Thoughts from the roundtable

I attended the eConsultancy user and customer experience roundtable last week, where I was able share knowledge and experience about the current state of play online, and listen to stories from others working in the field.

I was heartened to hear from the majority of those attendees working in house, their plans for 2009 are largely intact, as budgets concerning customer experience are still available – this is in line with a recent US based article I read from Forrester. And it is not surprising in the current climate, that for some, measurements are moving more to customer engagement, rather than simply conversion.

Multi-variant testing was discussed, as some attendees currently use the technology; while others appeared sceptical of investment (financial outlay, design, technical) – they are more interested in placing their efforts into refining concepts and copy as a part of an iterative design process, engaging with customers along the way.

Lastly,  the discussion I valued the most was on measuring customer experience using more than just the online channel. For example, looking at channel management from call centre to web, click to call functions, and the total cost of a sale. Here I got the feeling that the industry is moving in the right direction, but there are few organisations out there who have really taken the time to define comprehensive channel management programs. At the moment the majority of approaches are of a more tactical nature, focusing on particular products. Let’s hope that with maturity, will come broader approaches.