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It\u2019s a phrase you hear within the retail industry constantly, but it\u2019s never been more true \u2013 the customer doesn\u2019t think in channels.<\/p>\n
They don\u2019t care whether their problem started on a website, moved to a chatbot, ended up in a contact centre, or needs a store colleague to fix it. They care whether the retailer knows who they are, what\u2019s happened, and what needs to happen next.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where many retail customer experience strategies still fall down.<\/p>\n
Retailers have spent years being told that voice was on the way out, WhatsApp would replace the call centre, AI would answer the easy questions, and every interaction would eventually become part of one perfectly joined-up system. The reality is, surprise surprise, messier.<\/p>\n
Some customers want to self-serve whilst some want reassurance from a person. Some are happy to wait, as long as they know what\u2019s going on. Others will abandon a retailer the moment they\u2019re asked to explain the same issue for the third time.<\/p>\n
For Gamma strategic partner director Cassian Bramham-Law, the starting point is simple. Retailers need to make customers feel understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing is that customers feel understood,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing worse than having to repeat yourself or feeling like someone doesn\u2019t understand what you\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not the preserve of voice. You can feel understood in web chat or with an AI bot. It doesn\u2019t matter. But when you\u2019re looking to do business with someone, you need to feel like your needs are understood.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the gap retailers are trying to close. Not just faster service, or more channels, or another layer of automation, but a service model that remembers the customer\u2019s context.<\/p>\n
A shopper might research a TV online, ask a chatbot a question, check stock, visit a store, call customer service, get delivery updates by text, then return or exchange the product through another route.<\/p>\n
To the retailer, those may be different systems. To the customer, it\u2019s one purchase. And frustration on the customer\u2019s part starts when the retailer can\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n
Bramham-Law says many retailers already have the technology to join parts of that experience, especially across voice, email and chat in the contact centre. The bigger issue is whether they\u2019re using the data properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re approaching an automation strategy and don\u2019t know where to start, the simple question is: why do your customers contact you?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo away and look at why customers are getting in touch. You\u2019ll probably find some of it is something really easy. Brilliant, you can automate that. Then you can take the more complex reasons for contact and map them across the entire journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Start with the problem, not the platform<\/strong><\/p>\n Customer experience conversations often start with technology: AI, chatbots, omnichannel, personalisation, automation and contact centre platforms.<\/p>\n Gamma customer advocate Harriet Carr says retailers are usually trying to solve something more basic.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about how we make the customer experience easier, how we take pressure off the contact centre, and how we improve the agent experience so they\u2019re freed up to deliver a better customer experience,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n That connection between customer and agent experience is hugely important. When a delivery fails, a promotion goes wrong, stock information is incorrect or a returns process breaks, the contact centre often becomes the place where every upstream problem lands.<\/p>\n Carr describes contact centres as \u201ccomplaint centres\u201d because they usually only get involved once something has already gone wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the tools are right and it\u2019s a happy path, there\u2019s nothing going into the contact centre because the customer is in control of that delivery,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cIf something goes wrong, but the investment up front has been put in the right place, the customer can see it\u2019s been delayed by 24 hours. That\u2019s fine, they\u2019ll wait. As long as the information through that journey is accurate, customers are generally happy.\u201d<\/p>\n What Carr is saying is that customers don\u2019t always need speed. Often, they need certainty. A late parcel is annoying. A late parcel with no update, no clear next step and no easy way to speak to someone is worse.<\/p>\n Carr says retailers need to think about the value and emotional weight of each purchase. A shopper buying a cheap everyday item probably wants the quickest possible route. Someone buying a \u00a3400 pair of limited-edition trainers may want tracking, reassurance and the option to speak to a person if something looks wrong.<\/p>\n The same tool can\u2019t carry the same emotional load in every transaction.<\/p>\n AI works best when it\u2019s given a narrow job<\/strong><\/p>\n Retailers are under pressure to show they\u2019re doing something with AI. The risk is that they start with the technology and then go looking for a use case.<\/p>\n Bramham-Law says most retail conversations around AI still focus on lower-value, repeatable tasks: changing appointments, booking slots, handling returns or answering \u201cwhere\u2019s my order?\u201d queries.<\/p>\n Those jobs are valuable because they remove avoidable contact without asking AI to handle sensitive, emotional or high-risk conversations.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are concerns around how data is handled, what happens with it and where it\u2019s kept,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other concern is that you\u2019re entrusting a process to a non-human. How do you make sure the guardrails are in place so the conversation stays within the boundaries it should?\u201d<\/p>\n That is why Carr advises retailers to keep the scope tight.<\/p>\n \u201cJust pick one thing,\u201d she says. \u201cDon\u2019t try to boil the ocean with it.\u201d<\/p>\n The strongest business cases often come from specific operational problems.<\/p>\n Bramham-Law gives the example of a client with about 900 UK branches where calls were being missed because shop floor teams couldn\u2019t always get to the phone.<\/p>\n Around 60 per cent of those calls were for appointment bookings. When they were missed, they diverted into the contact centre, creating about 6 million extra calls a year.<\/p>\n The fix wasn\u2019t a sweeping reinvention of customer service. When a branch couldn\u2019t answer, the customer received a text with a WhatsApp link, allowing them to self-serve, book or amend an appointment.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where AI and automation tend to work best: when the retailer can name the problem, measure the cost and give the customer a faster route to the answer.<\/p>\n The phone call is becoming more important, not less<\/strong><\/p>\n Retailers have heard for years that younger shoppers don\u2019t want to speak to anyone. Carr says that\u2019s true for some customers, but it\u2019s not universal.<\/p>\n There are shoppers who will always choose self-service first. There are others who still want a person to talk them through a problem, particularly if the purchase is expensive, urgent or emotionally important.<\/p>\n \u201cThe digital tool and the agent tools are the same,\u201d Carr says. \u201cThe information the customer receives is pulled from the same source of truth. Whether you hear it from the bot within 30 seconds or you wait 30 minutes on hold, you\u2019re going to get the same piece of information. Why do we not trust it? That\u2019s the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n Bramham-Law expects voice volumes to fall as more routine queries move to AI and digital channels. But he doesn\u2019t believe voice will become less important.<\/p>\n Instead, it will be reserved for the moments that matter most.<\/p>\n \u201cVoice will become the preserve of the higher-value, higher-importance conversation,\u201d he says. \u201cIt will almost be the protected, white-glove channel rather than the go-to day-to-day channel.\u201d<\/p>\n That changes the role of the contact centre agent.<\/p>\n If bots and self-service tools handle the easy questions, the calls that reach an advisor are likely to be harder, more emotional or more urgent. The customer may already be frustrated. The agent may be expected to solve something that several other systems couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Carr says that puts serious pressure on teams that are too often treated as an afterthought.<\/p>\n \u201cOnly the really hard stuff should get through to the advisors,\u201d she says. \u201cBut does that mean the advisor has the right tools? If we weren\u2019t able to intercept that contact, why would the advisor know how to solve it either?\u201d<\/p>\n She says contact centres can be underfunded because they don\u2019t look as \u201cglamorous\u201d as front-end AI tools.<\/p>\n Yet they are often the place where a damaged customer relationship is either repaired or lost completely.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they don\u2019t deliver a good service, it\u2019s the whole brand reputation,\u201d she says. \u201cThe pressure for them to understand complex business processes, on a call, with someone shouting at them, is not a job I would envy.\u201d<\/p>\n Personalisation has to be useful, not showy<\/strong><\/p>\n Retailers once treated personalisation as a premium service. Today, shoppers expect brands to remember enough about them to avoid wasting their time.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean every interaction needs to feel heavily tailored. Sometimes the best experience is almost invisible: find the product, pay, leave.<\/p>\n Other purchases need more support. A customer buying a sofa, watch, laptop or high-value electrical item may want advice, reassurance and continuity between online research and in-store service.<\/p>\n Bramham-Law says the next step for retailers is linking digital behaviour with the store experience in a way that feels helpful rather than intrusive.<\/p>\n \u201cThat will be one of the next steps in retail,\u201d he says. \u201cJoining up what customers have been doing digitally and then bringing that into store and making it real for them.\u201d<\/p>\n The test is whether the data improves the experience.<\/p>\n Does it stop the customer repeating themselves? Does it help a store colleague give better advice? Does it make a return easier? Does it help the retailer spot when a delivery update, price change or stock issue is about to become a service problem?<\/p>\n If not, it\u2019s just more data.<\/p>\n Bramham-Law says the best customer experience is often the one shoppers barely notice. \u201cIt just happens,\u201d he says. \u201cYou don\u2019t think about what you\u2019re doing. It\u2019s just made to work. It should either be so easy you don\u2019t need to think about it, or it should be an experience you enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n What retailers should ask before they invest<\/strong><\/p>\n The hardest part of customer experience isn\u2019t choosing a platform. It\u2019s working out where the business is letting customers down.<\/p>\n Carr says many retailers are trying to answer the same questions: why are people calling, what\u2019s going wrong before they call, and what are they saying about us?<\/p>\n The supplier may vary depending on whether the retailer works with Microsoft, Google, Amazon or another enterprise platform. The underlying questions are often the same. Bramham-Law says retailers need to resist jumping straight to where they think they should be in a year\u2019s time.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s really important is meeting customers where they are now,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat level of service do they think they\u2019re offering? What works well, what doesn\u2019t, and what would they like to improve?\u201d<\/p>\n For one retailer, that may mean investing in AI. For another, it may mean better delivery updates, cleaner customer data, improved call routing, or giving agents a clearer view of previous interactions.<\/p>\n The point is not to remove people from the process, but to use people where they add the most value.<\/p>\n Retailers don\u2019t need every customer to love every channel but they need customers to trust that whichever channel they choose, the retailer will understand the issue and give them a clear answer.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what good customer experience now comes down to. Not dazzling shoppers with technology, but making sure they don\u2019t have to fight the retailer to be heard.<\/p>\n