Optimize your service channel portfolio

Customer behavior has changed dramatically over the years. More customers than ever are attempting to self-serve before picking up the phone. And the majority of customers are consulting sources outside of the company first, such as Google, Facebook, blogs, and friends or family.

Yet, although customers aren’t starting their service journey in company-owned channels, they are ending there.

Different starting and ending points indicate that while today’s customers expect to resolve issues on their own, there are many situations in which they cannot.

Customer service journeys have no discernible pattern when measured in traditional ways, making the step-by-step sequence almost completely unpredictable. Add to this the sheer number of channels used: The average customer visits 1.7 company-owned and 2.1 non-company-owned channels on their service journey.

The bottom line is today’s customer resolution experience — for which the company is fully responsible — includes channels and interactions the company does not control, and more situations in which the customer must exert effort to solve a problem. 

Understanding why customers would choose one channel over another requires us to understand what “job” a customer is trying to accomplish with their choice.

By understanding the psychological need a customer is looking to satisfy — not just which channel a customer would choose, but why they would choose it — executives can optimize the experiences of customers and meet the financial and strategic goals of the company.

Service leaders’ current view of customer service presumes customers are trying to do one job — resolve the issue — and can choose from any one of the equally capable, company-owned channels to do it.

In reality, customers are trying to perform six unique resolution jobs and view different utility in different channels. Customers don’t do these jobs in any particular order, and while some jobs involve the company, others intentionally exclude it. This new view sees the customer’s overall resolution experience as a journey to accomplish one or more of these six jobs.