Cliff Conneighton, SVP of Marketing, ATG You Asked What obstacles prevent companies from delivering a satisfying customer experience and how can they be overcome?

Being able to track a customer across multiple channels is a big challenge, and much of that is a data/knowledge issue. It resides in many different systems, in many different departments. A customer can be proactive, look at a company's Web site for an answer, not find it, and then have to call up a call center.

Being able to track those interactions to provide a personal customer experience in the future is important. Consumers want to be treated like individuals. Businesses must integrate the customer information across channels to start delivering relevant and valuable experience at every customer touch point.

People want to do business with companies that understand their history, needs, and preferences, and that deliver relevant information and offers. They want their interactions with a company to be consistent, regardless of whether they're looking at a Web site, making a phone call, or visiting a physical location. To meet customers' expectations, companies have to effectively use all of their customer information, wherever it resides, in developing engaging customer experiences that earn their loyalty.

In order for this to happen, companies must look for technical solutions that enable them to use all the information they have about their customers, no matter where that information resides, to finely target their messages, promotions, and service engagements to specific market segments and individuals.

Companies need to provide a multi-channel, multi-touch, guided experience throughout the entire web and email marketing, sales, and service lifecycle. This kind of customer experience builds stronger relationships between companies and their customers. It lets companies personalize their interactions with customers in ways that guide them to desired outcomes, such as completing an online transaction, making an incremental purchase, or accessing mission-critical information.

ATG