Multi channel sales

Shopping around for car insurance today reminded me of something I’d read from Forrester recently about multichannel ebusiness. Personally, I like to do my research online, but more often than not, switch to the phone for my purchase. In the case of car insurance I like to speak to a real person before purchase, mostly to ask for a further discount! (haggling is now cool again in case you weren’t aware, more on this to come).

I’m typical of the majority of consumers, according to Forrester. They say 70% of consumers like to research online before purchasing via another channel.

What a pain I hear you say. Yes, unfortunately this does mean that businesses today must invest in a range of channels, and make sure that content and customer service are excellent in each one. Customers are likely to be using more than one channel so all bases must be covered.

Don’t forget though, the customer is king, so paste a smile on your face as you go back to your telephone scripts, website content and your brochures – it’s unavoidable I’m afraid!