Saki Takeda, director of product management at Netflix, discusses with CX Network how to best implement an omnichannel strategy.
CX Network: What are the common key mistakes to avoid when implementing an omnichannel model?
Saki Takeda: It is important to understand the differences between multichannel and omnichannel and placing a strong focus on customer journey. The top things to avoid are expanding channels blindly for the sake of "being omnichannel" or "needing to show the brand presence", and creating unnecessary silos by segmenting/grouping support agents per channel.
CX Network: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are becoming more commonly used by CX practitioners, especially within customer service. What are the benefits and/or complications of using AI and ML to upgrade customer experiences?
ST: The benefits of using AI/ML are scalability and automation while the complication of using them is having to deal with less fluid and less human-led features when these systems are being used for customer-facing interactions.
CX Network: Both customers and employees have to battle with silos when attempting to complete tasks and solve issues, which can be frustrating. How can CX practitioners combat data silos when implementing an omnichannel strategy?
ST: It is important to think about data more holistically and prioritize investments in building a strong data infrastructure that will surface 360 customer views and provide end-to-end visibility of customer journeys and experiences.
Any automation in place should have a rail guard when a particular customer reaches out to a company, so that the systems are not delivering conflicting communications or services to customers.