These are some of the more irritating words in the consumer world today yielding one of the most frustrating telephone experiences being put on hold and transferred from one advisor to another. A more pleasant experience is one where the first person you speak to answers your question and/or takes your order, reminds you that your discount buying contract ends this quarter, sees that you placed a similar order over the past two months and would like to offer you a discount, informs you of an online forum of experts using similar products as you, in case you're interested, and wonders how the weather is in your part of the world today?

While this last scenario embodies a much better customer engagement for sure, there's roughly only a 10% chance that will be a caller's experience if we consider that only one in ten companies can handle more than two inbound contact channels today, and those channels are not always integrated.That's surprising because although multichannel capabilities have been around for a number of years, most companies' contact centres, websites and their physical presence remain siloed.Part of the reason could be that these channels have been traditionally built based on revenue generation or economies of scale rather than with the customer foremost in mind.That needs to change, and the current economic conditions might just be the right time to address the problem.

There is a strong financial imperative for enterprises to get the multichannel strategy right in the current economic climate. For cash-strapped customers, shopping around for the best deal is even more prevalent in a downturn. This increases the threat of losing existing customers, but also the opportunity to acquire new ones. Whilst the relative cost of acquiring a new customer versus retaining an existing one is well know, and a good reason for continued focus on satisfying existing customers in a downturn, less well known is that multichannel customers spend 20-30% more, on average, than single-channel ones do, according to a McKinsey survey.

So customer experience is the new black, as one telecoms strategy director recently put it.In this evolving globalised, converged, digitised, mobile, 24/7 world we now live in, the customer is in control. That means organisations must begin to understand the psychology of why customers use different channels at different times in a sales cycle and the fact that they might want to swap one for another without notice or permission. Only then will companies be able to establish a multichannel strategy that best suits their customers and also enables the company's goals to be achieved.

Marketers must start to overcome their organisations' inertia with breaking down their traditional ways of engaging customers. Which channels customers favour, the type of product or service they are looking for and how networked they are with their various communities are just a few of the considerations to be closely examined. Current industry research, academia papers and focus groups all confirm that this is the age of the 'research shopper' and she is channel agnostic. The choice is often based on the perceived value for her time, money and energy. Researching products can be both quick and convenient on the internet and, unless she likes to touch or smell the product, can lead to a buying decision. That in turn can lead easily to an online sale if instantaneous gratification isn't required. Otherwise pinpointing a store that has her product and picking it up directly may be her preference since many customers don't like the endless wait for their item to arrive killing the excitement of the purchase. However, if there's a post sale problem with her purchase, she'll prefer to speak with a human. Channel choices are also based on whether the sale is a product or service, the frequency of the purchase, its complexity and tangibility.

Digging deeper into buying behavior unearths other underlying psychological factors. Control is a key one. Consumers like to be free to make their own decisions and the online experience affords them this feeling of being in charge. Some even perceive a sense of enjoyment to the point where effort and risk are diminished. While we like to have options, too many choices are not always a blessing. Hundreds of pages of search listings can overwhelm to the point where consumers need help with separating the relevant information from the general noise. Security and uncertainty can still be a hindrance to shoppers completing a sale online although virtual advisors, call me buttons and message boards can alleviate this reaction. Also buying from recognized brands reduces their sense of risk. On the practical side a company has to consider their customers' access to technology and just how much time and energy they're willing to devote to finding the best deals online.

Taking all these factors into consideration can result in creating a complete and successful experience for one's customers. However, those companies who do invest in multichannel marketing generally only do so because they feel they will get significant volumes and other benefits without actually raising their customers' awareness of how effectively the whole buying experience is integrated. Too frequently, these multiple channels are limited to just telephony and email. But there are examples, Ikea being one, of effective multichannel strategies where consumers can research and buy online and pick up at the store closest to them. The future contact centre needs to encompass all voice, data and entertainment-based applications. These can include email, online chat or IM, Call Me Button and co-browsing, Voice over IP (VoIP), Video, Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging (MMS). This is why contact centres need a technical architecture that is modular and more commonly built around the single, unifying standard that is Internet Protocol (IP).

Managing the human factor is critical to this mix and cannot be overlooked either. Workforce management proposes two alternative methods: Call Blending where the same advisor receives a mixture of phone calls, emails and text-chat requests or Task Switching where an advisor remains dedicated to a particular mode of communication for a given period of time. These job types demand specific new skills. Web chats and email require good writing abilities and phone and VoIP assigned employees must exhibit excellent verbal skills.

Convergence of networked devices with the enlarging internet will start to blur shoppers' physical and virtual worlds. Companies will need to learn how to help customers based on location data as well as their information presently stored in CRM systems. It was striking that research conducted by BT confirmed the great extent to which customers rely on their family, friends and like minded others for expertise rather than using traditional channels into companies. What consumers are ultimately looking for is 'networked experts' who can guide them through choice fatigue and other complexities of today's world. What businesses must realise is that this sought after knowledge does not sit in their contact centres. It may exist elsewhere in their organization or even more likely outside it. This expertise can basically come from anyone who has an opinion that others value.

Online forums are examples of where this expertise might reside. BT is currently trialing one named Hubbub where user problems are matched with experts. While BT hosts and moderates the site, it does not control it. Hubbub employs social networking technologies for the benefit of both the company and its customers.

In today's world, customers are in control and they don't differentiate between their virtual and physical environments. They don't want companies to either. There are precise times and stages of the sales cycle where they want to engage with a business at their location or online or via a third party forum. Companies with a successful multichannel approach are likely to survive the downturn and keep their satisfied customers. Never again will their customers have to listen to...

'I'm sorry, sir, I can't adjust that order for you since you picked it up at the store. You'll have to make those changes on our website. Is there anything else I can help you with today?'