Omnichannel analytics and reporting: a complete guide

More and more businesses are taking an omnichannel approach to sales and marketing. And it’s no wonder. According to McKinsey, more than half of customers utilize 3-5 channels when making purchases.

To operate productively across channels, it’s best to engage in omnichannel analytics to track, manage, and optimize all customer interactions and experiences. That means omnichannel reporting and analytics are vital to a successful omnichannel approach.

Here’s what you need to know to get started.

What is omnichannel analytics?

Omnichannel analytics entails gathering customer data across channels your business uses for the purposes of understanding the entire customer journey and creating seamless, personalized experiences for your leads and clients.

By collecting and analyzing information from all channels, you can refine your marketing efforts, messaging, and user experience.

Of course, the channels you use will be unique to your business and customer base.

The importance of adopting an omnichannel approach to analytics and reporting

Almost all businesses are using at least two channels to connect with customers. And every one of those businesses will have more success with an omnichannel approach to analytics and reporting.

Here are some key reasons why you should be using omnichannel analytics:

Reveals strengths and weaknesses

Your business is unique, and so are your clients. A channel that works for one industry isn’t necessarily right for you. Omnichannel reporting and analytics can reveal what’s working and what isn’t.

360° view of your clients

It’s truly an omnichannel world, so no matter what business you’re in, your leads and customers connect with you in various ways. If you separate interactions by channel, you won’t have a full picture of any customer’s journey. Omnichannel analytics show you everything.

Understanding customer behavior

With omnichannel analytics, you can see what triggers customer behavior. Does an Instagram post produce sales? Does too much posting prompt unfollows? Does the wrong advertisement result in low-value leads? These are all key insights to help you

The complete guide to delivering an omnichannel customer experience.

Tools for omnichannel reporting and analytics

Omnichannel software no longer remains an optional add-on for your business. It is an inevitable imperative. 

Let us look at why omnichannel messaging is essential for your business:

• Operational efficiency: By streamlining the communication process, OM reduces internal friction and creates an efficient workflow. It wards off repetition that causes delays and lowers customer retention.

• Increased sales: OM opens doorways to holistic customer insights you can leverage to enhance and personalize their purchase experience. The result: increased sales and repeat purchases.

• Strategic allocation of resources: Through omnichannel chat, you can easily identify high-impact channels for consumer groups, allowing you to invest prudently in the right resources. 

• Scalability and adaptability: Omnichannel Messaging platforms improve business scalability. They can easily adapt to business growth spurts, guaranteeing constant effectiveness and relevance according to contemporary market trends.

• Customer centricity: Placing the customer at the center of your business lets you foster strong connections and brand loyalty and increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Break the ceiling and skyrocket your business with Freshdesk Omni.

Tips and strategies for using omnichannel messaging:

Now that you know how important omnichannel analytics are to your bottom line, let’s look at tools that can help you leverage the data at your fingertips.

Data Platform

Omnichannel analytics require a single source of truth. Disparate spreadsheets or multiple software that aren’t integrated with each other can’t give you the full picture that you need.

A platform like Freshdesk Omni provides a single unified view of your data across channels in one place and allows you to mix and match data in whatever way suits your unique business.

Reports

Traditional business practices meant printing out reports at predictable time increments, and there is still a need for that in today’s environment. So make sure whatever provider you choose allows you to generate these static reports.

However, the most useful reports for omnichannel analytics are dynamic, customized, and reflect real-time metrics. Freshworks allows you to put your most important date right on your dashboard. And you can create reports that show you just what you need.

AI

Omnichannel channel analytics means working with literally thousands of data points. People are good at many things, but when it comes to data analysis, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often better. Look for omnichannel analytics tools that leverage the power of AI like Freshworks Freddy AI.

Benefits of omnichannel analytics

From improving your customer brand experiences to better decision-making about inventory and resources, there are many benefits of omnichannel analytics.

Better customer experiences

Omnichannel analytics help you create better customer satisfaction in a variety of ways. That’s because this approach helps you understand what your customers are up to, where they are up to it, and what their needs are on any given channel. That enables you to deliver on their needs.

For example, if you have a lot of people reaching out for customer support on social media channels like Facebook or Instagram, your analytics will reveal that to you. Then, you can staff those channels accordingly. By the same token, analytics will also reveal where they aren’t, and you can devote valuable resources elsewhere.

Accurate inventory management

By employing omnichannel analytics, you can improve inventory tracking, planning, and management. If you’re making sales on different channels, robust data analytics provide up-to-the-minute real-time inventory data.

Not only will you have the omnichannel data you need to plan accordingly, but your customers will have the data they need to choose how and where to shop. After all, few customer experiences are as disappointing as making a special trip to a brick-and-mortar store only for the product in question to be out of stock in-store.

Improved customer engagement

What you can measure, you can improve. And that goes for channel engagement. By collecting key metrics such as likes, follows, conversion rates, conversion times, and channel traffic, you can identify what’s working. You can easily identify what types of posts drive productive engagement and then offer more of that content.

Predict customer behavior

Collecting data gives you insight into trends over time. If you’re doing things right, your sales are increasing over time. But you’ll also likely have seasonal ebbs and flows. The right data will help you predict all of it.

In addition to giving you the information you need, some platforms offer AI-powered tools that can detect trends using both numbers and conversational data better than even your most experienced salesperson.

Setting up omnichannel analytics

Although it might seem daunting, especially if your business interacts on many channels, implementing omnichannel analytics doesn’t have to be difficult.

Select a provider

There are plenty of omnichannel analytics tools and software providers out there today. Start by selecting one that can make your life and business easier. Although you can choose standalone tools, we recommend a solution like Freshdesk Omni that provides an array of options at flexible pricing levels.

Freshsales offers the following omnichannel analytics features:

• Integrated CRM for 360 view of each lead and client,

• Customizable dashboards to keep the most important metrics front of mind.

• Out-of-the-box reports so you can hit the ground running.

• Easy-to-create customizable reports so you can drill down into the stats that matter to you.

Consolidate and upload data

Once you’ve chosen a platform, you need to consolidate your data and upload it so you can put it to work for you. It makes sense to choose a provider who allows you to easily upload your data in just a few steps–and who you can reach out to for support if you’re having trouble. Spreadsheets can get unwieldy and confusing, so the more simplified the process, the better.

Customize dashboards

Tools like Freshworks collect and manage a lot of data, but it doesn’t do you much good if it’s hidden deep in your database. Freshdesk Omni provides standard dashboard views, so what you need to know is always right there. They also allow you to customize these views based on the needs of each team and your industry.

Create and generate reports

As with dashboards, your software will likely come with standard reports you can use immediately. But robust tools give you the ability to create custom reports with just a few clicks. Some systems require programming skills to generate unique reports. Freshworks takes a no-code approach to improve your omnichannel experience.

Omnichannel analytics use cases

Omnichannel analytics solutions can address a variety of use cases you encounter every day.

Strategic decision-making

Unless you have a crystal ball, it can be difficult to know what tomorrow will bring for your business. Unfortunately, you need to make decisions about ordering and staffing well in advance. That’s where omnichannel analytics comes in.

Break down data silos

Omnichannel analytics solutions can help you break down data silos. When you’re dealing with as much information as companies today collect on a daily basis, it can be challenging to get everything together. This is especially true if you have separate sales and marketing teams.

How to build omnichannel analytics?

Building omnichannel analytics solution can be broken down into basic steps.

1. Gather your Data: This is the practice of collecting various metrics for each channel into one repository.

2. Visualize your Data: Once you have all of your data, give it context by placing it into a format that allows you to see trends, make comparisons, and draw conclusions.

3. Analyze your Data: Now you can truly drill down into your information. You can see what channels are successful, what channels are operating inefficiently, and much, much more.

4. Take Action Based on Your Findings: With knowledge in hand, you are poised to capitalize on what’s working, fix what isn’t, and make informed decisions about the future.

Freshdesk Omni can help every step of the way so you can begin leveraging omnichannel analytics immediately.

Get started with omnichannel analytics and reporting today

You’re probably already operating on more than one channel. Now, it’s time to think about optimization. Take the data you’re already collecting and make it work for you. And you can get started today.