One of my favorite title for an article. I think it's a funny title to be honest, because it doesn't matter if you are ready, this is the current state of the customer experience. Customers for a few years have been living in this world and we as digital marketers are finding it hard to catch up. What's even more scary is the rate at which technology is moving. If digital marketers don't become more agile, they will always be playing catch up. The issue may be is that the distance they will have to catch up will widen.
Today’s customers engage with companies in multichannel and multitouchpoint journeys, which they pause and resume over time. For example, according to the Corporate Executive Board (CEB):
58% of callers have visited the web before calling, and
34% of callers are on the web while talking to a rep
For a customer to complete a single task – buy a product, answer a question, understand a bill – they often require multiple, disconnected interactions with an organization. When a customer needs assisted service to supplement self-service, they typically must start over when they engage with the organization. In the case of voice, it’s calling a contact center, using an IVR, and explaining their issue. In the case of chat, it’s starting a dialog with an agent without any context to their journey. These time-consuming and disconnected ‘channel shift’ experiences are one of the leading causes of missed sales opportunities and high operating expense for organizations – as well as a major source of frustration for costumers.
I remember back in 2001 having this journey with AT&T landlines. At that time AT&T was broken into local and long distance. Well the bills came and they looked exactly the same and this was when online banking was just getting started. Well I was paying all the bills to long distance, because I believed they were one in the same. The bill looked exactly the same. I was quite surprised when they turned off my phone because I hadn't been paying. I mean, here I was I felt like I was always paying. When I set up my phone service I didn't call 2 numbers.
This is something that needs to be front and center. This is nothing more than creating great customer experiences, just using customer service as an example. The customer doesn't want to think about telling their story over and over, they want the context of their issue to move with them as they reach each touch point. This is expected in the digital age. The only thing really holding organizations back is their structure. Organizations have to structure themselves to handle the guest through this omni-channel journey. No amount of software will help if they don't start there.