How long have we heard talk of multi-channel integration, and seen so little evidence of it?
Asaf Buchner, writing on a Jupiter Research Blog reports on the 2005 Net Finance conference. Most multi-channel integration efforts are at the level of consistent look and feel across off-line and online. But better efforts are starting to emerge, according to Mr. Buchner:
The few banks that were able to achieve a true integration offer a superior customer experience, allowing a client to start a dialog with the bank in one channel and continue it in another (e.g. start an application online and continue it from the same point off-line). In the following months, I will investigate the success of banks like Wachovia and Wells Fargo that were able to overcome technological barriers and break silos in the organization to fully integrate their marketing channels.
It's been a long time coming, hasn't it?
The internal organizational barriers are real. It's not just that people won't work together -- it's that most of our organizations are set up to encourage and reward other kinds of behavior. Employees doing the right thing for customers are often doing it in spite of, not because of the organization.
I had often wondered if there was just a paucity of innovative thinking from customer experience marketers in financial institutions. However I'm learning this is not the case at all.
The technology barriers have been real -- compounded by the data barriers.
A really clever fellow from IBM Global Services, educated me on this topic at a roundtable sponsored by the Access Group in early March. There are actually lots of good and innovative ideas out there -- but either the technology or the data are a barrier. Or both.
Not necessarily that the tech solution doesn't exist. But few firms have the capabilities that Asaf Buchner is writing about. (Yet).
What's your perspective?
