Consumers expect immediate, personalized service from brands, no matter where they reach out — chat, phone, email, or social. Here’s my honest take: Stop thinking in separate channel experiences and commit to a holistic, omnichannel approach.
Over the last few years, technology (AI included) has made it faster and easier to resolve issues across every channel, get your content in front of new audiences, and create surprising and delightful customer experiences.
In this post, we’ll break down what omnichannel actually means and how to use it to build a customer experience people remember, especially the customer care tools that make it all run. I’ve also pulled together examples of the brands doing it best, so you can borrow whatever works for you.
Let’s begin.
What is the omnichannel experience?
The omnichannel experience is a unified approach to customer engagement in which every channel — email, social, live chat, phone, web, and in-store — draws on the same customer data and context.
That’s the core of what is omnichannel: integration. The difference between omnichannel and multichannel comes down to how channels relate to one another:
- A multichannel strategy uses multiple channels without full integration. Each touchpoint operates in its own silo.
- An omnichannel strategy ties those touchpoints together. Omnichannel creates a continuous, seamless experience built on shared data.
This matters to customers because it removes friction. When context carries across every touchpoint, the omnichannel customer experience feels like one ongoing relationship rather than a series of disconnected starts.
Omnichannel personalization depends on connected customer data across channels, which enables a brand to greet a returning customer with relevant offers rather than generic messaging.
To help you better understand how an omnichannel experience works in practice, here’s a real-world cross-channel scenario:
A shopper browses a product on their phone, then asks a question through . Later, they call support, and the agent already sees the chat history and browsing activity. The next email they receive reflects that same context.
No restarts, no repeated explanations. It’s just one connected journey. Simple as that.
However, delivering this connected experience successfully depends on the systems beneath it:
- A is the foundation of a connected omnichannel experience. It unifies customer data into a single source of truth, supporting omnichannel customer data management across teams.
- Having a marketing automation platform (like ) coordinates campaigns across channels. This ensures consistent messaging throughout the customer journey.
- Using a sales platform, like , will bring customer context into sales conversations. This will ensure that reps engage with the full picture rather than fragments.
Altogether, these tools convert your omnichannel marketing strategy from concept into a working system and a stronger digital omnichannel experience for your customers.
.webp)
Free Customer Journey Template
Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.
- Buyer's Journey Template
- Future State Template
- Day-in-the-Life Template
- And more!
Download Free
All fields are required.
Form not available
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
Omnichannel vs. Multichannel
All omnichannel experiences use multiple channels, but not all multichannel setups are omnichannel; that’s the key difference between the two strategies.
I see it this way: You can run great mobile marketing, engaging social campaigns, and a polished website, but if they don’t share data… well, they don’t add up to a connected omnichannel customer experience.
Here’s a closer look at how the two compare:
Most businesses today operate multichannel strategies, often through a website, blog, and active social accounts, each used to engage customers. But the experience often still feels fragmented.
Perhaps a customer asks a question on social, then emails support, and has to explain it all over again. Messaging and offers differ from one channel to the next. No single channel reflects what happened on the others. This fragmented experience frustrates customers.
As customer experience expert puts it, “Once you get past one, you are in the world of multi-channel.”
Hyken’s point is that multichannel options give customers choices, but switching channels usually means restarting the conversation.
Omnichannel Benefits
Adopting an omnichannel approach to your marketing, sales, and service strategies offers tons of benefits that strengthen customer relationships and your bottom line.
I’ve outlined the key advantages below:
1. Greater Reach
With an omnichannel retail, marketing, or service strategy in place, you’ll be reaching your customers where they are and in more places.
They no longer have to search and search to find you because, regardless of the channel they’re on, your team or your products are only a click, an email, a direct message, or a phone call away.
Pro tip: The more channels, the better. When you’re on more channels, opportunities for exposure and building brand awareness with new audiences are even higher.
2. Seamless Customer Experience
Omnichannel lets customers interact with your company across multiple channels while still maintaining a consistent experience. It also allows them to choose their favorite channel for getting service, so they don’t have to, say, get off Instagram and pick up the phone.
Instead, they can just find your business profile and send you a DM. It’s a seamless experience within one single app. How simple is that?
Overall, a frictionless process leaves customers more satisfied, and satisfied customers are more likely to become loyal customers.
3. Boosted Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
Your customers will be happier in the long term if they feel they have several methods to reach your customer service and sales teams, or if they can purchase your product easily, regardless of their device or preferred platform.
For example, the number of consumers shopping on social media has grown significantly in the past few years. This makes total sense, considering that revealed that 71% of CRM leaders believe the modern customer service experience takes too much time. (Even the people building these tools think service takes too long.)
Customer satisfaction is key to reducing churn and keeping them coming back; satisfied customers become loyal customers.
4. Faster Issue Resolution
Customers want fast service. They expect quick resolutions, but service teams sometimes struggle to provide them.
An omnichannel is the fix to this problem. With AI-enabled tools in your service stack, support teams have the chance to:
- Meet customers where they are
- Respond exactly when they’re looking for support
- Resolve common issues faster through automation and self-service
All of the above lowers your average time to resolution and sets customers up for success.
If you have dedicated reps for each channel you offer, you’re reducing resolution time even further because someone is ready to help as soon as a customer reaches out.
Pro tip: You can also deploy self-serve knowledge bases and AI-powered chatbots to help customers solve common issues on their own. This reduces agent strain and operational costs while simultaneously improving customer satisfaction.
5. Increased Profits
If and when your prospects are ready to buy, they’ll find it much easier to make a purchase if your product is available on multiple platforms and channels. Offering a multi-channel retail experience also ensures it’s easier for them to purchase from you again or renew their subscriptions, securing recurring revenue.
Now that I’ve covered the key benefits of omnichannel customer service, let’s transition into where your business can apply an omnichannel strategy in the following section.
Where can your business use an omnichannel strategy?
I bet you’re wondering where to leverage omnichannel for the best results. The answer is — and I’m being as honest as honest can be — everywhere!
An omnichannel strategy works best when integrated throughout your organization and linked through a central tool to support the customer journey from end to end.
That said, here’s an overview of what utilizing an omnichannel strategy looks like across the core functions of a business:
1. Marketing
The first place you can leverage omnichannel is in your marketing campaigns. Adtech enables brands to use data to deliver smarter, personalized ads across devices.
For instance, if someone visits your online store, you can send them a Facebook ad retargeting the product they viewed. You can also send a personalized email with a discount or a nudge to encourage them to complete their purchase.
2. Sales
As prospects move down the funnel, the importance of omnichannel continues.
As notes, the customer journey often doesn’t follow the same sequence every time. In fact, the same report confirms that than ever before.
With an integrated CRM like , a sales rep can send emails, SMS, or make phone calls through a single 黑料吃瓜网 account, adding notes that carry context into the next conversation, solidifying a great CX at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
3. Service
Lastly, customers want to ask for help using the channel that’s most familiar— whether that’s chat, voice, email, or social messaging like WhatsApp. Omnichannel service enables communication between customers and company reps in a single place via a .
I love how omnichannel strategies work for companies of all sizes, from small to enterprise. In my opinion, omnichannel truly helps a small business consolidate multiple functions that one employee might manage and helps a large business personalize and improve a complex customer journey.
Next, let’s look at how this might work in practice.
How Omnichannel Works
For omnichannel to function across the company journey, companies need to break down siloes and cross-collaborate to reach a common goal.
This requires:
- Strong leadership
- Teamwork
- Change management
But it also hinges on the right kind of technology.
Here are the three tech platforms you need to make a cross-channel strategy work:
1. CRM
A , or customer relationship management system, stores all of your customer data in one place. This lets sales reps or service agents quickly contextualize and personalize their responses when a customer reaches out for support. The data also powers your marketing campaigns and gives you .
Look for a that lets your team chat with and email customers in one place.
2. Demand-Side Platform (DSP)
A DSP allows marketers to purchase programmatic advertising through real-time bidding. Essentially, this platform automates media buying across channels.
You simply upload your creative, set parameters for the audience you want to reach, and watch the software work its magic.
Pro Tip: DSPs can place mobile, banner, and video ads on Google, Facebook, Instagram, and websites and apps across the web.
3. Ticketing Software
Ticketing software streamlines customer interactions across channels, enabling customers to transition smoothly without repeating information.
A ticketing system lets service agents track and resolve issues across channels and glean insights from the data gathered.
Now that I’ve briefly covered the technology that powers omnichannel, in the next section, I’ll show you what these strategies look like in action with real-world examples.
Free Customer Journey Template
Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.
- Buyer's Journey Template
- Future State Template
- Day-in-the-Life Template
- And more!
Download Free
All fields are required.
Form not available
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
How to Build an Omnichannel Marketing Campaign
Before omnichannel becomes anything more advanced, it’s consistent messaging, visuals, and positioning statements across all channels, platforms, and devices first.
Essentially, it provides a seamless customer experience and ensures your brand is presented consistently across platforms.
Also, keep in mind that omnichannel marketing campaigns also positively impact your sales and service departments. (You’re showing customers that you’re on all of the channels and platforms they’re on, so they’ll know to expect a similar experience, whether they’re shopping or getting support.)
Here’s how to build a strong omnichannel experience:
1. Start with your website and social media channels.
Creating an omnichannel experience is a slow process. To avoid getting overwhelmed, my advice is to start with the basics.
You don’t need to be everywhere all at once; you’ll get there in time. Start with your website and social media channels and nail those down before moving on to other platforms. Ensure that you’re posting consistently and engaging with users who reach out to you via those channels.
If you engage with users on Instagram but don’t answer on Facebook, they’ll notice. Focusing on one and neglecting the other will make your brand look inconsistent and unprofessional.
Pro Tip: A can be useful for this, putting your social messages, emails, and chat threads into one place. Some social management tools, like the one in , can even so you can track visits and leads.
2. Seek to solve for the customer every step of the way.
While I understand that it’s important to diversify your presence, adding new channels to your omnichannel strategy without considering your customers isn’t worth it.
Why? It’s not just for your company to get more visibility or for you to make more sales. Those are tangible benefits of establishing a strategy, yes, but you mainly want to ensure your customers have an easy, issue-free experience.
When you add a new channel to your omnichannel strategy, do it to solve for the customer along every step of the way.
Pro tip: Not sure how to gauge your customers’ feelings at each touchpoint? Complete a sentiment analysis to detect customer emotion in conversations and feedback. Then, use customer journey mapping to identify gaps between touchpoints.
3. Use the same messaging across channels, but avoid boilerplate content.
To create a consistent experience, use the same messaging across channels.
For example, if I’m running an ad on multiple social platforms, I can vary the ad format for what performs best on each channel, but my messaging needs to be the same to maintain the overall purpose of my campaign. (TL;DR — I want someone to be able to see my product announcement email and understand that it’s the same product campaign they just saw a TikTok video for.)
A slight variation in wording across channels can also be important, as you may be penalized by search engines and social media platforms for duplicate or boilerplate content. Instead of always using the same phrases, create a consistent brand voice that lets you mix it up without sounding inconsistent.
4. Give customers a device- and platform-appropriate CTA.
Every time you engage with customers on certain channels — whether it’s on an ad, an organic post, a private message, a phone call, or an email — you should end the engagement with a CTA. That CTA should, of course, be device- and platform-appropriate.
For instance, I would have my social media ad lead to my mobile website, not the desktop version. I’d close my email with a link to schedule a meeting, not one that triggers an automatic download, because my customer might not be using a mobile device to check their email.
Ensure the CTA doesn’t disrupt the customer and only extends the seamless experience you’ve already provided.
Pro tip: If you use , you can try out different CTA buttons, pop-ups, and sticky CTAs. (You can also to ensure you’re creating an effective omnichannel experience.)
4. Create an app if needed.
I have to point out that this step may not be relevant to you, depending on your industry and product.
However, mobile apps bring various benefits to customers and businesses, regardless of their size. In short, here’s what they offer:
- Ease of access. Many people have smartphones, so if you have an app, customers can easily access it on a device they rarely leave by their side.
- Communication opportunities. With an app, you can send push notifications to users to notify them of important events, such as flash sales or product updates.
If you’re a small company, you can hire a freelance developer to create an app. Just be sure to have a legitimate reason for offering an app and to think through every functionality. Read this article to learn how to make an app and the steps to do it successfully.
Looking for some inspiration? Read on to the next section to find some high-quality examples of omnichannel experiences.
Omnichannel Experience Examples
I put together a list of 15 omnichannel experience examples from brands that both appeal to me and connect customer interactions across channels into one seamless, connected journey.
Each is a real-world look at what a strong omnichannel customer experience delivers in practice. Take a look:
1.
I think Disney gets the omnichannel experience right, down to the smallest details.
It starts with your initial experience on the entertainment giant’s beautiful, mobile-responsive website. Even its trip-planning website works well on mobile; that alone is rare.
Once you’ve booked a trip, you can use the to plan your entire trip, from where you’ll dine to securing your Fast Pass. In the park, you can use your mobile app to locate the attractions you want to see, as well as view the estimated wait time for each of them.
When I entered my Disney resort room, the smart TV welcomed my family by name. The entertainment company takes it another step further with its . This tool serves as a hotel room key, a photo storage device for photos of you with Disney characters, and a food ordering tool.
What I like: Disney creates a truly omnichannel experience by integrating its website, mobile app, and in-park tools to maintain customer context across all touchpoints.
2.
When you book a flight on Virgin Atlantic, you’re on an omnichannel journey.
You’ll start with a booking confirmation email, then personalized app notifications that prepare you for your flight. Important notifications about delays or cancellations come through multiple channels, giving customers the option to rebook or get support via chat, voice, or the app.
On the back end, Virgin into a single system that connects back-end data points. The end result is a smooth travel experience for customers.
What I like: Since a flight is a one-time purchase, brands need to provide excellent service to prompt customers toward their next purchase. Virgin excels by integrating marketing and service.
3.
takes its omnichannel development seriously. As one of the biggest brands in their industry, they’re setting the standard for a dynamic experience that — as of today — allows the company’s mobile and desktop apps to handle everything from check depositing to bill reminders to budgeting.
Plus, , , may prompt you to set and achieve goals like saving for a home. Erica also protects clients by double-checking potentially fraudulent transactions.
What I like: Bank of America allows customers to complete banking tasks from multiple channels — mobile app, desktop, and in-branch — reducing friction.
4.
is a U.K. fashion retailer that’s fusing its ecommerce site, mobile app, and brick-and-mortar stores into a simple shopping experience.
If you walk into one of its stores, you’ll find sales associates armed with iPads ready to provide on-the-spot, accurate, up-to-date product information. An in-store iPad also acts as a cash register, making it easy for associates to ring you up from anywhere in the store.
And the cherry on top? If something appears to be out of stock, the staff can place an online order for you and have the item shipped directly to your home.
What I like: The Oasis app supplements in-store and online shopping experiences by enabling staff to place online orders directly from the store.
Free Customer Journey Template
Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.
- Buyer's Journey Template
- Future State Template
- Day-in-the-Life Template
- And more!
Download Free
All fields are required.
Form not available
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
5.
Let’s say I’m checking that an item is in stock before taking a trip to a brick-and-mortar location. The website says it’s in stock, so I go to the store, but it’s not there. That’s not a great experience.
handles this well through its many shopping touchpoints, which provide customers with up-to-date, accurate product information at every turn.
“When we are doing research, we think about the experience that our customer might have — not just in-store, but also online,” shared , customer research lead at REI. She continued, “We’ve done a lot of work with customer journeys to understand all of the touchpoints a customer must go through for an initiative.”
For example, they mapped out the full customer journey for Resupply, REI’s trade-in program. Based on their insights, they improved the resupply website and other channel communications to better match consumer needs, such as showing the trade-in value upfront.
What I like: REI’s internal communication ensures that all customer-facing decisions prioritize keeping customers happy, satisfied, and excited to return to the store again.
6.
Have you ever ordered something online, only to find that the restaurant hadn’t prepared your purchase by the time you arrived? I hate when that happens.
Chipotle seeks to eradicate that frustration with its online experience and mobile app, which lets you place an order wherever you are and have it ready by the time you arrive to pick it up.
And, as an added benefit (for both you and Chipotle), if you sign up for an account, you can save your favorite orders for an even quicker, more seamless experience.
What I like: Chipotle’s mobile app and website let customers place orders in advance and pick them up ready-made, eliminating wait times.
7.
I’ve noticed that creates a connected customer experience in its brick-and-mortar locations by using , which powers data transfer tools like Apple Pay and Android Pay. This tech allows users to tap their mobile devices against a chip that wirelessly transfers information between the two devices.
Timberland makes unique use of this tech, giving in-store shoppers access to a tablet they can press against products to learn more. Instead of seeking out a store clerk, customers can get information independently and ask for help when needed rather than as a first resort.
Shoppers also get product recommendations as they shop, and the personalization software learns their interests.
What I like: Timberland’s personalization software learns customer interests and highlights products that are overlooked.
8.
is a sporting goods retailer that has won awards for its omnichannel strategy. You might be wondering, “But how, Jeanie?”
Well, for one, Orvis understands its target audience and knows the most effective ways to communicate with them. While its original channel was a mail-order catalog launched in 1856, Orvis now communicates with customers through mobile, web, and social media.
After finding that in-person experiences were still important to its older, outdoors-oriented customers, Orvis embraced a hybrid approach by equipping store associates with tablets. Now, associates leverage pre-installed CRM and ecommerce tools to order out-of-stock products and charge customers for both online and in-store purchases.
This improves customer experience and records customer information, shopping habits, and purchase history for better insights.
What I like: Orvis’s tablet-equipped associates provide great customer experiences while capturing customer data that informs marketing decisions.
9.
Beauty giant Sephora creates an omnichannel experience that connects its shoppers’ online purchases to each in-store visit. Customers can use in-store tables and access their “Beauty Bag” (basket) while shopping to look up item details and even virtually try on products using the digital software.
While email and calls remain an option for customer service, most Sephora customers when they need support.
What I like: By integrating its Beauty Bag feature with its in-store communication channel, Sephora pushes customers to make purchases by giving them easy access to products they’ve already shown interest in and considered purchasing.
10.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos , “If there‘s one thing Amazon.com is about, it’s obsessive attention to the customer experience, end-to-end.”
Twenty-five years later, Amazon is the king of the omnichannel experience in consumer retail. Not only does it have an app and website that automatically sync users’ carts when they are signed in, but it also offers a support experience that lets customers choose the method they’re most comfortable with.
Through Amazon Go and Whole Foods, users can even integrate the app with their in-store experiences.
What I like: Amazon’s synced app and website give Prime members access to membership benefits — including carts, saved items, and support — on any device or platform.
11.
Brick-and-mortar bookstores might be considered a thing of the past, but always wins at providing its members and customers with a traditional brick-and-mortar experience while staying agile in the marketplace.
Whether you access its offerings through the Nook app, the mobile website, the desktop website, or the physical store, you’ll have similar, if not identical, experiences.
order and inventory synchronization, click-and-collect service, and unified shopping carts, letting customers start an order online — then finish it in-store.
What I Like: Having a mobile experience in addition to a place for customers to read their books creates a personal connection.
12.
is another champion for omnichannel experiences, and a particular example is its browser, Google Chrome.
When users are logged in, their history and activity are automatically synced across all devices. Users can even access tabs on their phones that they left open on their laptops.
This synchronization gives users a seamless experience regardless of the device they use to access Chrome. The result? Google Chrome holds the majority market share — users as of 2025 — in the internet browser industry.
That shows just how important it is to offer an omnichannel experience not only through your marketing, sales, and service efforts, but also through your product.
What I like: Google’s wide reach enables it to deliver a smooth, harmonious omnichannel experience for customers.
12.
is another great example of offering an omnichannel experience at a product level.
It has a web app, a desktop app, and a mobile app, and activity is synced across all channels when they are open simultaneously. (For example, if I’m listening on my phone but also using my computer, I can skip to the next stop in my queue from my desktop.)
What we like: Spotify syncs playback, playlists, and queues across web, desktop and mobile apps, so users have a consistent experience on any device.
13.
takes the omnichannel experience to the next level by offering devices that seamlessly communicate with each other through users’ iCloud accounts. Messages, photos, and connected devices all share the same info regardless of the device being used.
And, if someone purchases a new device, they can sign in using their iCloud account, and all pertinent information, data, and settings are downloaded to the new device.
To reach this sort of interconnectivity between your company’s products and services, you can emulate Apple’s omnichannel experience through a CRM like that stores every single interaction your customer has with you.
Whether they use email, phone, or chat to speak with your team, the customer should have a frictionless experience, which is what building an omnichannel strategy is all about.
What I like: The connectivity between devices, accounts, and platforms makes it easy for customers to transition between all of them.
Omnichannel Marketing Platforms
Without the right platform, omnichannel marketing can easily fall short.
Spreading your resources across platforms must be done efficiently to be truly beneficial to your business. Omnichannel marketing platforms will help your business seamlessly operate across channels.
The three below were designed for exactly that:
1.
complete CRM platform is an all-in-one marketing automation tool. It’s functional and flexible, whether your focus is growing sales, increasing leads, or improving customer service.
It comprises six hubs: , , , , , and , each packed with powerful features to help you grow your business.
2.
is a high-quality e-commerce tool that you can use as an omnichannel marketing tool. You can sell products and create social media campaigns. Additionally, it helps you stay on top of engagement throughout every stage of the customer acquisition funnel.
All in all, Shopify helps you develop personalized experiences for your audience, optimize your sales to generate more revenue, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns.
3.
combines automation, marketing, and CRM tools to help you create quality experiences for your audience. Its key features are segmented by customer touchpoints (reach, nurture, convert & grow, and ecommerce), and the platform is “stackable,” meaning you can mix and match different tools, applications, and channels to create the omnichannel marketing tool your business needs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Omnichannel Experience
What is an example of an omnichannel experience?
A clear omnichannel example: a customer adds an item to their cart in a retailer’s mobile app, receives a reminder email, then finishes the purchase in-store, where an associate already sees the saved cart.
An omnichannel experience connects customer interactions across channels, so each touchpoint has access to prior context and doesn’t require customers to start conversations.
What are the 4 pillars of omnichannel?
The 4 pillars of omnichannel are the operational areas that must work together to deliver one connected experience:
- Sales channels: Every place a customer can buy, from the web to the IRL store to social.
- Marketing and advertising: Consistent messaging and targeting across touchpoints.
- Operations: The shared data and processes work behind the scenes.
- Fulfillment: Delivery, pickup, and returns that feel consistent wherever the order began.
Each pillar matters because a gap in any one prevents customers from experiencing a continuous, frictionless journey across channels.
What do you mean by omnichannel?
In plain terms, it means one connected customer journey across every channel a person uses.
Omnichannel experience leverages shared customer data and context, so a customer never has to start over when moving from app to email to phone, and that continuity is the heart of a strong omnichannel customer experience.
Why Omnichannel Is the Key to Future Success
Every company builds its own omnichannel infrastructure, but the throughline is the same: An omnichannel experience succeeds only as a shared effort.
Omnichannel strategy requires a unified source of customer data, which means alignment across every team that touches the customer:
- Product: Shapes the experiences customers move through.
- Marketing: Drives consistent omnichannel customer engagement across touchpoints.
- Sales: Carries context from first interest to purchase.
- Customer Support: Resolves issues without making customers repeat themselves.
- Customer Success: Sustains the relationship after the sale.
If you get these teams aligned on goals early, your organization will transition to omnichannel strategies with less resistance and faster implementation.
And you don’t even have to build it all at once if you don’t want to. Full integration can feel out of reach for smaller teams, but starting small works:
- Connect a few high-value channels first.
- Expand as you grow.
Most importantly, through it all, don’t lose sight of the goal. The point of the technology isn’t the tech stack. It’s giving customers a reason to stay.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Free Customer Journey Template
Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.
- Buyer's Journey Template
- Future State Template
- Day-in-the-Life Template
- And more!
Download Free
All fields are required.
Form not available
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.