Recently I had the pleasure of listening to futurist Daniel Burrus speak about the difference between soft and hard trends. Soft trends are those that may or may not continue and can likely be affected by events or action taken by companies, governments, or individuals. For example, based on the first few years of growth, we might expect that current penetration of tablet usage would be much greater than it is. Hard trends are definitive. Is it likely that flip phones will reverse their decline? Is it possible that smartphones’ capabilities will not continue to grow? Both of these deserve a resounding no. These are hard trends.
There is little doubt that customers using alternative means of engaging with companies and learning about their products will continue to grow. This is also a hard trend. Does this mean that traditional retail and call-center channels will remain relevant and important? While I can’t say these channels will remain relevant forever, I can say they will likely remain key points of customer engagement for the foreseeable future. Why do I say that? Let’s look to television advertising for the answer.
In 1994, the top-rated television show was Seinfeld with a 15.7 television rating. In the last year, the top-rated television show was the Big Bang Theory at 5.0, which would have ranked 58th in 1994. Although there are myriad more ways to reach people, including cable TV, social media, paid search, banner ads, etc., companies can still reach the largest audience of non and infrequent customers at one time with network TV. That said, companies’ marketing and advertising programs today are much more complex and diverse than they were in 1994. Smart marketers have one more adjective to describe their marketing programs: integrated. Traditional channels of engagement with the customer will remain important, even in a reduced role as a customer-engagement tool. Nevertheless, even in that reduced role, traditional channels achieve a deeper level of engagement due to human contact, and are therefore arguably still the most important.
Like the challenge that marketers have been facing, customer-experience professionals need to focus on the complex and diverse experiences that make up their customers’ respective journeys. Traditional channels remain important and deserve focus to ensure customer engagement is maximized. Smart customer-experience professionals will also take an integrated approach adding an understanding of how all touch points fit together as part of the consumer journey.
Have you considered all of the customer touch points in your CX programs? How are you examining the collective impact of these touch points and the implications for your business?
