Rethinking Omnichannel Experience: When a Seamless Journey Is Not the Answer

Striving for a seamless customer journey seems like the right thing to do. After all, when a customer has several ways of interacting with your business through different touchpoints, offering a consistent experience across the board seems ideal. But that’s not always the case. Recent studies challenge this conventional thinking, showing that less integration can lead to more positive customer experiences in some circumstances. In this article, we discuss how that happens and when CX leaders should consider breaking free from the integration imperative that often frames the omnichannel experience.

The Integration Imperative in Omnichannel Experience

Omnichannel experience is a critical focus for customer-centric businesses. The usual recommendation in omnichannel research is to integrate touchpoints across various channels to offer a seamless customer experience. This guideline comes from the belief that customers expect uniformity and consistency in their interactions with a brand, regardless of the platform they choose to engage with. However, some experts believe this approach is a business-centric theory that doesn’t consider how customers actually perceive their omnichannel journey. Before discussing the situations in which a seamless omnichannel experience might not be the best approach, let’s understand what the ideal scenario looks like.

Creating a Seamless Customer Experience in Retail

Although omnichannel experiences are not exclusive to retail, this industry is one that heavily invests in research related to the topic, so it’s a good example to explore. A seamless customer experience in retail involves the integration of touchpoints by maintaining consistency in key retail elements such as:

1. Assortment: Ensuring customers can find what they need, where, and when needed.
2. Design: Keeping the visual and functional aspects of the brand consistent, whether online or offline.
3. Price: Offering uniform pricing across different platforms to avoid confusion and dissatisfaction.
4. Promotion: Synchronizing promotional offers and campaigns to ensure customers receive the same deals and incentives regardless of how they interact with the brand.
5. Communication: Providing consistent messaging and customer service to maintain a cohesive brand voice.
6. Data Integration: Utilizing customer data across channels to personalize and enhance the shopping experience.

Focus on Channel Consistency

One of the key components of a seamless omnichannel experience in retail is channel consistency. Retailers aim to ensure that a customer’s interaction with the brand is smooth and predictable, regardless of the channel. This consistency is believed to build trust and reliability, as customers know they can expect the same quality of service and experience whether shopping online, in a store, or through a mobile app.

The Role of Customer Journey Touchpoints

Each touchpoint of the customer journey contributes to their overall experience with a brand. By integrating touchpoints across the entire journey and all channels, businesses aim to create smooth transitions. Each touchpoint in the journey should reinforce a brand’s promise and deliver a unified experience. This creates a consistent and cohesive omnichannel experience, instead of a fragmented multichannel journey.

The Limitations of the Integration Imperative

Most CX leaders believe that integrating touchpoints to create a seamless omnichannel experience should be the ultimate goal. The reasoning is that uniformity and consistency across all customer interactions will naturally lead to higher satisfaction and loyalty. But this is not always the case. In some scenarios, more integration can actually hinder the customer experience. Here are some limitations of the assumption that customers always desire a uniform experience regardless of how they interact with a business:

• Rigidity: Excessive focus on consistency can lead to a lack of flexibility. Companies may become too rigid in their operations, unable to quickly adapt to changing customer needs or preferences.
• Over-Simplification: The assumption that all customers prefer the same level of integration overlooks the complexity and diversity of customer journeys. Different customers may have different preferences and needs, and a one-size-fits-all approach can be limiting.
• Potential for Frustration: Uniformity across touchpoints might create expectations that cannot be consistently met, especially in dynamic environments where factors such as stock availability or localized promotions vary.

What Science Says About Inconsistent Touchpoints

Recent research challenges the notion that more integration is always better. Inconsistent touchpoints can sometimes enhance the overall customer experience. Here is what scientists have found:

• Positive Disassociation: Research has shown that when customers encounter inconsistent touchpoints, they may mentally disassociate the brand from specific pain points in their journey. For example, a customer might have a negative experience with an online transaction but a positive one in-store. This disassociation allows the customer to isolate the negative experience, thereby maintaining a positive brand perception.
• Personalization Opportunities: Inconsistencies can also present opportunities for personalized experiences. For instance, different touchpoints can cater to specific customer preferences, making the overall experience more tailored and satisfactory. Compared to a standard online shopping experience, a customer might appreciate (and even be willing to pay more for) a unique in-store experience.
• Adaptive Flexibility: Less integrated touchpoints allow for greater flexibility and responsiveness to immediate customer needs. Retailers can adapt quickly to localized demands or feedback, enhancing the customer experience by being more in tune with specific contexts and environments.

A Customer-Centric Approach to Omnichannel Experience

Focusing too much on the integration of touchpoints and channel consistency can make brands forget what really matters: the customer. A truly customer-centric approach goes beyond the traditional emphasis on seamlessness and consistency. It instead prioritizes how customers perceive and navigate their omnichannel journeys.

To adopt a customer-centric approach and prioritize the overall customer experience, businesses need to make a strategic shift from the integration imperative and even embrace certain inconsistencies. Here are 4 strategies to achieve this:

1. Personalization: Tailor the customer experience to individual preferences and behaviors. Use data to offer personalized recommendations, targeted promotions, and customized communication, even if this leads to inconsistency across different channels.
2. Flexibility: Allow for flexibility in how touchpoints are managed and integrated. Be willing to adapt based on customer feedback and changing market conditions. This might mean having different approaches for different channels or customer segments.
3. Empathy-Driven Design: Design customer journeys with empathy. Understand the emotional aspects of customer interactions and design touchpoints that resonate on an emotional level. This could involve creating more engaging in-store experiences or more intuitive online interfaces.
4. Continuous Improvement: View the customer journey as a dynamic process that requires constant refinement. Regularly update and optimize touchpoints based on the latest customer feedback and technological advancements.

Breaking Free from the Integration Imperative

While the traditional focus on consistency aims to create a seamless customer experience, it also imposes a rigid structure that may not always align with customer expectations or behaviors. The integration imperative assumes that customers always desire an integrated and consistent experience without considering how they experience their omnichannel journey.

However, more integration is not necessarily always better. In some situations, low consistency can trigger positive experiences. Businesses should adopt a customer-centric lens when managing the omnichannel experience. By understanding how customers perceive their journey, they can decide when it makes sense to break free from the integration imperative.