Tuning in to the right channels

Three cheers for Richard West (MW February 1) who pointed out the plain truth that offering the customer one primary channel of communication, the essence of dot-com business, is a recipe for business failure.

He is quite right that modern customers expect a choice of channels and the recent news that John Lewis has acquired Buy.com confirms that the importance of “multi-channelling” has filtered down to even the most established offline organisations.

However, we should emphasise that it does not make good business sense for every business to pursue all channels available, from WAP phones to ITV. For instance, many businesses are finding that their customers are averse to conducting transactions online, because the medium is too impersonal. Equally, it is not always in a company’s interests to encourage purchasing on the Web – the travel industry, for example, would be deprived of that vital sales opportunity on the phone, when the customer is persuaded to upgrade hotels, purchase insurance, car hire, etc. It is important to find a balance between offering customers channel choice and guiding them towards the channel which is most productive and cost-effective from a business point of view.

The idea of having a fully integrated, multi-channel business is admirable. Just make sure that you know why you are offering each channel, and that you can measure a bottom line benefit in doing so.

Mike Adams

Chief operating officer

Knowledge Accelerators