It pays to consistently communicate with customers across retail or business-to-business channels, Aberdeen Group Inc. says in a new study. It finds that companies with the strongest omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers, compared with 33% for companies with weak omnichannel strategies.

Key to the former group’s performance is regular training of customer service agents, effective management of customer data across channels, and finding out if and when customer miscommunications occur in one or more channels, Aberdeen, a unit of Harte-Hanks Inc., says in the report, “Omni-Channel Customer Care.” The study is based on a survey of 305 companies conducted in May and June.