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Nex Media • MULTI-CHANNEL EXPERIENCES – WHY CONTACT CENTRES ARE FAILING
Multi-channel experiences –
Why contact centres are failing
There is currently much focus on multi-channel experience. Technologists frame the challenge as
a move from multi-channel to cross channel. Those in retail talk about the need for omni-channel
competency. Meanwhile the customer experience profession discusses customer journey mapping
while service organisations ponder the value of ‘customer effort’ as a new way to understand
the ‘outside-in’ experience of doing business with them.
O
f course all this is based on a sea change in customer behaviour. Let’s call
it ‘becoming digital’ for the sake of discussion. Or as someone put it so
well in a recent discussion on a Linkedin group: ‘The term “digital” is
simply recognising how the customer has changed. We’re all digital
people – social, mobile, always on, connected, online, etc. Our means of
communicating with each other has evolved as the digital age has caught on.’
This has given rise to a game changing leap in terms of expectations around
convenience, choice, reliability and speed that few organisations have got close
to mastering. In theory this revolves around an equally trusted channel mix.
However, as each new survey continues to confirm, live voice remains the
default channel despite growing consumer frustrations with it.
So, if there is so much momentum towards something new, why the hold up?
Eptica’s 2014 Multichannel Customer Experience Study summarises present day
competency of UK organisations perfectly by observing:
UK companies are struggling to deal with the shift in power
towards consumers, and the explosion in digital interactions.
There are huge discrepancies in performance across sectors
and channels – and between the best and worst companies.
The instinct for control creates fragmentation
Their insight around ‘discrepancies in performance’ is in many ways the central
challenge of delivering successful multi-channel experiences. Put another way,
the average customer journey is likely to be experienced as ‘lumpy’ more often
than not.
By Martin Hill-Wilson
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