Enhancing the Cross-Channel Customer Experience

A conversation with Susan Abbott, Principal, Abbott Research & Consulting

eStara recently spoke with Susan Abbott of market research firm Abbott Research & Consulting to get her thoughts on the topic. Susan’s research and consulting work covers topics related to customer experience, people and organizations, innovation, and change management. Prior to starting Abbott Research & Consulting, she served as a vice president at TD Bank, one of Canada's leading financial services firms, where she held senior roles in a variety of functional areas. She also blogs about customer experience at Customer Experience Crossroads.

eStara: You’ve mentioned in previous research that companies are paying lip service to the concept of customer focus and integrated delivery across channels. In regards to online/offline integration, where do you think companies are coming up short?

SA: Integration across organizational silos is one of the biggest challenges, although it's not the only one. A great deal of investment went into database and CRM development, and these systems were expected to improve operational and marketing efficiency. CRM did do that, but it didn't really deliver on the integration that customers were hoping for. In fact, most CRM implementations have been focused on meeting the needs of the company, not of the customer, in my view. When new channels were developed, no one really foresaw the level of integration across channels that customers would expect. There was a notion that customers would be "internet" customers, or "bricks and mortar" customers, or "mail order" customers, or "telephone" customers. What 's happened is that a large percentage of customers touch all channels, and may touch multiple channels in a single transaction. Expectations are rising that the organization should be able to cope with this, and cope with it pretty seamlessly. So if I order on the internet, I should be able to go into a store for help, or for returns or to pick up, for example. This kind of activity has challenged organizations on many levels. What I find in my research is that quite often the front line employees want to help integrate across channels, but policies discourage them, or systems are not set up to support them. These areas are a good place to start to address the issue, and get beyond lip service.

eStara: How would you define the ideal cross-channel customer experience?

SA: Let's start by saying that expectations are not the same for every customer segment and in every category. What we expect of Toyota is different than what we expect of Black & Decker or Apple or our bank, just to pick a few. The higher the value of the transaction, and the higher the service content, the higher the expectations seem to be. And, if the organization collects personal information about us, like a hotel chain or a bank does, that tends to increase expectations. In service businesses particularly, where expectations of an ongoing relationship run highest, the ideal cross-channel customer experience is a pretty seamless one. Each channel should be able to have access to my activity in another channel on a real-time basis, or something very close to that. I should be able to access similar kinds of help from each channel. Hand-offs across the channels would be very smooth in the ideal experience, so that if I arranged something online, I could follow up by phone or in-person. Today, most organizations ask the customers to do the integrating across channels. We tell them to call us back if something doesn't happen, like a refund on their bill. When they do call, they have to explain everything that has already happened. Repeated explanations make customers feel that no one is listening, no one cares about their problems. When an organization is saying they put the customer first, or similar marketing messages, customers expect to see evidence of this. Being left on hold, having trouble finding someone to talk to who can help you -- all of these things damage the experience, and the brand promise.

eStara: What role do you think technology like click to call and chat can play to help achieve these goals?

SA: Click to call is the most exciting concept for me. Because it offers the potential to speak to a real person, and when someone is getting frustrated, or can't find an answer, that's what they want. Chat's fine, but the voice of an accountable human being is just more powerful. We feel another person will at least try to help us. Both technologies offer the potential to connect with someone that actually knows what I was browsing on line, or can see that my ticket reservation got hung up. This reduces the hassle of having to repeat everything over again, and is going to win points right away, because customers hate having to repeat their story. It may be that the 'text' generation will prefer chat over calling, because they spend so much time that way now. Today, I suspect click to call would be more appealing from the customer viewpoint. That might not always be the case, and probably depends on what customer group is involved, and how comfortable they are with chat. I also think customers will be kind of charmed by the idea that they can tell YOU to call them, instead of making the call. It's subtle, but it restores some power to the customer, who is very familiar with waiting in a call centre queue. This is what prompted me to try it myself. I clicked to see what would happen, and was pleasantly surprised that it worked, and I connected with someone. Customer satisfaction research that good service recovery practices do more to build customer loyalty than almost anything else. Click to call or chat provides a way to intercept a problem really quickly, before frustration starts to build. And, when people just can't find what they are looking for on your Web site, either of these options may save a deal that was about to abandon you.

eStara: Are there any tips you may have for evaluating customer touch points when it comes to customer service and support?

SA: Stay as close as you can to what customers are actually experiencing. Start by shopping your own touchpoints personally. You'd be amazed at what you can learn from a small investment of your time in actually trying to conduct a typical transaction yourself. And, do the same thing with your competitors. Another thing to look at is whether your metrics evaluate the operation, or the customer experience. For example, do you measure the turn-around time for each step in a process, or the turn-around time as the customer experiences it, from first contact to resolution? I'm often surprised at how internally focused organizational metrics are.

And, really push your organization to look at touchpoints in a holistic way, across silos. Because customers really don't care about your organization's cross-functional problems - they only care about themselves and meeting their own needs.