Bringing an Omnichannel Approach to Content Creation

Companies have made significant gains in delivering omnichannel experiences to consumers. For example, businesses offering omnichannel engagement now increase their sales revenue an average of 179 percent over companies lacking similar strategies, according to the CapitalOne Shopping Research Omnichannel Statistics report from April 22, 2024. However, at some point, efforts stall because they are only focused on the end customer experience—not on how teams within the business get there.

Too often, the teams responsible for delivering product information, online help, customer training, knowledge bases, and other resources continue to operate as independent siloes within the organization. This leads to inconsistencies for customers, inefficiencies for the employees supporting them, and potential revenue losses for the company.

The Cost of Content Silos

According to the Accenture Life Trends 2024 report, “Economic considerations are forcing cuts throughout enterprises, driving friction between customers and brands across channels.” In fact, 47 percent of consumers surveyed for the report cite poor customer service as a reason why they feel less valued as customers. And the resulting frustration is fraying their loyalty.

The current content silos within businesses are contributing to the problem. Companies are asking employees to produce more content. Yet, different groups continue to duplicate efforts or work sequentially, for example manually copying and pasting help content into a training manual. This not only slows the delivery of critical information; all too often it also results in notable discrepancies across the different content sources on which customers rely.

Consider the case where a company’s website describes a new product version, but training resources and how-to guides offer either contradictory or outdated guidance. Customers buy the new product version, but then they can’t get the answers needed to use it properly. So they wait in long queues to talk with customer service. Or they give up, return the product, and purchase a competitor’s offering.

By contrast, an omnichannel approach to content creation means teams rely on the same core content to ensure consistency while maximizing efficiency; work concurrently to enable timely, synchronized information delivery; and gain a global view of what is needed to better support customers.

Adopting an Omnichannel Approach

Moving to omnichannel content creation starts with a company’s teams. Just as customers rely on multiple channels to buy and use a product, businesses depend on multiple groups of experts for content, such as marketing materials, product guides, online help, knowledge bases, and training materials. These professionals need access to the same information no matter where it resides. They need to understand what is being produced by other groups to complement efforts. And they need to easily repurpose rather than re-create the work of coworkers.

Imagine content from a technical writer’s online product manual being automatically imported into an online course where questions for students and measures of comprehension are added by a trainer. The same product manual content feeds a knowledge base in the customer relationship management (CRM) system used by the service and support team. So the content supporting customers is consistent. Delivery can be easily synchronized. And different content teams across the organization can maximize their productivity. Better yet, data on customers’ use of the online product manual can provide insights into not just improving the manual but also the online course and knowledge base.

This scenario is not theoretical. Many companies have already begun their journey toward omnichannel content creation.

Unifying Content Technology Silos

The key to enabling an omnichannel approach is connecting the disparate systems used for creating, publishing and managing content. For example, a company may have a content management system (CMS) for product documentation and online help, a learning management system (LMS) for online and in-person courses, and a CRM system with an integrated knowledge base.

The most effective way to bring the different systems together is through a content syndication platform that not only aggregates existing content but also pushes out content to whatever website or other delivery platform is being used. Different teams within the organization can see what content is available and access the content they need from different sources to produce new or updated materials. Typically, application programming interfaces (APIs) are used to pull and push information between the syndication platform and other systems.

Beyond the technical connections, businesses also need the tools to tag data or content so the information can be readily aggregated and easily searched. This will become even more important as artificial intelligence (AI) brings new ways to enhance customers’ experiences with the company’s content.

Omnichannel and the Promise of AI

Two applications of AI hold particular promise in fully realizing the power of an omnichannel approach to content. One is applying AI to chatbots or search functionality to help customers quickly get the answers they need, no matter where the information resides. This will further reduce customer friction while improving satisfaction and self-sufficiency.

A second application is using AI internally to analyze content to understand what customers are using the most and how successfully, where there are gaps between the content available and what customers need, and where redundancies in content are fostering internal inefficiencies. Armed with these insights, content teams will be able to optimize both their productivity and the experiences of customers.

By extending the omnichannel experience from customers to the content teams that support them, companies can strengthen their productivity, profitability, and customer loyalty today while laying the groundwork to compete on new levels of customer service and engagement in the future.

Anthony Olivier is the founder and CEO of MadCap Software. For nearly 25 years, he has headed companies at the forefront in delivering solutions that streamline the corporate content life cycle.