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Top Tips for Integration for Multi-channel Success

Press Release

By: Zendor
11th July 2007

With consumer confidence growing in line with demand for online retailing, retailers are realising the need for unity and quality in the shopping experience they offer to satisfy their customers. Many retailers with a high street presence that has been translated into a web store are facing this challenge – same brand, same products and same service across all channels be that store, website or call centre. Zendor, the multi-channel fulfilment solutions provider, provides the following advice to retailers on how channels should be integrated to support and work with each other for multi-channel success:

• Build buy-in across the business – To avoid a silo-based mentality, acceptance and change needs to be driven from the top. Help the CEO to understand by equating the new online store as just another store, and this understanding will be filtered down throughout the business. Motivate support and synergy between functions by breaking down barriers with training and communication – each team must understand how other areas of the business can impact each other.
• Reinforce the brand at every opportunity – To encourage brand recognition and loyalty, multi-channel retailers can imprint their brand values on more than just their store and website design. By adopting the brand values and ethos throughout can have a positive impact on the brand experience – from store, to call centre, to home delivery staff – whether it’s a professional, informative or friendly/informal approach.
• Extend the service proposition – When introducing a new channel into the mix, retailers must view their portfolio as one business proposition and not separate entities. As such, services should be extended to enable customers to not only order online, but also then make collections and returns in-store.
• Equip the call centre – Playing a significant role in multi-channel retailing, call centres should be equipped with access to an integrated system and full brand/product training. The resulting support can mean no matter what the enquiry – product, promotion, store, or web – the advisors can provide truly multi-channel customer service.
• Enable the self-sufficient customers – For those who want more control over their shopping experience provide them with the tools to do so, whilst also reducing the number of calls to your contact centre. By integrating systems and sharing real-time information across channels, retailers can encourage ‘independence’ with online access to account information or ‘track and trace’, or order online and collect in-store services, for example.