J. on Architecture

In the physical world the process of a customer transaction can be flexible because there is direct interaction between customer and an employee of your company. In the information exchange between the two people one can ask for additional information or ask for clarification. Because of the interaction the process can take up any amount of time, until both parties have asked for and acquired the information they need from the other to complete the transaction.

In the digital world (i.e. on a website) this process is atomic and rigid, because there is no interaction. The customer has to provide all the information in the predefined format of the customer (web) application and has to do so in one go. Of course the information exchange can be broken down into logical steps, but the transaction as a whole has to be done in one take. If the customer doesn’t provide all the information; no transaction. If the customer has questions; no transaction.

So how can you unify these two dynamics in a multi channel environment? This is a question that is especially relevant for government organizations that are bound by law to provide their services over multiple channels. The answer is services.

If you brake the process down into logical steps and form separate services for each of these steps, you can use these in the predefined way that the customer application is designed, or you can let the employee use them at their own discretion in a flexible employee application. That is the essence of service oriented architecture.

…and does the customer want to be known? These are two very important questions you have got to ask yourself, when considering CRM. First make sure that you are really going to use the information that you request from you customers, because obtaining and maintaining the data is non-trivial.

Is their name really important? If you want to address them in your marketing campaign it is, but for cross-selling it is not. Address information is relevant for delivery, but usually not for personalization. Information is only relevant in certain aspects of CRM, but certainly not all of them. So you have to decide on how you want to interact with your customer and get the necessary information accordingly.

This brings us to obtaining the data. People are generally reluctant to provide personal information, so don’t bother them unless you have to. One way you can do this is by analyzing behavior on your website. This can be done automatically and provides a wealth of information. Another way is to offer after-sales services, in return for some contact details. That way they get real value for their information currency. Never ask for personal information up front, or for no reason. People value their privacy.

So only take what you need from you custeromer and use really it. That will keep your customers happy and your systems light.

Web 2.0 has given the individual user a voice. Now the question arises what the value of that particular voice is. One problem is identity, which I’ve written about last year and is now becoming a problem even for blogs like Information Architects Japan.

The other problem is authority. Everybody can give their two cents, but is that what your community is really waiting for? Newsweek is quick to introduce Web 3.0 as a solution to filter expert opinions, but what we really need is a central directory of verified accounts to which we can attribute the proper authority. What ‘central’ and ‘verified’ means in this context depends on the application. But whether it’s the name on a credit card or a government initiative like the Dutch DigiD, chances are that it’s an external service that you will have to incorporate in your own domain.

So if you really want to harness the power of your community, make sure you can attribute it’s input to the proper identity.