The OmniChannel paradigm

OmniChannel (or Omni-Channel as it is represented in written word) has been around and touted for some time now. It has also had its synonym or analogous paradigms (multi-channel and cross channel) which have been in vogue as long, if not longer. With the more recent digital customer experience advent, OmniChannel is again relevant and absolutely imperative for a few reasons as illustrated below

1) OmniChannel has 2 dimensions, channel of use (desktop, mobile form factor, application, IVR, Kiosk, e-mail, physical newsletter/pamphlet) and channel of contact (web, mobile, physical store, distributor/reseller/channel partner, customer service center). The channels of use and channels of contact intersect and provide a myriad of possibilities for interaction/s at a customer's life cycle stage (suspect/prospect/client/client needing assistance and the whole cycle again for replacement and/or cross sell and up sell) which digital customer experience technologies capably available

2) OmniChannel is "universal" channel or more aptly put Contextual customer experience for the relevant and immediate customer context, and the experience needs to be same irrespective of channel of use. Digital technologies in integrated customer analytics that assign and deduce the customer context , Big data analytics advancements with different data sets enriching each other that can help predict next move/s from that context and enable the required experience, and CRM, commerce, fulfilment and other systems that can consummate the next move, all can work in consonance

3) The "segment of one" paradigm recognized that each customer is unique and marketers and sellers needed to nuance the acquisition, sales and service processes for each unique customer. Customer segmentation was however still mainly on demographic, psychographic and behavioral data. Customer experience paradigms (and before this user experience philosophies) have built on and progressed the segment of one much further to unique customer personas deduced and also predicted on additional data sets (technographics, social influence, multi variate attributes) which can now enable marketers and sellers to predicate and customize the experience to the unique customers in a much better manner. OmniChannel hence becomes an outlet to do so

Clearly, OmniChannel and digital customer experience are enabling and intersecting sets and will continue to enhance their own movement and organizations’ initiatives on these paths