Channel Optimization

…. the most important area affecting an organization’s profitability

By: Barton Goldenberg, Founder & President, ISM

Do you know your customers’ preferences in communication channels? Do you know the cost of serving customers via each preferred channel? If the answer is  no to either question, you are invited to get the answers by attending the February 10 webinar titled: Channel Optimization: Readying Your Distribution Strategy for the Future, sponsored by ISM and Thunderhead.com, a leading provider of Enterprise solutions for Customer Experience Management.

There are two parts to channel optimization. The first concerns achieving a balance between fulfilling customer preferences and lowering the cost to serve each customer. This entails knowing what your customers prefer and obtaining pertinent cost-to-serve information.

Second, there are challenges beyond customer preferences and lowering costs. They include the reality of today’s and tomorrow’s customer including:

Multichannel Strategy: The need to accommodate a customer or prospect who begins the journey in one channel, travels to another to get answers not found on the previous one, and finally moves to a third to make a purchase.

Learning curve = lower costs? While certain channels may seem expensive to work in today, as customers continue to utilize them, the cost will likely decrease. As an example, think about the cost of starting up a social media community five years ago versus how much that cost would be today.

Moving customers to other channels: Whether person-to-person, online or as Smart Customer Service reports in a recent article, Live Chat Pops Up as a Preferred Customer Service Channel, age and trends will influence the use of new channels or a combination of old and new. In a recent research study, Software Advice, an IT consulting firm, reports the “younger the person was, the more likely they were to use live chat … 56 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds preferred live chat [to] using the phone, compared to 27 percent who were 35 and older.”

Any organization wishing to be around in 10 years will need a sound channel optimization strategy. I encourage you to register now for the February 10 webinar: Channel Optimization: Readying Your Distribution Strategy for the Future, sponsored by ISM and Thunderhead.com.