Three Ways To Make Customers Happy In A Multichannel World

By Deepak Advani, IBM

While mall parking lots may have been empty during successive winter storms in the Northeast, people were still shopping.

What’s the lesson to be learned from the winter of 2014-15? Businesses that can cater to the shifting needs and shopping patterns of customers —  including those stranded at home due to heavy snowfall — have an opportunity to truly elevate the loyalty of customers.

The emphasis is on the word “opportunity” because having an online presence isn’t enough. Chief marketing officers and their teams must focus on three elements that are critical to making this possible. They are:

1. Channel Consistency: Customers today want to buy the brands that have a presence on all critical channels and can engage customers from anywhere. But there is a catch. These interactions cannot be disjointed. The customer’s brand journey must be consistent, whether the interaction takes place in the store or on mobile devices.

For example, consider if a snowed-in, Boston-based customer uses her favorite shopping app on her smartphone, browses items and checks out the best deals in the afternoon. Flash forward to that evening: the same person hops on her tablet expecting the same functionality and deals to be available. What happens when they are not? I’m sure you can imagine some potential scenarios.

2. Personalization Everywhere: Brands must treat each person as an individual. Ask yourself this: can your team deliver customers relevant experiences at all touchpoints, from the web site and smartphone all the way to the show floor at the local store? This process requires retailers to examine the interests, opinions and shopping habits of each customer. Common questions include: “What are they looking for?” “How does their shopping vary by channel?” “What are they saying on social media?” and, “What types of promotions are they most receptive to on their smartphone versus their tablet?”

For example, an outdoor retailer should not be pushing deals via email on new powder skis to customers who only buy summer camping gear and complain on social media sites about snow. Not only does it waste those customers’ time, but it’s also a missed opportunity. For this group, promotions should take into account what’s being said on social media and offer these customers a more relevant deal, such as a new line of backpacks, and offer that can be presented to them when they log onto their store account.

3. Tactical ROI: In order to deliver a great experience, teams must also measure campaigns in real time and fine tune them as needed. This may sound like old news, but I am talking about taking measurement to new depths. Of course marketers want details on click through rates and overall sales, but that ignores the bigger picture. Marketers have access to a vast array of campaign data, more than ever before, and the onus is on them to examine this information, analyze the data and measure the performance of all tactics, no matter how minute they may seem.

The outdoor retailer may find that their ski promotion is resonating with a majority of their Northeast-based customers and that’s great news. However, when taking a closer look, they see that a smaller segment of people who are not clicking through the ad are the same people on Facebook posting comments and photos professing their frustration with the latest blizzard. Now just because the overall effort is a success, this doesn’t mean marketers can’t take it one step higher. There’s always room for improvement. By isolating this one segment, they can deliver alternate deals focused on new summer swim gear that’s shifting their focus from blizzards to beaches.

There is no reason a little snow should freeze the way you serve your customers. What’s your formula for customer service success?