IKEA | Need a Hex Wrench to fasten Web, Mobile & Store Customer Experience?

As a recent home-buyer, I have spent quite a few hours and dollars at my favorite online and bricks-and-mortar stores... And, as someone who makes his living by improving customer service, I couldn't help but notice the kind and maturity of customer experiences these stores and brands were delivering. In this post, I'd like to share with you some observations from my shopping experience at IKEA.

I have been a loyal customer of IKEA for years. I'm probably one of their typical customers too -- young family that prefers contemporary design at a low cost. Recently, I was interested in ordering a specific floor lamp I had seen on their web site, but unfortunately, my local store did not have the product in stock. I was baffled when I found out that the product was not available for an online purchase. My options were to drive several hundred miles to a store in the nearest state and buy the product there, or wait for several months to buy it at the local store. The very idea of not being able to order something online seemed strange and dated.

Alright... I will admit that I have been totally spoiled by brilliant omnichannel experiences that have surfaced across the retail industry in the last couple of years -- be it the Target mobile app's product locator that keeps my brain from getting fried while wanting to find a spice or baking supply in the store, or the Toys R Us buy-online-pick-up-in-store option which allowed me to cram a 2 hour road trip to visit my nephew, and a last-minute surprise gift which I was able to pick up on my way, while dealing with traffic in LA on a weekday evening.

Nevertheless, these are simple yet profound ways in which these retailers let their customers know that they are interacting with the same retailer regardless of whether they use a mobile app, a web site or walk into a store. This consistency and cohesion mean a lot to the digital consumer today. The differentiated experience also leads to increased revenue and loyalty.

As retailers across the board blur the line between bricks-and-mortar and online channels, the drive to offer a consistent and connected customer experience across channels becomes more of a norm. Interestingly, this perspective is gaining adoption across other industries such as travel, financial services and telecommunications as well. Rather than simply improving the quality of interactions either in the contact center, or in the retail store, or on the web or mobile, businesses are increasingly concerned about the customer experience across these channels. Earlier this year, an HBR article pointed out that the customer journey matters more than the individual interactions, and that firms that strive to provide a consistent and connected experience across interactions will stand to benefit from higher revenues and customer loyalty -- the whole matters more than the sum of the parts.

As consumers, we're getting used to the idea of buying online and picking up items in the store, walking into a store, finding out that a product is not in stock and then ordering using a kiosk to ship the product home, using augmented reality in mobile apps (this one from IKEA, actually) to virtually experience products before purchasing them and more. As this trend continues to emerge and evolve, it's quite likely that the average consumer is going to expect the omnichannel experience as a given.

Question I'd like to raise is whether the price-sensitive customer who is looking for that well-designed furniture might also assume that she should be able to experience "one IKEA and a connected shopping experience", regardless of whether she chooses to go online or walk into a store.