Multi-channel & Omni-channel are not the same thing

I remember the days when Omni-Channel was a new thing. At that time, I remember that there was a clear distinction between Multi-Channel and Omni-Channel.

Since that time, like a lot of things in business (architecture, CRM for example), this term has been misused or applied to an increasingly broader range of disciplines or capabilities.

Even Unified Communications (UC) Platform developers (I won’t name names) are getting this wrong - which I find astonishing since multi-channel and omni-channel capabilities are foundational to UC.

You may disagree, but my contention is that these terms should be applied in the following way:

• Multi-Channel - the breadth of support channels through which a customer can interact with a company’s contact centre. These are primarily phone, email, webchat, instant messenger, social media, video chat, SMS. From an operating model perspective, the functional business unit where multi-channel exists is the contact centre (or a virtual extension of the contact centre).
• Omni-channel - the breadth of customer touch points through which a customer interacts SEAMLESSLY with a company throughout their journey. These touch points can be digital (website and self-serve), bricks and mortar (shops, offices, stores, service centres, hospitals, repair shops, auto garages, courts etc), logistics (delivery drivers, returns collections, ambulances) AND contact centres. Multi-channel can extend into touch points outside the contact centre, but only in as much as these are extensions of the contact centre interaction - not as a touch point in and of itself.

The distinction should be clear. Multi-channel strategy is about ensuring that customers have a broad set of ways in which to interact with one (or an extension of one) support touch point - the contact centre. Omni-channel is about connecting the customer experience seamlessly across every customer touchpoint across the entire customer journey - not just the contact centre.

This distinction is very important. An organisation may be looking to procure a UC platform and want an omni-channel capability, only to be pitched by a developer who describes their multi-channel capability as omni-channel. The platform may not deliver true omni-channel, but their pitch, literature, proposal says so. Alternatively, an organisation may describe their needs for omni-channel as multi-channel and fail to procure the right capabilities. There is a big difference in cost between a platform that only delivers a multi-channel capability to one that has the capability to deliver real omni-channel. True omni-channel requires foundational readiness in integration, master data management and infrastructure where multi-channel may not.

These terms are not inter-changeable and should not be used in that way. When dealing with change to deliver better CX and investing in that change, organisations and their vendors should be very exact about how they use the language of business and technology.