I spent a lot of time this summer going on walks in the countryside. The experience is so calming and great for dealing with stress. I noticed that on many of the walks adjustments had been made so you could walk or cycle. You could access some areas by wheelchair and there were car parks at the ends of these walks for drivers. Clearly someone had given thought to the many transport needs of those enjoying these beautiful natural open spaces. This got me thinking about who we could be excluding by digitalising the customer journey.
As the digital march sees many customer processes converted to online, we must ensure that we are accessible to all of our customers. Do all of your customers have access to the internet and do they have the right skills to embark on your online digital journey? In the UK, 17% of 55-64 year olds do not own a smart phone and where they do some cannot afford data costs. Approximately 6% of UK households do not have access to the internet. You may say this is not my customer base and therefore it is not of my concern but are you sure? Many of those excluded from online solutions are often from low-income households. Lower income households have a higher propensity to spend money (although they have less of it) , so depending on your market / service by ignoring this group you could be missing out.
Clearly if your organisation does serve this group of people, you will need to maintain non-digital channels and ensure that the customer experience is just as good. This is where your highly trained staff can help as well as great call centre technology. Some companies seem to have forgotten how to deal with written customer requests but a larger percentage of those who are older prefer communicating in this way. Is your customer journey up to muster? Could a customer raise a written order, query or complaint? Are your staff trained to deal with these? What are your service standards for dealing with 'snail mail'? Are your customer satisfaction scores or NPS the same or similar across all channels?
Not sure? Well do investigate and let us know what you find. As always reach out if you need any help.
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