Omnichannel Is a CX Strategy, Not a Tech Stack

10/22/2025 Matthew Tilley

If you’ve ever tried to “do omnichannel” by buying your way into it, you already know: software alone can’t simply stitch customer experiences together. That requires strategy and real-world implementation. Certainly, technology can help a lot, but doing it right requires considering the full customer experience and planning how your communications will impact your customers. 

Cynthia Bajana, RRD’s VP of Business Communications Solutions, recently explained in an interview for RRD's Produced + Delivered podcast, “Omnichannel integrates all channels…the experience that a consumer receives is the same regardless of what channel you receive the communication through.” 

That means content, look and feel, and personalization must be consistent, whether mailed, emailed, sent via SMS, or delivered in an app. Here are ways a consistent customer experience changes the way organizations plan, build, and measure customer communications at scale:

Start with the customer, not the channel

Channels are a means; the customer journey is the end. Two cornerstones need to be in place before you launch a single touchpoint:

1. Centralized content: Create once, reuse everywhere. Your content must live in one place and be channel-agnostic, allowing it to render appropriately in print and digital without rework.
2. Journey clarity: Design the sequence and intent of communications around how customers actually progress, decide, and act — across acquisition, purchase, and post-purchase.

When those two are missing, you don’t get omnichannel, you get multichannel.

Cynthia refers to this as “inconsistent and not synchronized,” a situation where “what you get on the paper channel looks and feels very different from what you get on the digital side.” That’s when the customers feel the seams, and the worst thing starts to happen: trust erodes.

Let preferences and regulations set the mix

Of course, which channel is the right channel can vary. For example, it depends on:

What is the customer’s preference by document type? That life insurance policy might need to be handled one way, and the credit card payment reminder another. 

What are the regulatory requirements? Certain communications must be mailed, maybe even via certified mail.

What are your failover options? If compliance requires assured delivery, what’s your backup plan if that email bounces? 

A recent RRD study reinforced a durable truth: physical mail remains highly trusted for communications with a shelf life. Meanwhile, consumers expect digital to be “clear, consistent, and easy to act on.” Meet them where they are and for the situation at hand.

Why omnichannel efforts stall

If the vision is clear, why do so many programs falter? We repeatedly see these three hurdles:

1. Disparate content systems. When teams customize in silos, it breaks consistency, adds cost, and erodes trust.
2. Legacy tech debt. Multiple outdated systems make it hard to move fast or personalize coherently across channels.
3. Diffuse ownership. When no one is really looking at the entire customer journey, timing, tone, and treatment inevitably drift.

The customer suffers the consequences: inconsistent formats, poorly timed messages, dense and jargon-filled documents that don’t translate to mobile, and repetitive digital pings that add confusion rather than clarity. 

Cynthia summarized a key insight from RRD’s business communications research: “Inconsistent formatting and timing of communications reduces brand trust.”

Building the business case

Investors who focus on budget and attention want both revenue proof and cost control. You can make the case from three angles:

1. Growth: CX prioritization can lead to gains in acquisition, lead generation, and repeat business.
2. Total cost of ownership: Quantify the current-state cost of legacy fragmentation — people, licenses, infrastructure, errors/rework — and compare it to a managed services approach with centralized content and consolidated workflows.
3. Problem-first storytelling: Anchor your case in the specific business problem you’re solving now. Once you define the what, the how becomes clearer and more pragmatic.

Designing for adaptability

Technology and expectations evolve. Keep your strategy agile by:

• Using a modular, composable architecture that can swap in best-in-class components as they improve.
• Keeping content decoupled from channels so it can flow to whatever comes next.
• Enabling business-user self-service for content updates and analytics.
• Leveraging AI for insights and efficiency gains, while maintaining controls required in regulated environments.
• Partnering with teams who “live” communications at scale and understand security, privacy, and production realities.

Progress over perfection

In the podcast interview, Cynthia admits that her favorite “buzzword” is “low-hanging fruit.” Why? “I’m all about execution and all about progress and not perfection…low-hanging fruits give you a win that you can build on top of.” 

In practice, this means picking the right first slice of the journey, aligning owners, proving value, and expanding with confidence.

If you’re setting out on this path, define a measurable outcome, align the right cross-functional team with a clear owner, map the roadmap, and select a proven partner who shares your goals. If you’re already on the journey, stress-test your architecture for modularity, empower your business users, and keep content channel-agnostic.

Above all, hold to the big idea: omnichannel is a customer experience strategy. Get the “what” right, and the “how” will work a lot harder for you.

Listen to the episode

Want to hear more from Cynthia Bajana on creating an omnichannel communications strategy? Listen to the full episode of Produced + Delivered here.  

Matthew Tilley is the host of the Produced + Delivered podcast and RRD’s Vice President of Growth Marketing.