The Best And Worst Of Cross-Channel Design

We just completed a pretty extensive evaluation of the cross channel experiences of the following 16 large companies:

• Airlines: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, United Air Lines
• Banks: Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia, Wells Fargo
• Department stores: JC Penney, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Sears
• Mp3 manufacturers: Apple, Creative, iRiver, Sony

The research used Forrester’s Cross-Channel Review methodology (which is a form of an expert reveiw) to grade the experiences across 57 criteria. The analysis looked at interactions via the Web, email, IVR, phone agent, as well as cross-channel transitions.

Here are some of the findings from the research:

• None of the 16 companies received a passing score [+57 or higher].
• Airlines received the highest average score [-8] and MP3 manufacturers the lowest [-29].
• Delta received the highest score and iRiver received the lowest score.
• There were 4 criteria that all of the companies failed:
  • “Is text legible?” (Web Site)
  • “Can customers get a confirmation of their phone conversation in another channel?” (Phone Agent)
  • “Can the user complete her goals in all required channels?” (Channel Transition)
  • “Can the user control how he interacts with the company?” (Channel Transition)
• Results differed across the channels we evaluated:
  • Web Site: Delta was best; Sony was worst
  • IVR: American Airlines was best; iRiver, JC Penney, Southwest Airlines were worst
  • Phone agents: American Airlines was best; JC Penney was worst
  • Email: Sears, Creative were best; Southwest Airlines, Apple, iRiver were worst
  • Channel transitions: Macy’s was best; JPMorgan Chase, American Airlines were worst

I need to give a shout out to the Adele Sage, Vidya Drego, and Andrew McInnes who did most of the hard work on the research.

The bottom line: It’s not all bad news; firms that make improvements can really differentiate themselves.