Multichannel Interaction Strategies and the Customer Experience

Multichannel Interaction Strategies
and the Customer Experience
© Vladimir Dimitroff / PRISM Consulting 2012

Agenda
 Reasons and purposes of interactions
› the different perspectives of company and customers
› where these perspectives meet (and where they don't)
 The channel toolkit: comprehensive and open-ended
› what is a channel?
› Types of channels, channel portfolio
› what is a touchpoint?
 The full experience
› some overlooked interactions and channels
 Practical guidelines: a multichannel interaction model
› starting simple
› adding dimensions
› managing it all

Customer interactions
 Parties - the ‘us’ and ‘them’
 Talking and ‘doing’
 Direct and indirect
› the many different faces of a company
› do you interact with a phone?
 Two-party and multi-party interactions
› one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many
 Stakeholders
› other internal and external ‘customers’
 What about Customer Experience?

Why we interact with customers?
 The ‘Get’, ‘Keep’ and ‘Grow’ of any business
 Objectives and processes:
› acquisition
› retention
› development
 The functional view
› Marketing, Sales, Customer service
› but also Billing, Collections…
› PR, CSR and other ‘lesser’ functions
 Who started first?
› company-initiated vs customer-initiated
› ‘initiation’ as a reaction

Why customers interact with us?
 Needs, wants and ‘jobs to be done’
› fundamental needs and value creation
› perceived needs, ‘wants’ and preferences
› Discrete specific needs (‘jobs’)
 The importance of a classification
› recording, analysis and learning
› structured management of customer processes
› lean organisation and system design
 Sample classification (KISS rules)
› first ‘why’ (reason), then ‘about’ (subject)
› matrix and tree structures
› single logical model for databases and process design

The conflict - and CX challenge
 Their reasons to interact are different form ours!
(Surprise?)
 Mapping and meeting

Channels
 Distribution vs communication
› physical and virtual distribution
› mass and direct communication
› primary and auxiliary communication
 Channels vs media
 Transaction channels
 How about social media?
 The full portfolio
› multipurpose channels overlap
› describe yours

Touchpoints
 Points in time, points in space
 Journey points and ‘moments’
› most are interactions, some are indirect
› they define the customer experience
 Interface points
› part of a channel
› physical, even for virtual channels
 ‘Multichannel’ as in -
› touchpoints represent channels
 What happens there
› events
› Interactions
› transactions (?)

A sample channel portfolio
 Distribution
› own retail outlets
› dealers
› other channel partners
 Mass communication
› broadcast: radio, TV, social
› print
› outdoor
 Direct: human assisted
› F2F - retail
› F2F - field sales
› remote - paper mail
› remote - phone
› remote - personal email
› remote - personal SMS
› remote - IM, web chat
› remote - social platforms
 Direct - automated
› IVR
› SMS
› USSD
› email
› web main site
› web self-service portal
› web - community portal
› web - 3rd pty social sites
› kiosks
› web apps, widgets
› mobile apps
› barcodes, QR, other
› NFC tags
 Financial (payments)
› DD, standing orders
› debit /credit cards… etc

The model
 Can be complex and multidimensional
› where to start?
 First iteration: a table (2D matrix)
› your channel portfolio as main dimension
› choose your other dimension (easier from the company viewpoint)
 What’s in those intersections?
› ‘tick boxes’ (binary)
› weights and scores
› business rules, descriptive guidelines
› new dimensions
 Keep adding dimensions (and don’t forget the Customers!)
› customer differentiation (segments as dimension)
› their perspective (the ‘jobs to be done’ view)

Model-building example
Starting point: your channel portfolio
 call centre
 CC - IVR
 SMS
 email
 retail
 app

channel marketing sales service
call centre
CC - IVR
SMS
email
retail
app
Add a dimension, e.g. - functions

call centre  
CC - IVR 
SMS  
email   
retail  
app 
Determine the functional relevance of each channel

channel acquisition retention growth
call centre  
CC - IVR 
SMS   
email   
retail 
app 
Choose another dimension, e.g. - key activities

channel VIP middle CLV low CLV
call centre  
CC - IVR  
SMS   
email  
retail   
app  
Always consider channel relevance for
different customer groups (segments)

call centre
CC - IVR
SMS
email
retail
app
Quantitative weights are better than binary ticks

Master one dimension at a time
functions
channels
activities
touchpoints
- before you continue adding complexity

Managing it all
 From clear strategy to structured operations
› visionary and pragmatic
 Process implications
› end-to-end customer processes with common logic
 Organisation implications
› efficient cross-functionality and de-duplication of work
› improved responsibilities allocation
 Systems implications
› single architecture and modular integration
 Financial implications
› budget allocations
› performance measurement

Discussion
Your questions and opinions?
Thank you!
Vladimir Dimitroff
Director
PRISM Consulting (UK) Ltd
22 Cheviot Drive
Charvil
Reading RG10 9QD
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0)7947034944
E-Mail: vdimitroff@prism.ch
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