Most organizations don't have a customer channel strategy. They have a channel collection. They add a mobile app because competitors have one. They launch a chatbot because it seems modern. They maintain a call center because it's always been there. They open social media channels because customers are there. Each decision makes sense in isolation. Together, they create a fragmented omnichannel experience that frustrates customers and wastes resources.
The problem isn't that organizations have too many channels. The problem is that they don't understand why customers choose them—and they fail to deliver consistency across the channels they maintain. This gap between organizational assumptions and customer reality is destroying loyalty at scale.
When customers decide which channel to use, they're not choosing based on what's easiest for the organization to maintain. They're choosing based on their immediate needs, the context they're in, and their perception of what that channel can do for them. A customer might use your mobile app to check a balance but call your contact center to resolve a problem. They might use email to start a process but complete it in person. They might use social media to complain but expect resolution through a direct channel.
Organizations that treat all channels as equivalent, or worse, that treat channels as interchangeable, miss this reality. And they pay for it in customer frustration and lost loyalty.
A comprehensive systematic review of over 128 peer-reviewed studies on customer channel choice identified five distinct categories of factors that influence how customers decide which channel to use. (1) Understanding these factors is essential for building an effective customer-centric channel strategy.
Customers choose channels based on their perception of speed, reliability, ease of use, security, and personalization. Here's what's critical: customers' perception of these characteristics often differs from organizational reality. A customer might perceive your website as slow even if your infrastructure is fast. They might perceive your chatbot as unhelpful even if it technically answers their question. Perception drives channel choice, not infrastructure.
This means that building a better omnichannel customer experience requires understanding not just what your channels can do, but what customers believe they can do. A channel that's technically superior but perceived as difficult will be avoided. A channel that's simple but perceived as unreliable will be abandoned.
Different tasks require different channels. Information seeking often happens on digital channels where customers can browse at their own pace. Complex problem-solving typically happens through channels that enable two-way conversation. Emotional support needs require human interaction. Organizations that force all tasks through a single channel; or that don't provide the right channel for the right need, create friction and reduce customer satisfaction.
This is where many omnichannel customer experience strategies fail. They focus on consistency without understanding that different customer needs require different channels. A customer seeking information doesn't want to call a contact center. A customer with a complex problem doesn't want to chat with a bot. Meeting customers where they are, with the right channel for their specific need, is fundamental to customer loyalty.
Time pressure changes channel choice. Location changes channel choice. Device availability changes channel choice. A customer with five minutes to resolve an issue will choose differently than a customer with an hour. A customer on the go will choose differently than a customer at home. A customer who just experienced a problem will choose differently than a customer planning ahead.
Yet most omnichannel strategies treat context as irrelevant. They build the same channels with the same features regardless of when, where, or how customers need to use them. This contextual blindness creates unnecessary friction and reduces customer satisfaction across your entire channel ecosystem.
Demographics, prior experience, digital literacy, and channel loyalty all play a role in how customers interact with your omnichannel strategy. A customer who's had a bad experience with your chatbot will avoid it in the future. A customer who's never used your mobile app won't know it exists. A customer with low digital literacy will prefer human channels. A loyal customer might use channels differently than a new customer. These characteristics don't determine choice, but they shape it significantly.
Complex products require different channels than simple ones. High-value transactions often require human verification. Routine transactions can be fully digital. Customized services need channels that enable dialogue. One-size-fits-all omnichannel customer experience strategies ignore this reality and create unnecessary barriers to customer satisfaction.
Understanding why customers choose channels is necessary but not sufficient. Organizations also need to deliver consistency across those channels. This is where most omnichannel strategies fail.
Research on service integration in omnichannel environments found something striking: service consistency, the coherence of information, services, and experiences across channels, has a direct and significant impact on customer experience and loyalty. (2) When customers move between channels, they expect the same level of service, the same information, and the same experience.
But most organizations fail at this basic requirement. A customer who starts a process on your website finds they need to restart it on your app. A customer who provides information to one channel has to provide it again to another. A customer who receives one answer from your contact center receives a different answer from your social media team. These inconsistencies don't just create friction, they destroy trust and loyalty.
The research shows that service consistency directly affects customer flow (the sense of being in control and making progress) and perceived risk (the sense that something might go wrong). Both of these directly impact loyalty. In other words, channel inconsistency doesn't just annoy customers, it makes them less likely to stay with your organization.
Most organizations are building channels, not strategy. They're adding channels because they can, not because customers need them. They're maintaining channels because they've always existed, not because they serve customers well. They're failing to integrate channels because integration is hard, not because it's unnecessary.
The result is predictable: customers experience fragmentation, encounter inconsistency, get frustrated, and leave.
A customer-centric channel strategy starts with research. Not assumptions about what channels customers want. Not guesses about what channels competitors have. Research into what your actual customers need, when they need it, and why they choose the channels they do.
This research reveals which channels matter to your customers and which ones don't. It shows you where customers are experiencing friction in your omnichannel customer experience. It identifies gaps where you're not meeting customer needs. It uncovers inconsistencies that are destroying loyalty.
Only after this research should you make decisions about which channels to invest in, which ones to optimize, and which ones to retire. And only after understanding customer needs should you tackle the harder problem: ensuring consistency across the channels you maintain.
Organizations that get this right see measurable improvements. They reduce the cost of maintaining unnecessary channels. They improve customer satisfaction by providing the right channel for the right need. They increase loyalty by delivering consistency across their omnichannel strategy. They reduce support costs by directing customers to the most efficient channels for their needs.
But more importantly, they stop frustrating customers with fragmented, inconsistent omnichannel experiences. They start building loyalty through channels that actually work.
The question isn't whether your organization has enough channels. The question is whether your channels are built around customer needs or organizational convenience. Until you answer that question through research, you're not building strategy. You're just adding complexity.
(1) Wolf, L., & Steul-Fischer, M. (2022). Factors of customers' channel choice in an omnichannel environment: a systematic literature review. Management Review Quarterly, 72, 1-52.
(2) Quach, S., Barari, M., Moudrý, D. V., & Quach, K. (2022 ). Service integration in omnichannel retailing and its impact on customer experience. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 65, 102267.
