LIVE Report @ Forrester Consumer Forum 2008
Speaker: Adele Sage, Analyst, Forrester Research

So what do you think the answer would be if you asked 100 US shoppers the following question…

Thinking about the most recent time that you researched in one channel and then bought in another channel, how satisfied were you with the overall experience?

Here is the shocker.  Only 61% of US users were satisfied with their recent research on the web – BUT -in-store purchase experience.  What about the other 39% of users that were dissatisfied with their cross channel experience? To make matters worse, only 56% were satisfied with their store to web purchase as well. (Source: Forrester North American Technographics Q3 2008 survey)

So here are three (3) best practices on multi-channel design for creating a better cross-channel experience:

1.     Choice

• Can the user complete their goal in all required channels?
• Can the user control how they interact with the company?
• Example: Best Buy – Includes a ‘call me’ feature on their item detail pages that allows the user to choose both the manner of communication (phone in this case) and the timeframe (as the user can schedule when the Best Buy agent will call them back)

2.     Consistency

• Is the information consistency across all channels?
• Is language consistent across all channels?
• Example: Kohl’s – For some items, the actual photograph of the product is the exact same both online as well as in-store (eg the item’s actual package)

3.     Continuity

• Is the user presented with a clear transition path?
• Is the user’s context preserved across channels?
• Example: Circuit City – The customer call center1-800 phone number is included in practically every touch point of a web purchase experience starting with being permanently displayed in the header, to the help page, to the order confirmation page to the email order placed confirmation that is sent to the user

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