Snowy Data Silos (written when we had snow in London!).
Some of the larger mounds of snow were causing my dog some trouble this morning and it occurred to me that the way the short legged fellow would disappear from sight periodically behind one of them was a useful metaphor for customer service online. I’ll use that I thought.
For mounds of snow, read data silos where customer history literally disappears from sight when the customer changes channels from say a company’s telephone line to their website. What you really want is for the guys on the phone to see what you’ve done online and vice versa. Nothing can be more frustrating than having to personally act as go between for departments in the same company.
The go between should really be that technology known as API – application programming interface which rather like the amoeba in o level biology, allows one application to speak to another via a sort of fibrous membrane that holds things together.
For large companies with many databases, integration of this type takes a lot of money and planning but its also achievable for smaller entities using a customer audit trail approach which means your phone call conversation is confirmed by email and also recorded on the website for future reference.
Going back to the doggy metaphor, gaining a centralised view of your customer across all channels isn’t a walk in the park, but your customers will thank you for removing obstacles between them.
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