to guide creation and context of every future experience.

Omni comes from the word Omnis which can mean all or universal. This is in comparison to other concepts out there, like “multichannel”, from the Latin word Multus, meaning multiple or many and from crosschannel, derived from the Latin word Crux, meaning to go across. The way that many are explaining omnichannel today is: ‘cross channel being done well’. Examples are often that the mobile app should match the responsive design of the website which should thematically reflect the look and feel inside the store. We’d argue that doing cross channel well with the user in mind, is not worthy (nor useful) enough to deserve a new concept. Instead, we hold the belief that Omnichannel is something new and notable, even revolutionary, not just a marginal evolution of existing thinking.

Think about it. Today our life is continuous, but our customer experience is anything but that. We learn and have memory of all the good and bad things in life. We strive to limit or eliminate the negative ones and increase the good. These patterns that we strive to replicate are our preferences. The ability to have a continuous experience across brands, across format and across devices that is completely customized – that is the promise of a new way of thinking and marketing that has been long unnoticed.

I am shopping at Amazon.com, Newegg.com and other online retailers. I like Amazon's catelog to do research and Newegg's checkout process. Would I be a happy customer of both if Amazon can provide me the Newegg checkout experience and Newegg can provide me Amazon catelog experience? I have a checking account at bank A, a saving account at bank B and an investment account at bank C. Can I use Bank A online transfter experience on Bank B and Bank C websites?

But wait, are you suggesting that Amazon helps people buy computers from Newegg? That would be counter to everything retailers try to do. When brands think customer experience they need to think omni. Its not about your customers or their customers, its about all customers. The brands who can best interpret omnichannel data and understand all customers are the winners. There will be a new dimension of customer decision. As a final decision is being made to purchase, price, relationship, service and continuity will all be considered.

With the rise of NFC and personal device use in store, brands need to awake to the idea that the days of closed data and 75% off for loyalty points from only shopping at their brand are changing quickly. If a brand wants to start thinking omnichannel, then they need to be open and involved in making the customer’s experience continuous and universal. Have doubts? Look at the role of social media and customer relationship. Remember those brands who have refused to evolve and engage and have a dialogue? Many of them aren’t with us today.

As much as the social media revolution has meant the two-way exchange in dialogue and interaction, omnichannel is the realization of social business. If the first phase in the evolution of the customer relationship was messaging and media, the future is product research, selection and payment. With personal preference data that can be used universally on devices, brand can either jump at the opportunities made real by omnichannel or wait until their brand is the only one not integrated and playing nicely to allow consumers to be continuous.

If you’re thinking that matching the colors and content across devices is omnichannel, we would encourage you to reconsider. If you are ready to lead in the next phase of social business and get the most out of the promise that our new identity as customers is truly omniscient, then let’s connect. This way of thinking is the future promise on which we started Omnichannel Application Framework.

There are a few key features in the framework that allowed this idea to be made reality:

In exploring and discovering products in your brand domain that data should be transferable for me to collect and use universally.

In exchange for this data, the customer will give you access to other data they have collected that will far outweigh the value of the limited data in your brand universe.

All experiences offline and online should allow an individual to identify themselves and present a brand with the opportunity to access my preferences.