Editorial
The Gist
- Consistent content delivery. Adopt an omnichannel content strategy to synchronize and standardize information across all channels.
- Enhanced team collaboration. Break down content silos by integrating teams and systems, fostering real-time collaboration and reducing redundant efforts.
- AI-driven insights. Utilize AI to analyze and optimize content, uncover gaps and improve efficiency, leading to better customer service and productivity.
The concept of omnichannel experiences first emerged in 2010, yet 14 years later we’re still talking about how to deliver on the promise. Certainly, companies have made significant gains in their omnichannel content strategy, but at some point, efforts stall because they only focus on the end customer experience — not on how teams within the business get there.
All too often, the teams responsible for delivering product information, online help, employee and customer training, upskilling and other content resources continue to operate as independent siloes within the organization. That leads to inconsistencies for customers and any employees or partners supporting them.
In this context, it’s not surprising to learn that 47% of consumers surveyed for the Accenture Life Trends 2024 report cite poor customer service as a reason why they feel less valued as customers.
Struggling With Content Silos
Even as companies ask employees to produce more content, these professionals operate in silos, which leads them to duplicate efforts and undermine the success of the organization’s omnichannel content strategy. This slows the delivery of critical information and frequently results in discrepancies across different content sources.
For example, a company’s website might describe a new product version accurately, but the how-to guides for customers and the knowledge base used by the support team might provide contradictory or outdated information. So, when customers buy the new product version, they can’t get the clear answers needed to use it properly either online or from the support team.
The frustration is not limited to customers or the employees and business partners supporting them. It also extends to the professionals responsible for delivering the content on which users rely. These highly skilled content creators often end up leaving companies with siloed operations.
Collectively, the struggles with content silos and the inaccurate and inconsistent content generated across these silos can lead to losses in customer loyalty, employee loyalty and sales while also potentially exposing organizations in certain industries to serious compliance risks.
Related Article: Fixing the Persistent Data/Content Silo Problem Once and for All
Implementing an Omnichannel Content Strategy for Effective Content Creation
The antidote to content silos is adopting an omnichannel approach to content creation. Here, teams rely on the same core content to ensure consistency while maximizing collaboration and efficiency. They work concurrently to synchronize information delivery. And they gain a global view of what is needed to better support customers.
The first step is to introduce an omnichannel mindset across the company’s teams of content creators — whether they’re producing marketing materials, product guides, online help, knowledge bases or training materials. Just as consumers rely on multiple channels to buy and use a product, these professionals should have access to the same content no matter where it resides. They also should be able to understand what is being produced by other groups and how they can readily repurpose it.
Consider this real-world example. Content from a technical writer’s online product manual feeds a knowledge base in the customer relationship management (CRM) system used by the service and support team; beyond this, it is also automatically exported into an online course, where trainers can incorporate questions for students and assess their comprehension or acknowledgment of the material.
As a result, the content supporting customers is consistent. Companies can easily synchronize their content delivery. And different content teams across the organization can maximize their productivity. Moreover, data on customers’ use of the online product manual or web-based training can provide insights into improving the manual, online course and other resources.
Related Article: Your Guide to Omnichannel Strategy Success
Integrating Systems to Support an Omnichannel Content Strategy
To enable omnichannel content creation, organizations need to connect the various systems used for creating, publishing and managing content. For example, a company may have a CRM system with an integrated knowledge base for the support team, a content management system (CMS) for product documentation and online help, and a learning management system (LMS) for online and in-person courses.
Application programming interfaces (APIs) are typically used to pull and push information between the syndication platform and other systems. Additionally, businesses will need tools to tag data or content, so information can be readily aggregated and searched. This will become even more important as artificial intelligence (AI) brings new ways to enhance experiences with the company’s content and as companies build large language models (LLM) for AI consumption.
Two AI-driven applications hold particular promise in this arena. One is applying AI to chatbots or search functionality to help customers quickly get the answers they need, no matter where the content resides. This helps to improve both satisfaction and self-sufficiency.
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A second use case is utilizing AI internally to analyze content for insights on who is using content, to what extent and how successfully. AI can identify any gaps between the content available and what users need, as well as highlighting where redundancies in content are creating internal inefficiencies. Armed with this information, content teams will be able to optimize users’ experiences and their own productivity.
Leveraging Omnichannel for Superior Results
To date, organizations have largely focused on delivering omnichannel experiences to customers and the employees who support them. By extending an omnichannel approach across their content teams, companies can strengthen customer loyalty, improve their productivity and profitability, reduce risk and lay the groundwork to compete on new levels of customer service and business agility.
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