Omnichannel is dead. Here’s why you need a multi-experience strategy

Companies looking to enhance their digital strategy should follow a four-step model to deliver a multi-experience rather than an omnichannel experience, Jason Wong, VP analyst at research and advisory firm Gartner, said recently.

There are various definitions for omnichannel, but one is that it’s a type of retail that integrates “on the back end” different methods available to consumers – online, in person, physical store and phone, to name a few. Wong created a formula for multi-experience as the set of apps that you are going to deliver to the devices that your customers will use times the different modes they want to interact with – touch, voice, conversational, etc. – squared.

“One app on one device and it’s just touching and typing, that’s one,” he said last week at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in Toronto. “That’s not a great factor.”

To apply a multi-experience to the digital user journey, Wong suggests a four-step model:

• Sync me – “You store my information and I can find it,” he said
• See me – “You understand my context, my location, my situation, my historical preferences maybe and you give me better information and better interaction”
• Know me – Using predictive analytics to make suggestions to customers
• Be me – “Act on my behalf, I give you permission,” Wong said. “Make the best decision for me – what’s the next best action I should take?

“This is a model you should be thinking of,” he said June 5 during a session called Omnichannel is Dead – How to Deliver a Multiexperience Strategy for the Digital Era. “You should be at the ‘know me’ stage and then applying [artificial intelligence], applying this multi-experience to the digital user journey, you can ‘be me.’”

Wong was addressing chief information officers and other IT executives, but some of the takeaways from his presentation could apply to the insurance industry.

Wong also advised companies not to try to do everything at once. He used Domino’s Pizza as an example of a business offering a successful multi-experience approach. “They started with web ordering, they started with a mobile app, they added a chatbot called ‘Dom’ in there, another mobile app,” he said. “It snowballs and you see where your customers will take you, [what] they will prefer. If you have good design practices, usability and user research practices, that will help you in shaping that multi-experience user journey.”