It’s a familiar tale of woe that we can all empathise with. You order a fairly pricey (but fragile) wedding gift, which arrives on your doorstep in damaged condition. With the wedding just a week away, your initial frustration is compounded when you call the retailer and are shunted from one department to the next. Having determined the item is out of stock in your nearest store, you resort to online chat, where you’re forced to repeat the entire tale of woe to an agent who has no history of your previous call or interaction. Frustration ensues, and your opinion of the brand plummets.

Today’s digital-first customers can’t be confined to a single channel throughout the customer journey, and they expect a seamless transition from one channel to the next. That’s the fundamental difference between multichannel and truly omnichannel. The reality, however, is that many retailers are still missing the mark: operating in organisational and departmental silos, they’re failing to create consistent experiences.

For a customer to complete a single task, such as buying a product or sorting out a delivery problem, it often takes multiple, time-consuming, disconnected interactions. And it’s not just customers who suffer—agents expected to handle voice and chat dialogues in the absence of any context are between a rock and a hard place, bearing the brunt of customers’ (understandable) frustration.

Channel proliferation can be a nightmare for businesses and consumers alike—that’s why we try to help our clients understand the importance of orchestration to provide consistent, personalised interactions and journeys throughout the customer lifecycle. Our CX platform integrates channels, context and the ability to optimise your workforce and processes, applying best practices to deliver great customer experiences with compelling business outcomes.

Making the shift to omnichannel journey orchestration is not as daunting as you might think. And as a system of engagement, it allows you to consolidate your existing patchwork of technologies acquired over time into a single, future-ready solution, so that as new tools and channels come along, there should be no need for rip and replace, just plug and play.

To learn more check out the Altocloud White Paper: Analysing and Shaping Customer Journeys