Get a Handle on Channel Preference

Here’s the final tip from our analytical workbook!

Use analysis to develop an understanding of how your customers/prospects prefer to deal with you. Look at how they have interacted with you in the past to understand how they would like to be communicated with in the future. For example, do they send you e-mail to initiate customer service, or is it a phone call? Did they respond to your direct mail offer by clicking through and ordering on your website? Have you ever been able to reach them via outbound telemarketing? A simple channel analysis that addresses these types of questions, on a customer-by-customer basis, will give you a deep understanding of your customers’ preferences.

The benefits of this type of channel preference study are clear. First of all (albeit hard to quantify), you’ll boost customer satisfaction if you use the right channel to speak to them. Second, if you know channel preferences, you can then begin to use the least expensive vehicle for communication. Here’s an example—there are people who refuse to take a phone call but would be pleased to hear from you via e-mail. Well, why waste your time and marketing dollars with an expensive outbound cross-sell telemarketing call? Save the money and send this customer/prospect an e-mail. It’s much less expensive, and for this individual, you’ll have better success in getting their attention, just by communicating via their preferred channel.

If you can articulate the above two benefits, and assign some real cost savings to them, your Senior Management should be receptive to the thought of implementing Channel Preference Analysis.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our thoughts on how to create an analytical approach in your own businesses.  We’d love to hear your success stories on how you’ve accomplished this — so please share!