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How can an organization strive to make the customer experience similar across different channels?
Social media, company website, and call centers are all part of today's customer experience strategies. How can an organization strive to make the experience similar across all these different channels? Does the experience even need to be similar?
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4 Answers
Tough question. Part of the answer to this, is tied in with getting feedback from customers on their satisfaction and experience of different channels (telephone, online, face to face), to help gather insight into how each channel operates.
In terms of whether each channel needs to be aligned, depends on what is driving the need for different channels. If online is looking to increase self-service (e.g. change of circs, complete transactions), other channels such as face to face, could look to provide more intensive support which may not be appropriate for online (e.g. vulnerable people).
What should be consistent across channels, is ensuring that it delivers the right outcomes, in a timely manner, which is accessible and therefore fair treatment.
Start with a clear and compelling service vision--the picture of the organization's signature customer experience. The vision should be in sync with what customers will value, what employees can deliver, and what maximizes the strengths and opportunities while minimizing the weaknesses and threats of the organization. Use the service vision as the lens through which every channel is examined. The Courtyard experience is very different from the Ritz-Carlton experience but both are distinctively Marriott. Reservations on the phone is highly consistent with reservations online. All touchpoints should be grounded in the service vision that is perpetually linked to what customers value.
Right on target, Chip. The only thing I can add is that when it comes to service design, it's not all about the numbers, it's about how we make people feel. After all a customer experience is everything we do FOR customers, TO customers, and how it makes them FEEL. Aligning the various touch points to deliver the same emotional outcome is one way for customers to discover that a brand is consistent across channels. Personally, it's more satisfying for me when my client's customers notice that consistency than when their number crunchers do.
One customer we are forgetting is the internal customer - your employees. When they are engaged and understand the mission/vision from the top down, you will build a culture that "speaks' the same language across the different channels.
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