Channels Collide as Physical and Digital Converge

Deloitte says this brick-and-mortar channel preference cuts across generations, with 64 percent of Boomers, 54 percent of Gen Xers, 48 percent of Millennials, and 56 percent of Gen Z consumers surveyed saying they prefer to visit branches when opening new checking accounts, for example.

With that in mind, in-branch personnel need rich supporting systems to ensure that customers can continue any process they started online. Customers today have no patience for branch personnel who waste time in completing applications, Salesky says.

Banks need to be available to customers both digitally and physically, Josh Botnen, director of digital strategy and client experience at First Interstate Bank, agrees.

“An omnichannel approach is critical,” he says. “Today’s banking customer expects to be able to start an application in a branch, continue where they left off using a mobile app, then finish the process at home with a phone call to the contact center.”

Banks have come to realize this need, which would explain why 88 percent of local banks and credit unions say omnichannel is one of their most important technological priorities, according to Botnen, who also points out that only 11 percent of institutions are executing an omnichannel strategy today.

The gap, Botnen says, is in the implementation, joining other experts in citing a need for more and better training for customer service personnel, regardless of whether they are onsite or in a contact center.

BEHIND THE SCENES

But no matter how customers and companies choose to communicate with one another, the underlying decisioning logic should be central so it is accessible from any channel, whether it’s a customer completing an entire transaction digitally, a transaction or support issue handled via the contact center, a store representative helping customers choose between brands, or some combination of all of these, experts also agree.

That logic interconnection is critical since the customer journey often takes customers across channels, and they expect such a journey to be seamless.

“When it comes to channel options, you not only need to offer your customers choice and convenience; you need to deliver a consistent, effortless and unified customer service experience across every touchpoint,” says Gene Tiernan, managing director of teamDigital.

Tiernan and others recommend analyzing customer channel usage and ensuring that channel support coincides. Optimally, companies will want to have the best offerings across all channels, but budgets aren’t unlimited. So Tiernan recommends basing omnichannel investments on “the size of the prize. Twenty percent of your customers will provide 80 percent of your sales.”

Tiernan further recommends looking at customers’ brand loyalty as well as their expected lifetime value to help determine channel investments.

But whatever the investment in individual channels, omnichannel still needs to be the underlying theme, experts agree, so that customers using multiple channels for the same transaction aren’t lost in the middle.

Everyone gets frustrated when asked to restart conversations with a company after they shift to a new channel. But Boomers hold a special grudge, as 78 percent—the highest across all ages—say that this frustration has led them to question why they do business with a company at all, the CMO Council found in its research.

REDEFINING OMNICHANNEL

That is prompting many to rethink the omnichannel strategy entirely. In fact, some people are ready to scrap the term omnichannel altogether.

Companies shouldn’t be thinking so much in terms of omnichannel, but more in terms of channel-less communications, says Jeff Nicholson, vice president of CRM product marketing at Pegasystems. “We’re seeing people still talk about omnichannel; that doesn’t work. We are seeing channels merge at a rate faster than we have ever seen before.”

If companies are pursuing a channel strategy—even if they call it omnichannel—they will tend to put new channels into their own silos, disconnected from other channels, according to Nicholson. “It will be just another disconnected experience. You’re just chasing your tail as new channels emerge.”

Don’t be channel-led; instead, be channel-less, Nicholson advises. This puts organizational thinking in alignment with customer thinking.

“When a customer goes to make a purchase, he doesn’t think in terms of channels,” Nicholson says, adding that even companies that think in terms of mobile-first or digital-first are going down the wrong path.

“It’s the customer journey that counts,” Nicholson says. “Customers will flock to the channel that requires the least effort.” 

Phillip Britt is a freelance writer based in the Chicago area. He can be reached at spenterprises@wowway.