I’ve been to a conference on channel shift, encouraging your customers to move to different forms of interaction with your organisation. It was good, perhaps not worth the five hour train ride but you always pick up something interesting from these events. Lunch was nice too.
But my gripe was that speaker after speaker talked about channel shift as a means of saving money. Cost reduction, cost reduction, cost reduction; that is the message that I heard loudly and clearly.
Surely the key driver to move customers to another channel would be to provide them with a higher quality, more consistent and more enjoyable experience with your service. If you get that right then costs should fall. Higher quality services are ultimately cheaper than lower quality ones. Interactions that are easier to use will ultimately be used more than those that are difficult.
Channel shift should be more than just about saving money. Yes, it’s important but we should start with the customer. Channel shift should be about making the customer experience better. The best online services focus all of their energies on getting this interaction right.
Our focus needs move to understanding why our customers need to contact us and working to manage this demand. Make it easier to find the information that your customers need to know. Make it a more pleasurable experience for your customers to use the online channels. Keep your face to face and telephone contact for the times when it is really needed and appreciated.
That’s what channel shift should be about. Quality service, quality service, quality service, that’s what I want to hear and I’m certain that the costs will fall out of this. After all quality is remembered long after the thrill of cheap purchase is forgotten.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 