Recently I was trying to book a rather complex international flight on American Airlines' website. Normally, booking my flights online takes just a couple minutes; however, for this flight, I spent several minutes going back and forth between several pages, selecting and de-selecting options. After doing this a couple times, a pop-up box appeared, asking me if I needed help. Simply click on the box, it said, and an American Airlines customer service rep will call you to help you. I thought this was pretty neat, and since I was having some challenges, I clicked. A message box asked me to confirm the number to call or change to a different one. Impressively, the number in the message box was for the location I was in (which wasn't my preferred or home number - I can't even begin to imagine how they got the phone number!).
Within a few seconds, my phone rang. It was the American Airlines customer service rep, calling to ask me how she could help me book my flight. She had all of my recent online activity in front of her, which meant I didn't have to spend a lot of time explaining to her what I had been trying to do. With just a few questions, she booked my flights for me. An email showed up immediately confirming my flight. What could have been a difficult or stressful experience ended up being extremely positive - and took a lot less time, ensuring the sale for American Airlines.
The idea of helping customers move through the life cycle more quickly is extremely timely given the current economy. Organizations are identifying where the customer experience breaks down and putting tactics in place to minimize this. They are actively reaching out to their customers to help them purchase sooner and more easily.
One organization that I worked with is using online customer behavior to not only customize the content of the web page, but also to place targeted ads in front of the customer, real time. These ads have a higher click rate because they are relevant to the customer. Another client is exploring how they can use purchase and payment behavior to identify those customers that have the potential to miss paying their bills and go into collections - and putting in place strategies to prevent that before it even happens. Imagine the cost savings and increased customer profitability!
Think about it. How can you use your customer insights and behavior to make it easier for them to purchase from you?
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