Page 22 - Optus Future of Business Report 2013

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By contrast, consumers say online is
more useful than social media and
mobile for the foreseeable future
across all channels. Consumers said
online will occupy an even greater role
in their activities than envisioned by
businesses, being by far the channel they
expect to use most often to research
(65%), buy (57%) and receive (53%)
products or services in three to five years.
Consumers also expect traditional
channels to play a strong role in how
they engage with businesses, listing
them in their top three channels for
researching and buying products and
services, having them delivered and
receiving care and support.
Contact centres are uniformly consumers’
preferred channel to receive customer
care and support. In contrast, businesses
see an equal split between online and
contact centres to fulfil this role.
While businesses are eager to market
items through social and mobile,
consumers see a greater role for contact
centres and visiting a store, presumably
so they can talk to a person or touch
their potential purchase.
Consumers are asking organisations to
heed their preference to receive products
and services online. This may require
organisations to digitise more products
and services and offer online self-
service, or blend online with the in-store
experience. And while organisations expect
mobile to become more important for
product and service delivery, a third of
consumers see contact centres playing
a stronger role to fulfil this need.
About 15% of consumers say they
expect to use mobile most often to
conduct activities such as research and
buying, although the gap with business
should close as mobile becomes an
extension of the online experience.
CHANNELS CONSUMERS EXPECT TO USE MOST OFTEN
BY PURPOSE IN 3–5 YEARS
RESEARCHING PRODUCTS/SERVICES
(%)
PURCHASING AND PAYING FOR PRODUCTS/SERVICES
HAVING PRODUCTS/SERVICES PROVIDED
RECEIVING CUSTOMER CARE AND SUPPORT
ONLINE BRICKS AND MORTAR SOCIAL MEDIA CONTACT CENTRE MOBILE
65 24 23 16 4
57 38 19 15 1
53 36 32 16 3
54 38 35 14 7
Contact centre evolution
Contact centres are responsible for different activities
in the customer lifecycle and remain the most used
channel for half of consumers surveyed to receive
customer care and support today. In the next three
to five years, nearly seven in 10 consumers expect
organisations to continue offering this channel.
However, our research shows businesses expect
emerging digital channels will reduce the contact
centre’s traditional primacy and fragment the corridor
along which consumers interact with organisations.
For instance, businesses see mobile becoming a more
important channel than contact centres for selling and
delivering products and services. They also see mobile
and social media playing a greater role than contact
centres in their marketing efforts.
Consumers, on the other hand, feature contact centres
prominently in their future plans. In three to five years,
they expect contact centres to be their third most
used channel to research products, buy, and have
goods or services delivered. Furthermore, more than
half of consumers – contrasted with just a quarter of
organisations – expect contact centres to dominate
online and bricks and mortar for receiving care and
support by a wide margin.
But even these figures may underplay the role contact
centres will perform in multi-channel or omni-channel
environments. Contact centres may form a lynchpin
for the introduction of new digital channels and their
long-term success.
Contact centres are a natural orchestration point
for social, online and mobile interactions in addition
to their usual activities. By coordinating channels
through a contact centre, an organisation can
provide a consistent brand experience, which
reduces the risk of confusion.
For instance, a customer who follows a link in an
eDM to an organisation’s website may be nudged
into action by a web chat initiated by the contact
centre. A follow-up outbound call can close the
sale and arrange delivery or offer further services
and advice.
InSIghTTechNoloGy
“Channel management is a key focus
for us now. It’s about weighting the
channels of engagement properly,
so we are moving with the times and
technology – but not at the expense
of a relationship.”
– CMO, utilities
Adding the personal element
into conversations
Consumers enjoy the simplicity and personalised
interaction of contact centres and over-the-counter
transactions. One way to lift satisfaction with digital
channels is to inject more of a personal quality into
digital interactions. Live web chat can enrich the
online channel experience as consumers interact
with an organisation’s websites. For instance, a
customer browsing a website can be prompted to
click to chat to a representative at a key stage of
the research or buying cycle.