Users engage with organizations across various channels, including the web, email, mobile devices, kiosks, online chat, and by visiting physical locations (such as storefronts or service centers). Any organization with a multichannel ecosystem should aim that independent channel interactions coordinate to create one cohesive, consistent customer experience.

Our user research on omnichannel user experience identified 5 key components of a successful omnichannel experience:

This article discusses consistency in the omnichannel experience.

The Importance of Consistency in the Omnichannel Experience

As users move from channel to channel to complete a specific task or many different tasks over time, they are exposed to various channel experiences. These channel experiences are influenced by elements such as visual design, content, tone of voice, and functionality. Creating consistency among these elements on every channel improves the customer experience as well as the brand image. The benefits of consistency in the omnichannel user experience include:

  • Familiarity and Confidence. A consistent experience sets expectations for future interactions with your organization and builds user confidence.
  • Learnability. Consistent experiences are more learnable for users who have interacted with your solutions on various other channels.
  • Efficiency. When designs and features are consistent, customers can complete tasks faster and more efficiently on the channel of their choice in the context of their everyday lives.
  • Trust. Users crave consistency and companies that can provide consistent experiences across channels will quickly earn users’ trust and build credibility.

Where Consistency Should Be Applied

There are 3 main areas of the experience where consistency should be applied across the channel ecosystem. Being consistent across all 3 elements will create a holistic omnichannel experience in which your brand DNA is woven like a golden thread through every touchpoint of the customer journey.

  1. Core functionality. Your efforts to achieve consistency should be first and foremost directed at your main offerings. Ask yourself what features and functionality support the lifeblood of your business: what are the most common and important tasks that customers need to complete? Your channel experiences should at minimum support these core tasks on every channel.

    It’s true that different channels have different capabilities, and some tasks may be optimally supported on one channel. However, we cannot assume that, because a channel is not ideal for a particular task, it will not be selected for that task. Some people may not have access to the optimal channel at a given moment in time — for example, although applying for jobs is best done on a desktop computer, a fairly big segment of the population does not own such as device.

    Beyond simply supporting the task, the core features and workflows should be consistent across all channels. A very similar interaction style on all different channels will be familiar, will strengthen the brand, and will offer users the opportunity to take advantage of any knowledge acquired in previous interactions with the company.

    Getting a travel-insurance quote from the Singapore-based bank, DBS, is very different on desktop versus tablet: on the desktop, users view a product-detail page before being routed to a 3 rd party site to get a quote; on tablet, they can get a quote immediately, without even viewing product information.

    On the DBS website, users navigate to the insurance-product page where they can read about the policy before getting a quote.

     

    The DBS tablet application hides policy information and directs users to the quote form.

    After getting a quote through both channels, one test user commented, “Compared to the desktop this (the tablet) is much easier. But now the problem is that I don’t know what I’m being covered for. On the tablet, they give me the pricing right away. I had a hard time finding it on desktop. I had to dig for it.”

    In order to read information about the insurance policy on the tablet application, users must discover the details in the Key Benefits section.

    Although consistency across channels is important, it’s vital for organizations to understand when it’s okay to compromise consistency in order to provide an appropriately optimized experience on each channel. In a future article, we will discuss the need for optimizing the experience for various devices and designing for the context of each devices’ role in the customer journey.

  2. Customer Data. To customers, you are one company. They don’t draw dividing lines between channels like organizations do. For this reason, they expect to see real-time, consistent, and valid data as they move from one channel to the next. Delivering consistent information across all channels means organizations must create integrated backend systems that share and update data on the fly.

    One study participant was a member of a meal-delivery subscription service. When she received the wrong ingredient in her most recent delivery, she called customer service to complain and also update her delivery schedule over the phone. The representative gave her a credit and adjusted her schedule. Following the phone call, she logged into her account to see whether the updates had been applied, and was frustrated when she did not see them in her online account. She called customer service again, and was assured that the information would be available the next day.
    This lack of data continuity across channels caused the user to question the organization’s capabilities and forced her to add unnecessary touchpoints to an already problematic journey. People should not be expected to understand complexities in backend technologies and processes to confidently transact with companies.

  3. Visual Design. A consistent visual story across each channel can go a long way toward making an organization appear buttoned up, unified, and fully integrated to their customers.
    Nespresso Consistency
    Nespresso’s visual design is consistent and cohesive across every channel: (1) The desktop website shows a graphic of the product packaging. (2) The mobile app uses has the same color palette and images of the coffee pods as on the desktop. (3) The the order confirmation email tells the same visual story. (4) Finally, when the coffee arrives at your door, it looks just as it did at every touchpoint of the customer’s journey, a perfect ending to the visual story.

    Marriot Hotels’ visual design varies greatly across channels. Extreme visual inconsistencies across channels might signal different functionality, flows, or offerings. They can cause customers to question the purpose for the differences and ultimately reflect poorly on the brand.

    Marriott Desktop Booking
    Marriott Hotels website booking experience

     

    The booking flow on the Marriott Hotels’ tablet application has a different look-and-feel than the desktop site

Consistency: 1 of 5 Recommended Cross-Channel Components

As companies and organizations design for the larger user experience, it’s important to consider consistency across all channels. Consistent experiences create trust in the organization. Each interaction is part of the overall user experience with a company. If the user experience isn’t consistent across channels, users will question the organization’s credibility.

In addition to being consistent, cross-channel experiences must be optimized for context, seamless, orchestrated, and collaborative.

Our full day course on Omnichannel Journeys and Customer Experience covers these recommended characteristics further.