Thursday 28 February 2013

Omni channel experience management

UX consultants Webcredible released a report last year analysing the performance of ten UK high street retailers against what it calls 'omni channel' experience criteria. Many companies have strategies for particular communications and commerce channels - online, mobile, in-store etc. Webcredible class omni-channel as the customer experience across channels.



We already know that customers expect a joined up experience across channels and that users switch between devices in the process of completing a task (I wrote about Google's cross channel research last year - see below). This expectation is only going to grow over time and Webcredible's analysis is really interesting - highlighting the flaws that currently exist.

What can higher ed web managers and customer service professionals learn from this? We're a long way behind the experience that retailers seek to provide to their customers, but we need to be learning from reports such as this.

Some of the customers of these high street chains are also in our target audiences. Expectations are being set and in time we'll be judged against these standards.

Technology is part of the solution, but ultimately organisational structure and culture, internal processes and business focus are what determines success or failure. As section 3 of the report (covering barriers to implementing an omni-channel strategy) outlines breaking out of the silo mentality and giving attention to managing the user experience across the piece are what is ultimately needed.

New industry report: omni-channel on the UK highstreet - Webcredible.com

Related post: Google cross-platform research findings (September 2012)

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