Every interaction customers have with your business throughout the buyer’s journey counts. From the moment they discover your service or products, you have an opportunity to create brand champions that drive meaningful success for your business. To get there, a seamless and unified customer experience is vital.
While a unified customer experience is a surefire way to create satisfaction, retention, and loyalty amongst customers, it comes with its challenges you’ll need to overcome. Those challenges can include data fragmentation, department silos, or poor communication. In this article, we’ll cover those and other barriers you’ll have to overcome in order to deliver the best unified experience.
Unified Customer Experience Barriers
Overcoming the unique challenges that come with creating an effective unified customer experience is crucial. In order to deliver a quality experience, identify and tackle these common barriers:
Data Fragmentation
Data fragmentation occurs when customer information is scattered across different systems and departments. This is not good for a unified experience. It leads to inconsistent data, making it difficult to gain a comprehensive view of the buyer’s journey and ensure interactions are personalized efficiently.
Department Silos
The lack of communication and collaboration between different departments within your organization can create problematic department silos. This kind of isolation prevents teams from sharing important buyer information, which can alter their experience.
Legacy Systems
Using outdated technology almost guarantees a disjointed customer experience. Legacy systems struggle to support the complex needs of modern customer experience management. Things like a lack of integration capabilities negatively impact the unified commerce experience.
Poor Communication
Similar to department silos, inefficient communication channels within an organization can lead to misunderstandings that negatively impact the buying experience. Aligning your communication channels to create clearer and more consistent communication supports a unified experience.
The Proof Is In The Data
One of the nation’s oldest family-owned department stores, Boscov’s, discovered a demand for BOPIS options through their eCommerce platform. They partnered with Kibo to bring this discovery to life in order to meet the needs of their customers effectively. The results?
- 40% increase in In-Store Upsell Rate on BOPIS Purchases
- 7 Extra Days of Online Holiday Shopping
- 47 BOPIS-Enabled Retail Stores
Learn more about how a unified customer experience helped Boscov’s reach their goals.
Strategies That Remove The Barriers
Tackling data fragmentation, department silos, legacy systems, and poor communication within your organization head-on and succeeding at it is possible. Here are four strategies to implement to get you there:
Data Management
Data management is the process of consolidating and integrating your customer data effectively. Centralizing data in a single system gets everyone in your organization on the same page through access to up-to-date and accurate information.
Department-Wide Collaboration
Do you want to deliver a better customer experience? You have to foster a culture of collaboration across departments. From meetings, shared goals, and collaborative tools, you can start to break down department silos and improve communication.
Modern Technology
Modern technology like a distributed order management system helps to streamline your processes and create a more unified customer experience. These systems are at your disposal to better manage inventory, process orders efficiently and ensure timely delivery.
Personalization
Tailoring experiences to buyer preferences and needs is an effective way to leverage data and customer insights to create meaningful and engaging interactions with your customers.
For A Unified Commerce Experience – Software Matters
One way to evolve with your buyers is by using modern technology that keeps you ahead of their expectations. An order management system is equipped with the advanced tools you need to make the buyer’s journey a smooth and enjoyable experience for buyers. What exactly should you look for in an order management system?
Inventory Management
Real-time inventory management helps in tracking stock levels accurately, reducing the risk of over-selling or stockouts.
Order Routing
Efficient order routing ensures that orders are processed and delivered in the most productive way possible, improving delivery times and customer satisfaction.
Fulfillment Options
Providing multiple fulfillment options such as in-store pickup, curbside pickup, and home delivery, gives customers the flexibility to choose the options that work best for them.
Customer Service
You simply can’t create a unified customer experience without great customer service. Empowering customer service representatives with the right tools and information enables them to quickly address and resolve issues, which ultimately improves customer satisfaction.
Flexible Scheduling
Flexibility scheduling is another benefit of an order management system. Through flexible scheduling for deliveries and services, you’re creating more convenient options for customers.
Flexible Payment Options
Providing flexible payment options improves the customer experience by providing the convenience and flexibility they desire.
Once The Obstacles Are Overcome
Delivering a unified customer experience doesn’t come without its challenges, but it’s possible to overcome them all and see lasting results. By implementing tried and true data management practices, fostering department-wide collaboration, leveraging modern technology, and creating personalized interactions, you’ll have a competitive advantage when it comes to unified experiences.
The Kibo team understands how vital a unified experience is to business success – which is why we’ve created the technology that supports a seamless from brand awareness to post-purchase. Discover how Kibo is helping businesses create an unforgettable unified commerce experience.