This article was written following Barry O'Sullivan's panel discussion at the January 2015 BT Evolution Forum in Dublin that took place during the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, and was previously published on the BT Ireland blog.
I had the chance recently to speak at the BT Evolution Forum in Dublin on “The Rise of Digital Channels”. It was a fantastic event and it got me thinking about the concept of channels when it comes to online business.
There is an old story about an American tourist getting lost during a holiday in the south west of Ireland. He meets a friendly farmer on the road and asks for directions to Killarney. The farmer scratches head and says: “ If I was you, I wouldn’t start from here at all”. At Altocloud, the question I get asked most often by our customers is “How do I get started with a multichannel or 'omnichannel' strategy?” Let me give you my perspective in this blog.
Time and time again, when analog and digital technologies collide, digital wins and analog dies. We have seen this in telephony, in music, in TV and now in commerce and marketing. The contact centre in many cases delivers an analog experience in a digital world. We’ve all been there. You try to find the number to call, wait, press 1 for this and 2 for that. Listen to music, Wait some more. Eventually when you do get to talk to a real person, they have no idea of what you were dong in the app or on the website and you have to explain all over again who you are and what you want. It’s a horrible experience. Most businesses don’t know how bad it is.
According to Forrester’s Customer Experience Index:
80% of companies say they deliver “superior” customer service, while 8% of people say the same companies deliver “superior” customer service.
I believe “Channel thinking” can have unintended consequences, specifically the risk of hard-coding friction into the customer experience. It’s a company-centric way of thinking about your customers and generally leads to compartmentalizing your interactions with customers into silos: Web, mobile, email, social and phone. The latest buzzword from the world of channel thinking is “Omnichannel.” This is essentially an approach of trying to stitch together all the channels with an expensive overlay of software and systems integration.
As Dr. Nicola Millard said at the BT event:
Channels don’t die, they multiply.
Papering over the cracks won’t work: we need to put the customer journey at the centre.
So where should you start? My advice is to take a ‘Digital First’ approach. Map out your customers’ digital journeys and focus on removing seams and friction from interactions. Literally start with a blank sheet of paper. Think about journeys that start with Web and mobile, and only then decide how voice, video and chat communications help on those journeys. Allow your customers to choose how, when and where they communicate with you. Build context with an objective of knowing what they want before they want it. The convergence of predictive analytics and real-time communications makes this possible - bringing us to a new age of "Predictive Communications."
Digital businesses are laser focused on providing the most relevant content to the right customers at the right point in the funnel. But your best (and most expensive) content is your people and their expertise. By integrating your customer communications into your digital strategy, you can make the right communications offers to your Web and mobile customers at the right time. In addition, you can deliver Web and mobile context to your employees so that they are empowered to help your customers to achieve the desired outcome. No waiting, no queues, no friction.
Around the world customers and prospects make 45 billion calls each year to businesses.
That’s 45 billion customer interactions that have a huge impact on metrics that are critical to a digital business: customer acquisition cost, satisfaction, conversion rate, churn and net promoter score. By taking a ‘digital first’ approach, and avoiding omnichannel pitfalls, you can ensure that every customer journey is a positive experience - leading to positive business outcomes for your company.