Multichannel Customer Management

Abstract

Nowhere is the potential — and challenge — for database marketing more acute than in the “brave new world” of multichannel customer management. Whereas many companies historically interacted with their customers through one channel — the bricks-and-mortar retail store, the bank branch, the company catalog, the financial advisor — today almost all companies are multichannel. This gives rise to several key questions and management issues; for example, “Is the multichannel customer a better customer?” “If so, why?” “Should we encourage our customers to be multichannel?” We have just begun to understand questions such as these, and this chapter reviews what we know and do not know. We discuss the multichannel customer in depth, including the association between multichannel usage and sales volume. We also discuss the factors that influence customers' channel choices, the phenomenon of research shopping and the impact of channel introductions on firm revenues. We present a framework for developing multichannel customer strategies, and conclude with industry examples of multichannel customer management.