Omni – Means
: all : in all ways, places, etc. : without limits
Whereas
Multi- Means
: many : much
These 2 words mean so much in retail these day’s. it’s almost impossible to look at any aspect of retail without these 2 words being used, often with no real justification of why or how actually it applies, it just seems nature to call something Omni-Channel or the Omni Channel Approach etc… but really and truly how many of these claimed Omni-Channel Products are “Omni”.
This also brings about a question what is the difference between Omni-Channel and Multi-Channel, for me the answer to this question is
Omni-Channel
One channel with different access points.
One repository for Master Data, a single record for a Customer or a product, a single promotions engine, a single basket management solution.
This for me truly represents Omni-Channel, Point of Sale actually becoming a point of service understanding what the customer was looking at on your website this morning or currently has in their basket, even that simple concept of what the customer bought from you last week, last month or even yesterday.
Picture this a long term customer of yours constantly buying the latest and greatest electronics from you TV, Surround Sound, Blu-ray player etc.. comes in to your store and wants to buy something new but wants to be sure that the items are going to work well together, wouldn’t it be great if you could simply pull up the customer, review their purchase history and confirm that it would or wouldn’t work and even provide recommendations of other items, build the customer a wish list that they could review later, and if they don’t purchase there and then when they get home and look back at your website there are the items you discussed.
This is where Omni-Channel should be taking us, using the data we collect to further enhance the customer experience not just to drive marketing campaigns, sending out email or even old fashioned Snail-Mail. So much of this is even today so badly targeted that its just a waste of money and also from a customer point of view leaves you wondering what they do with all this data they collect.
Take this as example 1 day last week I received a letter in the post from BT advertising their new BT Plus service. I hadn’t heard of it before so actually spent some time reading the flyer and noticed “By Invitation” in a couple of places and thought OK so they are offering this to me, me! now don’t I feel special. In fact it worked so well that even though I am still in contract with another supplier I opened the browser and went to their site to find out more, excited that this could be just what I needed!! after 2 clicks I’m presented with the bad news “This service is not currently available in your area” now if this was an email I would have probably deleted it immediately but this was a letter in the post, this cost them actual money to print and stamp and send, they wanted me to know about this service so badly that they wrote to me, and yet that same address they wrote to couldn’t even receive the service they were offering. Surely a simple cross check could have prevented the waste of money in sending this out but also the negative impact this has had.
Joining up all this data is important, does a customer always follow the same process, research on line, visit the store, back to online then purchase through the most appropriate method.
How would we even know, of course everything that happens on line is tracked and logged and monitored but then they enter the real world and go into a store and they disappear right at the point the customer actually expects you to know more about them
Multi-Channel
Many Channels.
What then is Multi-Channel whereas in Omni or One channel its all about having one thing (Customer or Product) with Multi or Many its all about the Channel (Ecommerce or Bricks and Mortar or Mobile or…..). what does this mean though.
Ultimately this means one thing complication, error, integration and the significant opportunity to disappoint.
Product information must be stored in multiple systems each of which is able to hold different information in different ways.
Customer data again is store over and over again with multiple update points that then need integrating back to the other systems.
Transactional data that doesn’t occur in one place, is that unit of stock still available or can my Ecommerce site allow me to ship it from a store and ensure you get that sale, but even if you think you can can you actually do it and do it well. you’ve got to push that order from 1 system to at least one other and ensure you maintain at least an equivalent service level that the customer expects if you offer order by 8pm for delivery next day that’s great but what if that store is closed from 6pm the order isn’t going to be shipped until tomorrow, but then when they receive it how do they return it? standard returns process or a different one?
BUT with the right thought and planning Multi-Channel can appear as Omni-Channel but is it worth the effort? What do actually want from the solution and how are you going to enhance the customer experience? after all that’s what its all about