How do you MEASURE Channel shift?
Can't I just look at the volumes of people transacting via my new digital solution?
No, By making services available online, organisations often see an overall increase in contacts as new customers are attracted to smarter ways of working, with little or no reduction in the target channels. People will love that I made more services available online, won't they? In the most part yes, but customer satisfaction will fall as you start to move people across. This is either because they are reluctant to try new things, or because the processes you have put in place do not meet all customer needs. Channel Shift won't cost me any money, I just need to put services online don't I? Channel shift does cost. Whether in terms of staff time to develop the online services, in the procurement of software to enable the processes to be delivered online or in the communications to customers to let them know how to access your new online services, inevitably there will be some associated costs. I've put my service online, so now I can start making savings and reduce my budget, can't I? With any customer programme, when you make your services more accessible demand will increase. You should be prepared to not only start to see customers accessing your online services, but to see little or no reduction in your target channels your were looking to shift. Changing human behaviour takes time, and whilst for many being able to transact online will be a benefit, for others they will dis-engage if you don't get it right and you may struggle to win them over at a later stage. If I know how many customers are now using online services, isn't that enough to show we have delivered a successful channel shift programme? The volumetrics associated with channel shift are just one element. No doubt you will have been given a savings target which would also need to be considered, but what about how customers feel about your new services? Measuring the volume of customer contact against both the savings potential and actual savings achieved together with the customer satisfaction for each service or process will provide a spectrum of measure by which you can successfully demonstrate customers have not only engaged with your channel shift programme but success has been achieved. |