How silos impact your omnichannel experience

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Silos suck – yes, we said it. But silos are part and parcel of almost every business – no matter how streamlined and agile you are. With the increase of digital consumers entering a business from various channels, silos are causing significant issues for consumer service. 

As a result, it is becoming increasingly important to break down silos and deliver a more omnichannel experience to gain and retain customers. 

With everything, there can be benefits to silos, such as increasing independence and accountability within departments, but it’s important not to overstate their benefits. 

In today’s era, silos do more harm than good. They create an entirely disconnected organizational culture, making interdepartmental processes inefficient and costly.

When teams and people operate in silos, individual sections of the business are focused on, missing the bigger picture. As a result, each area of the company will end up with different end goals – resulting in incoherence across the organization. It also means that there will be less collaboration and communication across the business. 

This lack of communication and coherence across the company leads to inconsistency in dealing with consumers.

How silos impact customers

Over the years, it has become more apparent that siloed companies present customers with inconsistent service. Digitally native consumers (which are on the rise) expect seamless service, good communication and assistance, clear and coherent responses no matter what platform they use to connect with the organization.

According to research from Zendesk, around 80% of businesses experience consumer churn if they are not provided with a satisfactory consumer experience.

How to break down silos through an omnichannel experience

Many turn toward the omnichannel route to rectify the issues caused by a siloed company. According to a 2020 retailing report by PwC, companies investing in omnichannel experiences increased from 20% to over 80%. 

The evolving behaviors of customers have made omnichannel experiences mandatory. According to the Harvard Business Review, omnichannel customers are more valuable to businesses and found that these customers spent 4% more when shopping in stores and 10% more online.

The sale might be lost if the experience and information provided via different channels are inconsistent. Therefore, breaking down the silos that may cause this inconsistency is essential.

Here are some ways to remove silos

1. Understand the mutual mission and priorities

Each section of the business must understand the goal and that it is a mutual goal for all departments. In addition, everyone must understand their role in reaching the end goal. This will allow each department to see that they are all cogs in the same machine, thereby enhancing collaboration.

2. Prioritize experiences

Focusing each department on customer experiences consolidates the path everyone takes toward the end goal. When departments understand each other’s responsibilities to achieve great customer experiences, they are more likely to collaborate and provide support when needed.

3. Leverage your data

Build profiles of your customers using the information and feedback they provide. Defining your customers will help understand their needs better. Through this, you can discover which areas of consumer service are more important to focus on, where to target specific products and services, and how to give your consumers the best experience.

Breaking down silos is essential if you want to deliver an omnichannel experience. It impacts consumer experience and retention in the long run.

About Smartz Solutions

Smartz Solutions specializes in managing customer and employee experiences through our enabling technology. Based on a wealth of knowledge covering multiple industries, we have developed a suite of products that include the entire customer engagement journey offering best-in-class, world-class applications in a single end-to-end CX and EX platform.