Omnichannel – is it a Myth, Reality or Utopia?
Over the past 20 or so years the way products and services
get sold and customer service as well as marketing get delivered changed
dramatically. Gone are the times where a potential customer was addressed via a
radio- or TV-spot or an ad printed in a newspaper, advertising mail in the
mailbox … – well, it still happens, but the focus shifted dramatically.
We started off from one single ‘channel’ – customer goes to
the store and interacts with a person – and added an ever increasing number of additional
ones, like the ones mentioned, plus many more.
For retail businesses the store will not go away. Generally
spoken, human interaction will stay important, probably increase in importance;
human customer service will not vanish – but is likely to change … please hold
this thought.
In today’s omni-channel world we also have telephone,
e-mail, web-delivered ads, mobile apps, branded and white-label communities,
social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., knowledge bases in combination
with self-service, chat, messenger applications like WhatsApp, FB Messenger,
Snapchat, iMessage; chat supported by ‘machine intelligence’, exposed via so
called chatbots, and what not. The list could virtually go on and on.
This is all supported by and implemented on a platform that
leverages integrated applications, which work on a joint, or at least
consistent data model – with clean data – utilising strong real-time analytics
capabilities that powers both, customer segmentation and knowledge
categorisation for efficient search. And it delivers a great customer
experience.
In Real Life
Uhhm, I am just awaking from my dream …
Omni-channel is currently all the rage. Be available where
your customer is, be consistent regardless of the communications channel that
the customer uses at any time, and regardless of the changes of channels the
customer chooses to make. Use the knowledge and information of previous
interactions to the customers’ benefit. I, too, think that it is the right idea,
and approach – at least for now.
The History – and a Glimpse into the Future?
We started off with just one single channel. Every
interaction happened in the store – and via word of mouth. That is easy enough
to handle but then changed very soon, as described above.
The situation changed to being in the need to support a low
number of independent channels, especially in marketing, but also in service.
Content, and knowledge, were created and disseminated into these independent
channels. This got somehow optimised. The information was made available for
use in several channels. Born was the notion of cross channel.
From there we went on to think of and to support multi-channel
concepts by integrating the various applications and their data stores. We
arrived at the era of suites.
However, additional channels emerged and thanks to cloud
computing and decentral budgets as well as lacking trust into IT departments,
the pendulum swings from suites to best-of-breed solutions – all the way back
to the 90s. As a consequence, platforms start to emerge. The number of
communications channels that need to be supported, grew, and continues to grow.
Additionally, customers increasingly demand being addressed
personally and relevantly, on the communications channel of their choice.
And they want to be able to get to the information
themselves, be it marketing-, product information or service documentation. This
is largely thanks to advances in computing technology and the emergence of
smart phones, and needs to be addressed by companies.
So, we arrived at the era of omni-channel, where companies
feel the need to achieve a seamless marketing, sales, and service experience,
regardless of the communications channel a customer uses at any given time. Including
as per yet unknown channels.
Again, this is a lofty goal – very lofty!
Meanwhile companies start to realise that they cannot achieve
this goal in its full epic breadth and depth, especially as they are also
confronted with the need to be profitable, which obviously prevents them from
throwing an infinite number of dollars at solving this problem.
The overwhelming complexity of this scenario simply cannot
be fully accommodated for at this time.
Job-to-be-done thinking and customer journey maps evolved,
which gave the ability to provide touch points for customers that can get
offered by the companies in a manageable way. Advanced segmentation helps in
limiting the offer to different customer groups, thus increasing the company’s
relevance. Combined with sufficient computing power the relevance of the
delivered content can be increased, too.
On the service side we see communities and self-service
approaches being developed and employed.
Still, there are many databases with different aspects of
data/knowledge that are not integrated, due to above best-of-breed approach and
lacking pre-existing platforms in many businesses.
The Crystal Ball
And all this doesn’t even take into account the physical
world. Talk about retail stores and people! This fragmentation harms the
customer experience.
Again, neither the retail store nor human customer service
will vanish!
But in reality, there is no real omni-channel experience delivered,
with the possible exception of a few technologically very advanced brands.
Nor needs to be!
Companies need to prioritise. Looking at current technical trends
only few channels are really important. For one the human touch. Mobile; already
now a
third of all web access happens via mobile devices. Conversational
interfaces are increasingly becoming important, too.
According to Esteban
Kolsky, customer service will look totally
different from what it is now in ten years’ time. He is a firm believer in
automation. So am I.
We are facing self-service and communities as the main
channels for customer service and even pre-purchase decision making. There are
estimations that 90 per cent or more of customer service interactions can be
automated. And I really wouldn’t disagree. What is the first thing we do when
confronted with an issue? We use Google to research a resolution.
Information that we receive online from companies
pre-purchase (and in service scenarios, too) will increasingly be delivered by
explorative algorithms (AI’s).
So, where are we bound to?
1.
Businesses will develop a strong focus on mobile
delivery of digital content, be it for marketing or service; this very well
also means via voice (bots), and via humans. On the longer run automated voice
and interaction via other devices than the smartphone will gain increased
importance. Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, and VR/AR are giving us some
direction here.
2.
We will see customers triage between branded
apps that they will use for preferred businesses, ‘aggregator’ apps for needs
based access (e.g., ‘I want to order food, but do not know what’, …), and
finally messaging apps with their embedded company channels/bots. The latter
two categories might merge. Neither category, app or messaging, will vanish; however,
there will be a consolidation, as customers will not want to deal with dozens
of apps on their mobile devices. This was one of the ideas behind Epikonic – maybe we just have been too
early …
3.
With the rise of messaging apps and newer
protocols, especially WebRTC, the importance of telephony as a separate network/technology
will fade away. Telephony, especially with businesses, will merge into the
data/app stream, mainly helping both parties; with an advantage for the
business, though.
4.
Seamless interoperation of self-service or
community service with human service, due to improved automation and ‘intelligent’
software; human intervention will become the exception, and if it comes to
human intervention, there will increasingly be more relevant information
available to be used by the agent.
This will not happen in the next few days, but it will. Watch
the trends.
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