The Omnichannel Experience (Part 2): What Matters to Customers...and What Doesn't

In my last post we discussed the promise of omnichannel –integrating data streams and queues across all channels to ensure a seamless service experience and unified view of the customer.  Omnichannel seems to hold a lot of promise, but it clearly comes at a (steep) cost. At the end of that first piece, I left you with the question, “is it worth the time and money to do it?” 

So, here I want to share some results of CEB’s recent research on the omnichannel benefits customers care about – and those they’re less likely to reward you for. 

Most of our members tell us that their budgets are tight and they're not in the position to spend the millions (in some cases, tens of millions) necessary to implement a comprehensive omnichannel solution. Instead, what they really want to know is which specific elements of omnichannel will deliver the highest returns for their business. Put differently, what will generate the most customer value while also helping to reduce operating expenses? To figure this out, we scoured all of the major omnichannel vendors’ websites to create a list of the claimed features and benefits that their solutions deliver. We boiled this list down to 30 categories – everything from channel integration (the ability to deliver a seamless experience to customers as they switch from one channel to the next) to customer knowledge and recognition (the ability to deliver a 360-degree view of the customer).

We then surveyed more than 2,000 customers to understand which of these attributes deliver the lowest-effort experience. It's important to note that we didn't just ask customers their preference on features and benefits. Instead, we tested the impact these benefits had on actual experiences customers had with companies. In the end, we were able to discern what, if any, impact they had on the customer's experience. What we found was pretty surprising and not at all what most companies would expect. 

Probably the biggest surprise was that the benefit most often touted by vendors – the ability to seamlessly migrate a customer from one channel to another (e.g., from a chat session online, to the phone) – doesn't actually deliver that much impact on effort reduction. In fact, it reduced customer effort by only 5.3%. To be fair, it does help, but at what cost? After all, this level of functionality is one of the most technically complicated (and therefore expensive) omnichannel benefits to deliver. 

Another benefit that delivered only nominal returns was “customer knowledge and recognition” – the ability for a company to integrate customer data and channels to instantly recognize who they're talking to and deliver to an agent a 360-degree view of the customer. Again, it delivers some benefit – 5.4% according to our research – but certainly not the value expected from a multi-million dollar omnichannel solution.

It turns out, the two things that customers do care about are "service transparency" and "service proactivity." Meaning, customers want the companies they deal with to inform them of the steps taken and the timeframe expected to resolve their issue (transparency), and to alert them of updates/issues related to their request (proactivity). These two benefits/features help to reduce customer effort by 58.1% and 15.3% respectively.

What can explain this discrepancy--the fact that channel integration and customer knowledge don't seem to matter much, but transparency and proactivity matter a lot? In our view, it all boils down to something we call "customer uncertainty." When customers leave a service interaction uncertain as to what will happen next and whether or not their issue is actually being resolved, they worry. That worry leads to additional customer effort in the form of another call/email/tweet/etc. to the company just to double-check everything. It’s an additional cost for the company, and extra effort for the customer.

To reduce customer uncertainty, leading companies do three specific things: 

1. Instill confidence by providing customers with information on next steps;

2. Demonstrate progress by making the resolution process – and timing – more transparent, and;

3. Increase access to information customers need, when they need it.

A good example is Delta Electricity, who provides customers with positive identification of the technician that will be servicing their home and then sends text message updates with the estimated time of arrival – helping to set customer expectations up front and reduce uncertainty along the way.

To be clear, an omnichannel solution certainly can help companies provide greater levels of transparency to customers and deliver higher levels of proactive service. But, technology isn't the only way to deliver these benefits. Companies can also train and coach frontline staff, or update existing web content to accomplish the same thing. 

The reality is that most customer service reps have enough knowledge about the issues they're handling that they could deliver greater transparency into the resolution process, but handle-time restrictions often preclude them from doing so (even when it's clear that doing so would help reduce customer uncertainty). 

The same is true when it comes to proactive service. The average company can leverage their existing technology, tools and frontline staff to deliver more proactive service than they do currently. It’s about thinking one step ahead of the customer and helping them avoid frustrating, high-effort experiences down the road.

In an era of “more” (more information, more channels, more options, etc.), a little extra transparency and proactivity will take you a long way in driving more customer loyalty. And, the best part is that it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg to do it.