Online Customer Experience - The Lowdown

A Blog Post For Remembrance Day

Christopher Johns — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:00 GMT

It seems that remembrance day has a particular poignancy this year.

Nothing has really happened online (that has grabbed my attention). If you search for 'Poppy Campaign' you'll find the Canadian Legion website as the top result. But I'm not sure that veterans will be particularly concerned about their Google rankings.

I had a good look round the Royal British Legion website today and it's got some nice features like planting a virtual poppy and a google map of where the remembrance day events are being held across the UK. There's also a nice feature for 'Lost Trails' where if you're looking for someone from the armed forces you can post a message and hope that someone reverts to you. This is relatively important for tracing military ancestors because it was only in the 20th century that non commissioned ranks had the same level of details about their death recorded. I found this out when tracing one of my ancestors who died in Afghanistan back in the 1880's, the officers had their names detailed but not, unfortunately the lowly grunts. The search could be made a lot better by adding filters such as the regiment, conflict, country, rank etc - this would allow for improved cross referencing between posts. Additionally, if you could 'save' posts to a personal folder for subsequent research that would be helpful.

What surprised me about the Royal British Legion's website was the lack of emotional impact, it seems very objective and removed from the soldiers stories and their loved ones loss. Perhaps this is a deliberate act to stand apart from the emotive arguments and present a solemn face of remembrance but I think it is a mistake. In my opinion they should communicate the loss and the remembrance 'lest we forget'.

I grew up in a City called Chichester on the south coast. My family moved to a Georgian house in the centre that had just been re-developed by builders in the early 80's. An old lady had lived in the house for many many years and after she died it eventually passed to the developers after being left empty for several years. In one room of the house was a billiard table and it was told to me that the lady's two sons had played a game of billiards there on the eve of their being sent to the front in June 1916. They told each other that they would complete the game when they both returned from the war. Sadly, the battle of the Somme started in July and neither returned alive. The mother was left without her children and the billiard table was left untouched, with the balls lying as they were, until the developers arrived nearly sixty years later. Every day during those intervening years she must have looked at that table and remembered her sons.

Remembrance day is for that mother and the countless others who lost so much.

I Am Constantly Amazed By The Impact Of Local Marketing Online

Christopher Johns — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:56:00 GMT

I used to work for a publishing house, producing a number of monthly magazines and annual handbooks. We found that it was relatively easy to hold to the rate-card when selling ads for new publications or features but when it came to renewals the situation was much reversed. One of the main issues was that although a publication is essentially a form of localised marketing, the ability to measure response accurately was not available, meaning that there was no leverage for re-negotiation. We face a similar issue now when choosing the (if any) print magazines for advertising Aardvark Media, we approach them with a high level of doubt simply because we're accustomed to the online accountability of advertising campaigns.

Although we've been in business since 1996 I remain constantly amazed by the ability of online marketing at a local level to return dramatic, measurable results for client marketing.

A client of ours, who are a major player in the bar and club sector, was opening a new bar in London's theatreland. Usually for the opening night they operate at capacity and like to have a healthy queue of people patiently waiting outside to join the party. However, on this occasion, with less that 36 hours before the opening they needed to find over 1,000 people to add to the guest-list. We sent an email to their registered customers with a simple 'click here and we'll add you and a friend to the guest-list'. This approach meant that people didn't have to go through the hassle of logging in or remembering their password. Within 2 hours we had added over 1500 people and within 12 hours the number on the waiting list had grown to over 2,500.

At a local level, efficient online/email integrated marketing really does have a proven dramatic effect on customer behaviour. Because of this, whilst I like print media as a tactile medium, I remain unconvinced about it's long term prospects as an effective tool for response driven marketing. Amazon's Kindle and other ebooks are an interesting mid-way between print media and online and I'm following their take-up with interest.

Tesco.com - My Poor Customer Experience

Christopher Johns — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:13:00 GMT

This year we holidayed 'staycationer' style in Cornwall. Rock, to be precise, where the large gull wing houses remain unsold amongst the debris of the banking crisis. This being peak season we thought that it would be a good idea to organise an online shop to coincide with our arrival. The only online store that delivers locally is Tesco.com. Admittedly the night before leaving London probably wasn't the best time to visit Tesco.com, there being a myriad of items that needed to be packed carefully into our Volvo jalopy to ensure fun could be had by all regardless of the weather.

To be brutally frank we don't normally shop normally at Tesco, our location in Battersea means that we're in a black-spot, out of their reach. However, I had used the site many years ago when I was a bachelor. How difficult could it be? I logged in and happily clicked immediately to the grocery section, omitting to read any of the notifications on the home page (in the same manner as most men disregard all technical documentation supplied). This was my first big error, having spent just under an hour faithfully adding products to the basket I decided to proceed to the checkout to pay. I needed to book a delivery slot though, the address shown for the delivery was wrong as it displayed my bachelor pad. 'There must be a simple way to change this' I thought optimistically. No such luck, going into my profile and adding the new address meant that the entire contents of my basket were lost. My wife looked bereft and began muttering about the benefits of shopping local. So, we tried again, spending another 40 minutes dutifully adding products to the basket, 'all done' I chirruped to my harassed wife packing in the hallway. My good luck ran out when I tried to book a delivery slot, not only were they all gone for the day that we were to arrive but there were none to be had for three days either side. Biting my lip I explained the situation to my incredulous wife, who swore that she would never, ever use Tesco.com again.

I managed to get some small revenge in the local Tesco in Wadebridge where the staff were dressed in beach outfits for the day whilst the rain lashed down outside. The lady at the till looked at me when I rolled up with my trolley full of exotic goodies and asked if I would like help packing it? 'Yes please' , I smirked as she muttered under her breath about shandy drinking Londoners whilst I chatted merrily on my phone...

Train Travel - An Out Of Tune Theatrical Production

Christopher Johns — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:34:00 GMT

It being the summer hols my family have decamped to less urban climes with the car, whilst I continue to run the gauntlet of the Kings Road on my bike.

At the weekend I took the train to Yorkshire to be reunited with them. I tried to buy my ticket at the website on Tuesday evening last; 'ah ha' , I thought, a nice slick website with all the prices and options clearly shown. I chose the train I wanted at a welcoming cheap price but was stopped from the purchasing it because there were no seats available.

This is a web issue that I find regularly and it's not only frustrating, it's downright misleading as they're saying that it's for sale and if that's the case then I want to buy it. Online clothes stores do this regularly as well, showing me items of clothing that I can buy, only when I try to select any size they are all mysteriously 'sold out' - like the maitre'd at an empty restaurant telling the unexpected man in the bad suit that 'no sir we have no tables free this week'.

Eventually I purchased a ticket, I went for a first class option as it was only £4 more than the standard fare (though their dynamic pricing strategy is neither here nor there as far as this tale is concerned) and looked forward to traveling in the comfort of the executive class. I am proud to say that I am a big fan of trains and I have had the great pleasure of traveling on some of the greatest train journeys around the world. When Joseph Pine says that 'Work is Theatre and Every Business A Stage' he really hits the nail on the head as far as the train is concerned.

When the conductor makes his rounds there always seems to be someone near me who has a problem; losing part of their ticket, just having the email confirmation or not having the correct ticket. Always, after pleading and sometimes tearful negotiation the customer is forced to buy a new ticket at the full price. On this occasion a young lady had used the website incorrectly and had purchased 2 young people's tickets and her companion was not with her. Thus she had 2 useless tickets. The conductor listened patiently to her story and explained that he knew the website had a problem and that it had happened before. He then professionally charged her the price for a new full price ticket.

Shortly after all our white paper table covers were removed and replaced with blue ones; with a cup covering each corner. The old ones crumpled and thrown into a bag of rubbish. An attendant soon followed with a rubbish bag and filled it with copies of the Evening Standard that she had previously distributed. When I asked if there was a policy for re-cycling she said there were plans to bring in a special trolley to undertake that task.

Whilst the staff were not to blame for these events they are symptomatic of an organisation that is out of alignment with it's values. Why isn't there a mechanism for telling the web people that there is a problem with the logic of the site so avoiding customer angst? Why doesn't the business build on it's environmentally sound basis to deliver a customer experience that they could be a positive re-enforcement of their values?

If their business is a theatre, it would be like a performance of the Krankies at the Albert Hall, beautiful but bloody annoying.

Complexity Is Good, The World Is A Complex Place, Embrace It.

Christopher Johns — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:34:00 GMT

We were fortunate enough to attend the sell-out ‘UX London’ conference at The Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch this year. It was the first conference if its type here in London aimed at user experience practitioners and there were some big names in attendance – both lecturing and running half-day workshops. The conference ran over three information-filled days. Day One was lecture day, with inspirational talks from the likes of Peter Merholz, Luke Wroblewski, Dan Saffer, Jared Spool, Jeffrey Veen and most excitingly Don ‘The Don’ Norman.

Days Two and Three went into much greater detail, with interactive workshops covering all aspects of user experience practice; from sketching lessons to learning how organisations can make better decisions through design. In fact there were too many fantastic workshops to get around all of them and there were no “fillers”.

One of the highlights for me however was hearing Don Norman speak on Day One. The author of seminal books such as The Design of Everyday Things, Things That Make us Smart and more recently The Design of Future Things, Don is well known to all user experience architects and designers alike. The fact that his comments were Twittered with the hashtag ‘#TheDon’ just goes to show the affection and regard in which he is held. Often the contrarian (“When everyone is asking for something, I tend to take the opposite approach”), Norman has recently caused minor storms by arguing that simplicity is highly overrated and that complexity is good thing. At first this approach feels wrong: as usability people, we are often in the habit of trying to make online experiences as simple as possible. Surely complexity can only harm the experience and put customers off?

Norman offers a familiar example of simplicity: the Google search homepage - often quoted as the epitome of the simple. Without a doubt, Google is by far and away the most popular search engine. And yet Yahoo! have the most popular homepage and it’s packed with information. Yahoo! is optimised for exploration, with Google it takes a little more work. You might argue that these two homepages are different products but the sheer popularity of Yahoo! goes some way to show that complex pages are popular.

Another example: the iPhone is often touted as simple and consumer-friendly. And yet with a new software update, Apple has added 100 extra new features. How is this level of complexity compatible with the idea of a simple product? One might argue it’s because users have learnt how to use the device and are now demanding more advanced tools (like Copy and Paste).

There appears to be a fundamental conflict here: when asked, people will demand simplicity (“Why is it so hard to use?”, “Why can’t products be simpler?”) but when you watch these same people comparing products side-by-side, it is the number of features that sell a product. People want more features even when they realise this must complicate the product. People believe that as you add features you add capability, thereby making more feature-laden products more desirable. However, as user experience professionals, we believe adding more features decreases usability. Both positions, Norman argues, are wrong. “We must distinguish complexity from confusion, perplexity, and unintelligibility. The goal is complexity with order, lucidity and understandability.”

People prefer complex things. If it’s too simple, it gets boring. Once a user gains experience with a product, the user moves into a new role; that of the Intermediate and suddenly their perception of what is complex changes. An aside. Roughly speaking, there are three classes of user: the Beginner, the Intermediate and the Expert. If we plot the number of people against perceived skill level, like most population distributions we get the classic statistical bell curve, with most users situated in the middle of the curve at ‘Intermediate’.

It stands to reason therefore, that these are the users we should spend the most amount of time designing for. And yet it’s often the Beginners and the Experts who get the most attention. The Product Manager demands the Beginner must be able to hit the ground running and yet the engineer or developer, if left to their own devices, designs for their own skill-level – that of the Expert.

So how does Norman suggest we solve the complexity problem? Unsurprisingly the first approach should be through well-researched design. By modularising actions we can contain the complexity and by teaching users as they go, we can help them manage complex interactions.

I’ll leave the last word to The Don himself: “Why are things so complex? Because the world is complex. Our tools must reflect reality. Complexity can be good, leading to a rich, satisfying life, filled with rich, satisfying experiences.”

This blog post was written by the Creative Director of Aardvark Media, Tim Minor.

Handle 'Forward To A Friend' Campaigns Carefully Or You'll Get In Hot Water.

Christopher Johns — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:44:00 GMT

I've had my email since 1996 and I'm subjected to a torrent of spam. Friends have said to me that I should just get a new email address and be done with it but to my mind that indicates defeat. Of course, the work email has spam software but it only acts as a series of breakwaters over which the relentless surge of mindless drivel will eventually find a way. Frequently, at the end of a day I'll have a look at my spam folder to find over 3,000 junk messages from that day alone. Importantly, whilst I could be driven to the point of insanity by having to delete swarms of spam emails I am also interested in some of the messages that come my way, for example when friends complete a form at a website that generates an email campaign that is sent to me.

As a business, we look after over 1.5 million customers for leading brands. All the brands are now using 'Forward to a friend' strategies to organically grow their database (a friend recommended is the most likely type to convert to being a real customer), combine this with the number of ongoing campaigns and the recognition that you really don't want to turn possible customers into enemies through spamming them and you have a tinderbox to handle.

Brand Republic recently commissioned Eversheds (the law firm) to review a recent landmark ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/910951/new-rules-viral-marketing/). The ASA objected to a forward to a friend campaign for a film called Shifty, the email address of someone was provided to the campaign site by a friend without the consent of the recipient. The campaign site sent an email to the friend saying that they were at risk of criminal prosecution for drug use following a tip off. They were directed to follow a link which open a website saying that they had been 'stitched up' .

Marketers are responsible for any unsolicited marketing messages they send which do not comply with the data protection rules. Guidance from the Information Commissioner stresses that the customer who passes a friend's details to the advertiser must confirm that they have the friends consent to do so. Marketers should also check that the friend is not already on a marketing suppression list and should tell the friend how they got their details. If the friend objects they should be able to have their email address suppressed for future campaigns.

It's also important to note that if the campaign is marketing led (i.e. it has a creative or hidden element to generate interest) it is important that it is clear what it's purpose is and that it is truthful in it's delivery.

When compared to other forms of database growth, the viral engine of forward to a friend campaigns show excellent low cost returns. However, they need to be handled carefully and correctly to ensure that they don't result in potential customers disliking the brand before they've even tried it.

Customer experience and the search for authenticity

Christopher Johns — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:44:00 GMT

I’m seriously thinking about attending this year’s TED Conference in Oxford. In case you don’t know, TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences bring together an eclectic mix of speakers and attendees, questioning perceptions and encouraging discussion of new ideas. Whilst looking through videos of past speakers I came across Joseph Pine, who has an interesting take on customer experience and the search for authenticity.

In short, Josephs proposition (as I understand it) is that in economic history we kicked off by trading commodities like wheat, meat and cotton, we then progressed by processing the commodities to make goods that enabled us to achieve added value. Over the last twenty years we have seen the commoditisation of goods that has lead to greater price competition over and above other product attributes. In order to achieve competitive advantage organisations need to now rely on customer experience as the primary differentiator, but importantly what prospective customers are looking for is authenticity.

So what does Joseph mean by authenticity? Essentially it is that what customers get is what they’ve been promised, however, importantly it is necessary for the organisation to be fully aligned with the delivery of the experience in order for the maximum effect to be garnered. Joseph cites the example of Disney Land as a great example of the delivery of authenticity, because the experience delivered is exactly what’s been promised and the employees and organisation are all pointing in the same direction.

What does this mean for online experience? By focusing on the holistic experience of the website and less on individual experiential items an organisation can achieve greater success. For many websites, it’s recognising that online is a step on the customer journey and not the end destination, if a website can help a customer on their journey and encourage more of them to stay than go with a competitor then it can say that it has helped the experience achieve authenticity.

The thoughts expressed here are my own and do not have anything to do with Joseph Pine who I am sure will have his own take on what’s been written. If you’d like to find out more about TED please visit www.ted.com

Sometimes less can make a big big difference in sales

Christopher Johns — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:38:00 GMT

Back in 2000, a couple of researchers tested the theory that if we're provided with too many choices then we end up making none at all. They set up a booth at a posh supermarket in America and posing as employees of the shop, displayed an alternating number of products to the shoppers. Half the time they displayed 6 jars of jam, the other half they displayed 24 jars.

As you might expect, with 24 jars laid out, far more people stopped to take an interest, with 60% of shoppers stopping to take a look against only 40% for the 6 jars.

What is interesting is that of the shoppers that stopped to look at the 24 jars, only 3% made a purchase compared to 30% who made a purchase when there were 6 jars on the table. In cold hard cash the difference amounted to 12 total purchases for the 6 jars half, versus only 2 total purchases for the 24 jar half. This means that the total sales for the 6 jar half were 600% greater.

Whilst there are no benchmarks that I am aware of for the optimum number of products or calls to action that should be shown on a web page it is a cornerstone of maximising the conversion funnel not to over complicate the sales process, part of this is necessarily to not have too many products on the page. On the other hand, having too few can also act as a deterrent as it doesn't allow the customer to make a conscious choice in their selection. Only by monitoring user behaviour, page layout and the conversion funnel carefully and manipulating the process can you maximise sales.

How to Build Customer Commitment

Christopher Johns — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:25:00 GMT

I keep reading about the emergence of the value consumer, who, once driven by quality and exclusivity is now busily coupon cutting for cheap or largely incentivized offers. Luke Johnson in the FT recently said that businesses must adapt and embrace this new order or asphyxiate.

Like most things there are two sides to this. Whilst discounting undoubtedly holds the strongest voice in today’s economic opera there is a concern over the level of customer commitment generated. Whilst the aria at the moment is purely about ‘bums on seats’ it is worthwhile considering the longer-term objective of loyalty and customer commitment.

I recently read ‘Neuro Web Design’ which refers to research by Caldini in 2007 showing that if a public commitment is not ‘owned’ by a person, and is mainly made to gain a large reward, the individual is not deeply committed and will not show deep commitment in future behaviour. However, if the action is made voluntarily because of ‘inner beliefs’ then the person will feel much more committed to the action. Crucially, to get commitment we need to engender ‘inner responsibility’.

To build ‘inner responsibility’ Caldini goes onto to say that it’s worthwhile giving a mild admonition or small threat of punishment as this can encourage us to behave in certain ways. Afterwards we’re more likely to display a tendency to want to be consistent and take responsibility for our behaviour. The pressure for consistency causes the commitment to deepen.

Let’s be clear – I don’t think that Caldini is advocating that you treat your customers as Basil Fawlty would, but sometimes making the customer conversion process more like joining an exclusive club may actually improve loyalty by making the customer emotionally engaged with the decision.

Many people have experienced this process over the last few years as they ditch their PC’s and embrace Apple Macs’ – it’s not easy making the change, and you avoid making the decision for quite a while until you are convinced that it’s really something you want to do. Once you make the choice, you expect pain on the way, but ultimately you believe the choice will be worthwhile and it’ll be for life….

Learn, Change and Enthuse - Learning From Adversity

Christopher Johns — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:36:00 GMT

If you've had the opportunity to visit our office you'll have been struck by the black and white photos adorning the walls. Louis Armstrong, The London Playboy Club, Black Power, Swinging London and the Beatles. They're left over from a 'dot-com' idea we had back in 2000 when we hoped to sell framed photographs via the web. The photos' came via an ex Spitfire Pilot called Terry Spencer who amongst other things is in the Guinness book of records for the lowest ever parachute jump. After the war he bought a plane and flew with his new wife, without a map, down to South Africa. There he started working for Life magazine, returning to the UK in the 60's to photograph the defining moments of the decade.

Terry was thrilled by the idea of selling his photos online and we spent many hours in his study carefully reviewing negatives and selecting the best ones for hand printing and drum scanning. Despite our best efforts we didn't manage to sell sufficient prints to make the site a success and so shut it down and decorated our office with the remaining pictures.

Every one who visits the office comments on the pictures, how great they are and their depth of character. Whilst I'm sorry that we couldn't get that business model to work I'm glad we tried because we learnt from the experience and have applied the lessons to make others a success. And heartfelt thanks to Terry who was prepared to have a go.

Terry Spencer died on February 8, 2009. His wife pre-deceased him by 24 hours. You can read his obituary at the Times Online at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article5688664.ece

Cutting out website static

Christopher Johns — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:44:00 GMT

The author, blogger and software developer Joel Spolsky recently likened software development to fine tuning a transistor radio. You spin the dial to roughly the right point, make a series of minor adjustments before the clear signal rings through and you can enjoy your favourite radio station.

It’s also a nice simile for managing online customer experience. Successful web properties have already arrived at a place where customers want to visit them but it takes a lot of fine tuning to reduce the static which might drive them away. Small adjustments to areas like sign posting, footpaths, email templates and other primary customer touch points add up to a big improvement in customer satisfaction.

Maintaining a static free signal is not easy, it requires constant attention, moulding the brand experience to customer preferences, tested in real time. It’s important not least because the competitor ‘pirate ships’ are circling, hoping to woo dissatisfied customers away.

You can read Joe's original blog post here: http://alturl.com/7k3

Don’t seat your customers by the loo!

Christopher Johns — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:08:00 GMT

Being a customer service obsessed type of blogger, I couldn’t help notice on www.squaremeal.co.uk (we're the web agency behind the site!) that the newly voted restaurant of the year Scott’s, was described by the editors as a ‘customer-driven restaurant par excellence.’

This got me thinking. There are a lot of parallels between websites and restaurants. A lot of websites are designed brilliantly, look fantastic, but once you’re in them, the menu, the service and the costs can all be disappointing and you may end up swearing never to visit again.

Whereas the best restaurants and websites are always designed around the customer, with a well thought out ‘customer engagement strategy’. For restaurants this means great food, service, ambience and price. For websites it means roughly the same, a great product or service, lots of interactive functionality, ease of navigation and good value. To achieve this you have to understand the psychology of the customer and provide the experience they would ideally like to have. On websites, certain key elements like event calendars need to be developed to build the relationship. Website owners often feel they don’t have time to build these types of functions around the customer but without them, customers are going to be sitting at the equivalent of the dodgy table by the loo door.

The CEO of Scott’s, Des McDonald, on receiving the award was quoted as saying that everything hinges on “attention to detail on a daily basis” – easy to say but not easy to deliver, which is why he’s holding the gong I guess.

Discount vouchers can be dangerous to your brand health

Christopher Johns — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:14:00 GMT

One side effect of Le Crunch (resorting to French for a fresh descriptor) is a boon in the discount voucher market online which has helped keep restaurants like Pizza Express full in the dog days of January with two for one and three courses for £10 offers.

Playing the discount voucher game is therefore an attractive option for restaurateurs with a cold wind on their back but there is a danger that in the frenzy to keep tables full, established, loyal customers may be ignored. If no distinction is made between them and the fly-by-night, voucher clutching one timers, what are you saying to your regular customers about how you value them?

Thankfully, it’s not an either or situation, restaurateurs can combine discount vouchers with rewards for loyalty. This could be as simple as mailing your existing customer base and offering a reward for passing on the discount vouchers to friends. Email and social media make this a wildfire solution for spreading the word if the offer is attractive enough. However it is executed, rewarding customer loyalty, rather than purely commoditising the offer will put restaurants and other retailers using vouchers in a stronger position come the financial thaw.

UGC – Take control or unleash the beastly

Christopher Johns — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:16:00 GMT

I’m tempted to start another dog metaphor here but will resist. By unleashing the beastly I mean that if your site doesn’t have a facility for customer feedback, the motivated customer will go somewhere else to post unfavourable comments and then you lose the opportunity to easily respond. And like magnets, complaints attract ‘me too’ complaints and all of a sudden there’s a rash of negative comment spreading across the internet which you need teams of people to locate.

Hopefully some of the UGC will be positive but customers need encouragement to share positive comments. With any product or service we should be asking the question ‘how was it for you?’ and include the option to rate your service. No lengthy surveys, just a simple rating and optional comment box.

If you bear in mind that someone who has made a repeat purchase is much more likely to buy again and again, their comments will help you understand better those people who could become brand ambassadors – important because personal referral is the number one influencer for purchases online.

Snowy Data Silos

Christopher Johns — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:20:00 GMT

Some of the larger mounds of snow were causing my dog some trouble this morning and it occurred to me that the way the short legged fellow would disappear from sight periodically behind one of them was a useful metaphor for customer service online. I’ll use that I thought.

For mounds of snow, read data silos where customer history literally disappears from sight when the customer changes channels from say a company’s telephone line to their website. What you really want is for the guys on the phone to see what you’ve done online and vice versa. Nothing can be more frustrating than having to personally act as go between for departments in the same company.

The go between should really be that technology known as API – application programming interface which rather like the amoeba in o level biology, allows one application to speak to another via a sort of fibrous membrane that holds things together.

For large companies with many databases, integration of this type takes a lot of money and planning but its also achievable for smaller entities using a customer audit trail approach which means your phone call conversation is confirmed by email and also recorded on the website for future reference.

Going back to the doggy metaphor, gaining a centralised view of your customer across all channels isn’t a walk in the park, but your customers will thank you for removing obstacles between them.