Research suggests customers who engage with a firm through multiple channels exhibit deeper loyalty than single-channel customers. But take note: this finding assumes the customer gets the same consistent service whether coming into the store, logging onto the website or calling the service center. To accomplish this, your firm must internally coordinate sales and service across multiple channels so that customer preferences are accessible no matter how the customer chooses to interact. Today’s customers expect to hop from channel to channel, and they expect good service to follow.
Action Step: Using customer feedback as well as formal customer research processes, monitor customer performance levels for every channel. Isolate a sample of customers who have experience with two or more of your channels and carefully measure their perception of your cross-channel value delivery. Things to watch for: in your customer’s eyes, are you providing equal service in each channel? Is one channel preferred over another? Why?
Source: Griffin, Jill. Customer Loyalty: How To Earn It How To Keep It. 2002.