Multichannel Insights From Online Visitors

I think I've mentioned before that I like Evan Schuman's term for multichannel--he calls it a merged channel because people are using all channels for research and purchase, and the line of influence of one channel over another is starting to blur somewhat. Customers' experience of a company now usually involves many or all of the channels a company offers. The smartest companies are working hard to figure this out and start to quantify multichannel influence, cannibalization, etc.

This can be really hard because of the anonymity that still exists with cross-channel shopping. But what you can measure and analyze easily and concretely is online voice of customer data, which can give you immensely valuable insights into loyalty, recommendations, and even sales across channels. You can even survey customers after they've left your website to see:

• Which online and offline channels did site visitors interact with?
• How satisfied were they?
• How did satisfaction affect their purchase decision?
• Were they exposed to a competitor (and how did that exposure affect their purchase decision?)

Then, if they made a purchase, you can find out:

• What was the role of the website?
• How much was spent?
• Which product category was purchased and how does the interplay between website and store vary for different kind of products?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. This stuff is easy to do if you have enough volume on your website to get a decent sample size.

Comments

[Rizwan]

Great ideas for data capture, but the answers to these questions are fairly complex to manage. The main problem faced by a lot of business seems not to be the ability to capture data but to follow up on it. Most organisations I come across aren't set up to process business intelligence in any useful way so the voice of the customer even if captured, rarely has much impact. Would be good to hear your thoughts on what organisations should do to improve the management and use of this sort of information.

Regards

Rizwan
www.multichannelthinking.com

[Larry Freed]

Rizwan,
You are correct that many organizations struggle with turning data into valuable information. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet. But, you need to start with a proven methodology. This will bring you accuracy, precision, reliability, actionability and credibility. Next, you need an organization that understands the value of the customer...and their voice. And from there, the fun (and the real work) starts.

-Larry

[kageblog]

Thank's For Sharing (^_^)

[darkfall gold]

which can give you immensely valuable insights into loyalty, recommendations, and even sales across channels.

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