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Using Omnichannel as an Intentional Customer Retention Strategy

Blog Post •
We’ll break down exactly what omnichannel order management system features to look for and show you how to use them to enhance your customer retention strategy.

Customer retention is one of the biggest challenges retail and eCommerce businesses face. Not just because acquiring new customers is 5-25 times more expensive than retaining current customers, but because customers are demanding. 

Nearly 50% will jump ship if your customer service isn’t up to their standards, and 69% of shoppers are less likely to buy from you again if their order arrived 2 days later than promised. 

But the truth is, even when faced with these incredibly high customer expectations, customer retention isn’t out of reach. By integrating an omnichannel OMS solution into your operations, you can meet (and even exceed) customer desires. 

In this post, we’ll break down exactly what omnichannel order management system features to look for and show you how to use them to enhance your customer retention strategy. 

Customer Service

Quality customer service has always been important to customers. But over the years, demand for it has grown. Now, your customers expect shorter wait times, faster problem-solving, and happier customer service representatives. And in many cases, your customers are willing to pay more to get it. 

The problem is, many retail and eCommerce businesses can’t provide it on their own. Either their customer support teams are too small, or they simply don’t have all the tools they need to provide top-notch customer service. 

Fortunately, a good omnichannel OMS solution offers both an outsourced customer support team and lots of channels (like social media, live chat, phone, and email) to communicate with customers. This added support allows you to respond to customer support tickets and inquiries faster while offering the same high-quality answers and troubleshooting. And that means happier customers. 

Personalization

As you well know, your customers crave personalization in every aspect of their shopping experience. They want relevant product recommendations, personalized packaging, and one-on-one support from your team members. (Just as long as they give you permission to use their personal information to do so.)

This means every customer-facing activity, package, and product has to be as personalized as possible. But the problem is, creating a personalized experience takes a lot of time and effort. So much so that many businesses don’t have the ability to create exceptional customer experiences. 

The best omnichannel order management providers solve this problem by offering value-added services at scale. Rather than simply shoving your product into a box and filling the extra space with bubble wrap or packing peanuts, they create branded experiences for customers. They emboss boxes, tie bows and ribbons, and add special inserts like hand-written thank you notes to make the order feel more personalized. 

This helps your customers feel more appreciated and gives them a greater incentive to continue buying from you. 

Shipping Time

If your customers experience delays in shipping, they’re more likely to leave your brand for a competitor’s. And for 3 out of 5 people, it’s all but guaranteed if the order is more than two days late. 

This puts eCommerce and retail businesses in a bind, as Covid-19 shopping habits solidify and peak season looms, creating painfully long order cycles for them and their customers. That is unless they have an omnichannel OMS to speed up fulfillment. 

With the right one, they can view their inventory holistically and predict customer demand to strategically place products in warehouses and stores for faster shipping. And if the provider has a strong network of shipping carriers, they can tap into it to prepare and transport orders quickly. 

While this doesn’t guarantee orders will arrive on customers’ doorsteps in 24 hours, it does enable you to ship products faster, cheaper, and more accurately. 

Retaining customers has always been difficult. But as customer expectations rise and shopping experiences shift more heavily toward eCommerce, it’s becoming even more challenging. Luckily, you can effectively meet these heightened customer demands. All you have to do is integrate a high-quality omnichannel OMS into your operations.