Experience Matters

Cross-channel alignment: How good are you?

A recent study by retail consultancy J.C. Williams Group highlights some core insights and strategies for cross-channel success. The study was done under sponsorship by shop.org, the online retail group. The research was presented at NRF. Our friends at J.C. Williams were gracious enough to give us a bit of background on the study.

The study was based on interviews with nearly 30 multi-channel retailers. The research explored organizational structure, compensation, measurement, and degree of integration in strategy, execution and measurement across channels. While the study was focused on retailers, it has relevance across financial services, travel, and other industries where multi-channel success is becoming so integral to the customer experience.

Not surprisingly for those practitioners of Customer Experience Management, the key success factors for multi-channel retailing success include:

• A retail strategy that encompasses all channels
• A culture focused on customer loyalty
• Hard evidence from standardized cross-channel measurements
• Aligning a technology roadmap with the enterprise’s cross-channel goals and priorities

While the study confirmed a lot of what we have seen in client work, we found one of their assessment tools to be a very good checkpoint for companies trying to further drive their multi-channel mindset. Here’s a simple matrix for looking at your cross-channel effectiveness across the classic “4P’s” of marketing.

I’m continually on the lookout for great customer experiences – where the brand not only understands but anticipates your interaction across channels. They’re hard to pull off, particularly when the core strategies don’t embrace that we as consumers will quickly jump from channel to channel.

So, how’s your experience on the continuum for alignment to cross-channel goals? Have you run across any “dynamic” examples? We’d love to hear from you.