Developing and promoting omnichannel excellence in organizations through employee experience

Omnichannel excellence refers to the harmonious coordination of all customer contacts and interactions with the company, regardless of the communication and distribution channels in terms of time and space. The objective is therefore a customer-centric, seamless and fully integrated customer experience. Brick-and-mortar retail, e-commerce and website, hotline or customer service, social media, smartphone app and chatbot interact to create harmonious, coordinated meeting points that are aligned with the individual needs of customers through the "single view of the customer", are characterized by uniformity and offer clear and simple solutions (Google Omnichannel Excellence Study, 2022; Chevalier & Gustaz, 2020, p. 81).

However, the complexity of an integrative omnichannel strategy is rarely addressed by attempts to categorize the customer journey in the form of concrete scenarios. One of the reasons may certainly be the competitive nature of bricks-and-mortar retail compared to online presence. This means that the design of an ideal-typical customer journey cannot be illustrated and the decision-making of the employees involved for the design features of hybrid customer environments cannot be facilitated. After all, it is not just a matter of the customer being able to switch seamlessly between channels. Rather, the company and its employees must create unique, emotional meeting spaces for the customer. Providing employees with all customer information is a success factor for the omnichannel strategy. If a company does not place its employees at the center of its considerations for this strategic project and at the same time neglects the skills and roles of its employees, the integrative skills development approach for cross-channel customer centricity is missing. A cultural transformation is required that is based on learning through experimentation and the participation of all stakeholders involved:

By harmonizing communication and distribution channels, the term omnichannel excellence already includes connecting and thus overcoming dichotomies in relationship design, especially digital vs. analogue encounters and synchronous and asynchronous forms of communication across time and space.

• On closer inspection, however, these touchpoints are still far too often used separately from one another: For example, how is a customer served offline in a store and online in e-commerce or via other digital channels? Omnichannel excellence overcomes precisely these boundaries by creating an infinite number of meeting spaces for customers: for example, the customer can take part in an analog sales event taking place in the store via a Zoom live connection from home or find out about the latest collection on site in the store using an edutainment tool and thus learn about the company's sustainability principles as well as the latest trends.
  
  The complexity of these possibilities places central competence requirements on employees of an omnichannel excellence organization who design, accompany and coordinate these customer encounters. In practice, these can look like the following in a job description:
  
  Recognizing customer potential and using all available data and information about customers, analyzing and evaluating it and bringing it together as part of an individual and personalized customer contact following the transaction or various qualified service contacts

• Assuming the role of personal customer advisor, responsible for providing advice in general (brand, styling, etc.) and for all product categories and services - regardless of whether this takes place digitally, virtually or in person on site

• Initiate and build long-term customer relationships by using various customer engagement tools across all channels to build brand/company loyalty and personalize and optimize the customer journey

• Accountability for cross-channel individual targets as well as team targets and sales. Act as a team player and mediator between channels and participate in all activities that contribute to the company's overall objectives

• Role model and ambassador for cross-channel collaboration, customer development and retention with commitment and enthusiasm for the benefits of the omnichannel approach

Only the combination of different social forms (individual, team, event interaction), channels and media creates a creative space in which concrete scenarios for customer advisors can be methodically mapped:

The social forms can be a portfolio of different omnichannel excellence scenarios based on the spectrum of personal and media communication. The combination of the building blocks always requires an intensive examination of the methodical conception of the scenarios and places high methodological demands on the customer advisors, as it only defines the basic pattern of the consulting scenario to be designed as a construction plan and requires competent implementation and creative application in each case. The CRM/clienteling or omnichannel project team provides support by creating the basic structure of the social form and making all media available so that the customer advisors can realize individually tailored customer scenarios through the skilful use of the various CRM/clienteling forms of action.

So how do companies prepare their employees for this agile and creative way of working?

Depending on the maturity level of the organization in terms of strategy, technology, methodology, structure and culture, the transformation architecture choreographs key fields of action and development for all stakeholders involved. Managers in particular are responsible for developing and implementing the omnichannel excellence strategy together with their employees by taking the following elements of the transformation architecture into account:

• Culture: Managers create a culture of collaboration and open communication between employees to enable mutual support and collective learning. They ensure that different teams within the store or headquarters work together effectively through clear communication and coordination to create a seamless customer experience across all channels.

• Technology: Managers ensure that their employees have access to the necessary tools and technologies to create an omnichannel experience and use them in their day-to-day work (CRM systems, chat video conferencing systems, social media platforms, etc.).

• Learning: Managers and HR Development continuously train their employees in and on the latest technologies and methods to implement omnichannel scenarios. They convey an understanding of how to analyze customer data and behavior and gain actionable insights.

• OKRs: Managers set clear goals for their employees that are designed to create a seamless omnichannel experience. In doing so, they ensure that their employees understand why these goals are important and how they can contribute to achieving them.

• Feedback: Store managers continuously collect and analyze feedback from customers together with their employees to optimize the omnichannel experience. At the same time, they provide continuous feedback to their employees in order to evaluate their progress and provide targeted guidance.

What employee experience is needed for this?

A strategically, structurally and culturally anchored employee experience is required. This in turn reflects the integration of the omnichannel strategy into the corporate world. By putting themselves in the shoes of their employees and looking at the world of work through their eyes, companies also strive to enable their employees to harmonize all interactions with their company, regardless of the channel, in order to create an employee-centric, seamless and fully integrated employee experience across the entire employee journey. The corporate culture, the technological environment with its systems, tools and devices and the physical environment of the employees all have an influence on this.

The sum of all experiences that an employee has with their company therefore includes interactions, impressions and emotions in connection with the manager in particular, which have a significant influence on the employee experience. To summarize the employee experience in general, but especially in the omnichannel context:

• First and foremost, an employee's journey begins long before they join the company: As early as the recruiting process, unique encounters between future employee and company/manager can contribute to a great candidate experience, which is characterized not only by timed points of contact, but also includes unforgettable emotional, cross-channel moments.

• Development as integrative competence development links learning goals, learning paths and career paths of the individual employee with overarching, strategically aligned corporate goals, programs and initiatives that are supported with and by the manager. Experimental learning and participation thus enable the emergence of innovative scenarios on the part of creative employees who also pass on their approaches to colleagues and managers.

• Performance management is based on potential, resource and future orientation and is focused on the strengths of the employee, whereby the linking of individual and collective goals forms the basis for the learning organization and is made possible by a feedforward culture.

• An integrative, global human resources information system (HRIS) guarantees an uncomplicated, user-friendly single sign-on to all relevant information along the entire HR value chain.

• In the area of Compensation & Benefits, the revision of bonus systems ultimately enables potential-oriented performance management and overcomes long-established competitive thinking between channels.

An integrative, strategically aligned employee engagement program is therefore the basis for sustainable omnichannel excellence. The two are inextricably linked and interlinked through the leverage effect of managers.

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Chevalier, M. & Gutsatz, Michel (2020). Luxuseinzelhandel und digitales Management. Developing Customer Experience in a Digital World. Second Edition. Solarix South Tower, Singapur: Wiley.

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Google Omnichannel Excellence Studie (2022). Google Omnichannel Excellence Studie 2022 - Denken Sie mit Google

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