Page 24 - Optus Future of Business Report 2013

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Exhibiting great confidence in
their multi-channel plans, 61%
of organisations expect to have
fully integrated channels in three
to five years, a five-fold increase,
with hospitality (79%) and retail
(65%) having high expectations of
future integration.
Organisations identified a combination
of people, process, cost and technology
as the main reasons for a lack of
multi-channel integration. Technology
integration issues are the leading
causes for 51% of organisations’ to
not integrate their channels, followed
by cost (37%) and process or policy
issues (36%).
Furthermore, a third said staff training
was an impediment to integration,
recognising the significant investment
required in people to deliver this next
wave of integrated customer experience.
In 16% of cases, real-time transfer of
information was not possible, making it
impossible to implement scenarios such
as click and pick up mentioned earlier.
Although organisations are optimistic
they will overcome channel integration
issues, our findings suggest that
organisations may underestimate how
quickly they can blend their channels.
It is important that organisations have
a clear path to overcome integration
barriers in order to improve customer
experience. Furthermore, while
aspects such as service levels and
functionality should remain consistent
across channels to meet customer
expectations, it is important for
organisations to be clear on the unique
experience each channel can deliver for
their customers.
TOP 4 REASONS FOR NOT INTEGRATING CHANNELS – BUSINESSES
51 37 36 33
TECHNOLOGY
INTEGRATION
ISSUES COST STAFF INVESTMENT
OR TRAINING REQUIRED
PROCESS
AND POLICY
ISSUES
(%)
Delivering a seamless multi-channel experience
One way to aid the consumer as they move between channels is to wrap
a context around their interactions with the organisation. For instance,
a customer who enters information on their phone while being directed
through to a contact centre expects the representative taking the call to
have access to the same data. This style of interaction may be expanded
to include online, where a customer care representative can see which part
of the organisation’s website the customer was looking at before they start
their conversation.
Organisations identified a
combination of people, process,
cost and technology as the
main reasons for a lack of
multi-channel integration.