First, let’s talk about what is Omnichannel vs multichannel. These two similar terms have different meanings.

• Multichannel refers to a business reaching out to their audience on several channels. Each channel sends the same content or message, with the goal of attracting as many responses as possible.
• Omnichannel refers to a business seamlessly communicating with buyers across multiple channels. These channels are able to interact with each other.  Your reps are able to have continuing conversations with Individual prospects and customers, no matter what channel they are using.

They simple difference? With Omnichannel you get seamless conversations blended together across channels.

These are just a few results that show why you want to adopt Omnichannel.

• Marketing: A recent study shows that marketing campaigns using three or more channels resulted in an 18.96% engagement rate.  Compare that to single channel campaigns that only get 5.4% engagement.
• Sales: When interacting with three or more channels, customers bought 250% more frequently than customers who communicated with only one channel. Even better, Omnichannel customers were 90% more likely to come back for another purchase.
• Service/Retention: Customer retention for Omnichannel support teams reached 66.12%, compared to 34.8% for a single-channel

What is Omnichannel in Messaging?

Omnichannel in Marketing

Omnichannel is most often thought of in relation to marketing. An Omnichannel marketing strategy means that every channel is integrated. Each channel responds to and updates customer data. Which means that each rep or user on different channels can use that data to be sure they are sharing relevant information, based on the conversation history of each individual.

In Omnichannel messaging, that means delivering seamless, continuing conversations,across all messaging platforms. For example:

• A prospect receives an SMS message with an offer and responds.
• The same prospect sends a new inquiry via Facebook, or WhatsApp.
• Omnichannel messaging lets your business users see both interactions as a continuing conversation. S they can respond with relevant questions or information, using the appropriate messaging channel.
• All of the above is done in a way that’s seamless for both your audience and your internal marketing users or sales and service reps.

Omnichannel for Sales

Increasingly, buyers are toggling between online sites and offline brick and mortars to research and buy products and services. In a recent study, Deloitte found that digital experiences influence 56 cents of every dollar spent in physical stores.

Omnichannel for sales eliminated the traditional barriers between channels, weaving all communications together and sharing data between them. This empowers  customers to conduct business with sales reps and companies however they want, and whenever they want. Reps can see every interaction, from marketing to prior sales conversations to service conversations.

Omnichannel messaging in sales empowers reps to see all messaging conversations across the entire buying journey, across all messaging platforms. For example:

• A prospect starts an interaction with a company via their Facebook page.
• The rep can immediately check for any other conversations across marketing sales and service. Reps quickly increase their knowledge of the prospect’s history, so they engage them with relevant questions or responses.
• If the prospect then decides to send an SMS to sales and that same rep is unavailable, another rep can respond to their request. The new rep can see the entire messaging history, so the prospect doesn’t have to repeat themselves to continue their buying conversation.

By implementing an Omnichannel messaging strategy for sales, your reps handle more buyers (6:1 over phone calls), and research shows you’ll close 40% more sales with messaging as part of the sales cycle.

Omnichannel for Service

Omnichannel for service allows your customers to reach out to you on any platform, blending all of the conversations around one case so reps can respond with relevant resolution options. True Omnichannel eliminates the need for customers to wait on hold and repeat themselves to multiple reps.

Omnichannel messaging in service empowers agents to send and receive case messages from multiple messaging platforms, such as SMS, WhatsApp and Facebook. For example:

• A customer can start a case through the business’s Facebook page or Whatsapp account.
• The customers can then ask questions via SMS when they’re on the go.
• At any time, they can move back to Facebook or WhatsApp.
• Reps see and respond to a single, continuous conversation.

This speeds time-to-resolution and increases rep productivity, since they can handle 10x more cases with messaging than with phone calls.

The Bottom Line

The question everyone should be asking probably isn’t simply “What is Omnichannel?” The true question is “What is Omnichannel messaging and how can I quickly use it?”

Omnichannel doesn’t have to be complicated. When you have the right messaging platform, all of your messages are seamlessly integrated into a single CRM record. Then, permitted users and reps  have the visibility they need, across the entire buying journey.

Going to Dreamforce ‘19? Be sure to stop by booth #210 to see Converse Omnichannel messaging in action. We’ll be demonstrating the use of Omnichannel messaging in service, blending SMS, MMS, Facebook and Whatsapp into seamless, full-visibility, customer service conversationsss.

Auto-responses immediately attend to patient requests, automated campaigns share wellness tips, product and services information and other wellness-related insights. SMS scheduling makes it simple to book appointments and an intuitive Inbox makes conversing 1:1 with clients as easy as can be.

We put together this infographic to give wellness providers a quick overview of how you will better serve your patients with SMS messages from SMS-Magic.

If you haven’t yet adopted business text messaging for your team and want to learn more, schedule a demo and we’d be happy to share our expertise with you, answer questions and show you what text messaging can do for your business results.

Use SMS messages to be the first to respond, offer leads relevant and compelling information and give opportunities that personal touch that sets you apart.

We put together this infographic to give business and product sales leaders a quick overview of how you will accelerate product revenue with SMS messages from SMS-Magic.

If you haven’t yet adopted business text messaging for your team and want to learn more, schedule a demo and we’d be happy to share our expertise with you, answer questions and show you what text messaging can do for your business results.

Text messaging gives higher education leaders the capability to respond at any time, day or night, with automated personal responses. You can also send tuition reminders, event updates, and gather critical loan information using automated campaigns.

We put together this infographic to give university leaders a quick overview of how you will better respond to, and connect with, students and alumni for colleges and text messaging from SMS-Magic.

If you haven’t yet adopted text messaging for your university and want to learn more, schedule a demo and we’d be happy to share our expertise with you, answer questions and show you what text messaging can do for your organization.

Business text messaging gives brokers and other financial service professionals the capability to respond at any time, day or night, with automated personal responses. You can also schedule appointments and gather critical loan information using automated campaigns.

We put together this infographic to give financial services leaders a quick overview of how you will better respond to, and connect with, lead and clients with text messaging from SMS-Magic.

If you haven’t yet adopted business text messaging for your team and want to learn more, schedule a demo and we’d be happy to share our expertise with you, answer questions and show you what text messaging can do for your business results.

Today, customers expect top notch customer support. You can make your contact center a competitive weapon with SMS, driving faster resolutions, increasing customer satisfaction and fueling more repetitive sales.

You have the opportunity to get a leg up on your competition by improving your personal responsiveness to your customers. Converse SMS text messaging increases the volume of cases handled by 10:1, while improving the quality of every interaction.

Even better, text messaging is how your audience wants to communicate. 79% of consumers aged 18 – 34 prefer to contact companies using channels other than phone calls, and 55% of all consumers say they prefer to use messaging.

So many of our customers ask about how a SMS tool for call centers can improve their customer relationships. We created this Infographic to share insights on how you can make your contact center a competitive weapon with SMS.

If you haven’t yet adopted business text messaging for your customer service team and want to learn more,
schedule a demo and we’d be happy to share our expertise with you, answer questions and show you what text messaging can do for your business results.

Business text messaging changes the way you’ll think about sales. From powering responses 24 x 7 to enabling personalized conversations to increasing your sales conversions, sales teams enabled with messaging will drive more revenue while creating stronger lasting relationships with your audience.

We put together this infographic to give business and sales leaders a quick overview of how you will beat the competition to the deal with SMS messages from SMS-Magic.

If you haven’t yet adopted business text messaging for your sales team and want to learn more, schedule a demo and we’d be happy to share our expertise with you, answer questions and show you what text messaging can do for your business results.

Can you imagine trying to respond to hundreds to thousands of texts on your phone? You can’t. For business text messaging to give you its full value, you need a platform that empowers you to manage all aspects of high volume text messaging in both and automated and interactive way.

The advanced capabilities available in a true business text messaging platform are diverse and powerful. Yet there are a number of ways that business text messaging differs from, and is more powerful than, personal text messaging.

We put together this infographic to share some of the highlights with you, as an introduction to the power of business text messaging.

If you haven’t yet adopted business text messaging or SMS messages and want to learn more, schedule a demo and we’d be happy to share our expertise with you, answer questions and show you what text messaging can do for your business results.

Sales

Auto-Responses to Inquiries
The company who responds to an inquiry has 50% higher chance of getting the deal. Your sales reps can’t be online 24/7, but interested customers can be online at any time and they expect a response right away. Auto-responses allow you to send product info, company FAQS, data sheets, and any other type of information instantly when it’s requested. This way you can beat your competition to the response and keep your prospects interested.

Alerts and Routing
When a new sales lead or prospect comes in through the marketing pipeline, it’s important that the right sales rep gets alerted immediately so they can take action and start the sales process. With automated sales alerts and routing, sales teams know they aren’t letting new business slip through the cracks.

Scheduling
Did you know that 91% of customers would rather schedule meetings or appointments via text messaging instead of by phone? Don’t bother your sales team, admins or your prospects with the hassle of scheduling demos or sales calls via email or phone. Automated text message-based scheduling provides the option to see availability and schedule meetings or calls at any time of the day. With 97% contact rate with scheduling text messages, automated confirmation, reminders, and rescheduling messages reduce no-shows and make the process easier for everyone involved.

Application and Document Gathering
Going through any application or document gathering process is time consuming and messy when using email. Automating these processes with text messaging is easier and faster. Confirmation of receipt and reminders for docs or signatures needed help streamline the process.

Track Performance with Automated Reports & Dashboards
Visual reports give you real-time insights to manage individual reps and teams and analyze conversation trends and approaches that drive fast conversions. You can also track and tune outbound campaign results, plus manage budgets to optimize text messaging ROI by applying messaging to your best opportunities.

When you automate your text messaging processes to respond to inquiries first, get the right reps involved, schedule meetings, and streamline document gathering, you can easily increase your sales conversions by 40% or more and shorten your sales cycles by 25%.

Service

Case Creation and Updates
Even when all your service agents are busy helping other clients, it’s important to acknowledge a customer when they reach out for help. With automated case creation messages and case updates, your customers always know what’s going on and they don’t have to sit around wondering.

Routing
It’s super frustrating for customers to be passed around to different service agents on the phone and it’s a total waste of time when you could instead automate case routing with Converse. Based on any criteria, you can decide how you want cases routed and make sure that the right people are solving your customers’ issues.

Customer Experience Surveys
When a case closes, immediately send an NPS survey question and capture the response in the record. If you receive a low score, you can automatically trigger a follow-up profiling survey to learn more about the issue, collect key insights for analysis and offer an interactive conversation with a manager or service leader to resolve the issue quickly.

Track Service Performance with Converse Dashboards
Track important performance metrics for your reps. Measure SLAs and response times, cases handled, NPS scoring at rep and Team level, rep workload, etc.

Converse empowers service teams to respond quickly, resolve issues faster and communicate more effectively. Our customers’ service reps handle 6X more cases at 30% of the cost and resolve them more quickly to drive customer satisfaction and increase NPS scores.

Automate your Sales and Service Messaging and See Your ROI Take Off

Whether you already utilize texting in your sales or service communications and want to learn how to boost ROI with automation or are completely new to texting for business and want to get started, we are always here to help you reach those goals. To see how Converse Reference Campaigns and Automations can work for your specific use cases, feel free to schedule a demo. Book a demo here or text “CONVERSE” to 36343 to experience automated text messaging on your phone.