Establishing a single view of the customer

To be a truly cross channel retailer we need to establish one simple underlying principle and that is that we truly do have a single view of our customer.

Many organisations venturing into a cross channel retail offer aren’t yet at the point of really understanding their individual customers behaviours and interactions across all channels.

So to reach this understanding we need to understand what it is to be a “fit” cross channel retailer with our interpretation of this being:

Cross channel retailing: The integration and alignment of all interconnected touchpoints where consumer and retail brand meet, to create a trusted, relevant, profitable and lasting relationship.

And it is the word integrated that stands out as essential to understanding this concept of cross channel.

To quote the dictionary on integration:

Integrate: To make into a whole by bringing all parts together; unify.

The distinction between multi channel and cross channel terminology is one that should be clearly made.

A multi channel retailer is one that operates in a variety of channels, eg. website, mobile, social media, catalogue, bricks and mortar. It is entirely possible to have a multi channel operation that simply “bolts on” each new silo of customer data such as store sales, website sales, PDA derived sales and the like such that each valuable customer transaction data is kept within a silo and never really integrates with the other channels.

A cross channel retailer, however, brings together and integrates these various sales and communication tools seamlessly so they have a single view of the customer and their interactions with the brand. The “fit” cross channel retailer links their silos together so they all funnel to a common point.

The first step to becoming this “fit” cross channel retailer is to identify which channels you are and should be operating in and ensuring these channels look and feel connected. The next is to implement a smart business enterprise system that brings together information from each channel. Sounds simple, and while there are some fantastic emerging businesses that specialise in this area, implementing a cross channel strategy unfortunately does not happen over night.

So the truly “fit” cross channel retailer operates in a variety of channels to market so they can be bought from and communicated with 24/7. They integrate these channels with a strong social media platform, providing a rich understanding of the customer, their purchasing data, their experiences, feedback and hopefully loyalty.

Couple this with live integrated inventory information from pricing to fulfillment across all channels and we see live, cross transactional data seamlessly flowing across all the channels. We need to see the way that one customer interacts with our website, what they bought in store, if they are our friend on Facebook, and we need to see this all together to begin to shape and understanding of who that customer is, what they want and need and finally, how we can go about addressing these needs.

This is a single view of the customer.

Interested in your view on this topic and whether Australian retail is really cross channel yet?

Brian Walker is Managing Director of Australasia’s leading retail consultancy, the Retail Doctor Group. For more on Retail Doctor Group’s Fit for Business program email businessfitness@retaildoctor.com.au or phone 02 9460 2882.