Month: March 2014

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When Clicks are the Mortar

 

Much has been written about “Clicks and Mortar” or “Bricks and Clicks” Strategy, yet I continue to be amazed by how many companies are not integrating their physical and on-line presence.   These companies are seemingly unaware of how their divergent presence is costing them.  Costing them in terms of near-term sales loss, but more importantly costing them in terms of missed opportunity to build loyalty with their customers.

Rather than think of your online presence as a complementary or differential experience to your physical interactions with your customer – think of both of these pieces as essential components of your complete end-to-end experience.  Fixate on how customers learn, buy and receive your products or services across all elements of your business.  Make the “clicks” the mortar that holds your entire customer experience together.

Tips for making your clicks your customer experience mortar:

  1. Consider how your online and physical experiences can complement each other.  Does your online experience make people want to visit your store? Does your store use online support to expand selection and inventory options?
  2. Make your brand consistent across your online and physical experiences.  This goes beyond the logo and colours that you use. Does your employee training and scripting use the same ‘voice’ as your online presence?  Have you clearly articulated the promise of your brand, and critically assessed how both your physical and online environments showcase and support this promise?
  3. Make navigation between the online and physical experience seamless. Don’t make your customers choose whether they deal with you in one channel or the other. Rather, measure yourself on how many of your customers use both, and on how easy you make it to move between them.

The key is to make sure you are thinking about your customer experience comprehensively.  Customers are demanding, digitally savvy and thinking about all their experiences with you when deciding whether to build their relationship with you further – make sure you’re ready!