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Imagine a shopping day where you're walking down the high street looking at shops. The doors are open, there's plenty of merchandise, but many of the shops have been cleared of staff. Completely deserted. In this situation, do you choose a store with staff you can ask for advice, or do you choose a deserted store where you can look at the goods without staff?

The situation is unthinkable in physical stores, but not in the virtual world, where many online shops still lack personal service. This costs money and jobs, because in an increasingly competitive environment, it is no longer enough for an online shop to offer great deals, a shopping cart and a payment module. We want the same (or better) service when we shop online as when we shop in physical stores.

The personalized service on a website is about the customer - just like in a physical store - coming 'inside' the store, making themselves comfortable and being asked by the sales assistant at an appropriate time if they need help. For example, if the customer in your shoe store goes to the shelves with children's shoes, the skilled sales assistant will ask if the shoes are for a son, daughter, grandchildren, a gift, etc. This is sales work that is experienced as service and creates value for both the customer and the store.

Personalized online sales and service is an area that is evolving significantly in recent years, with the combination of new technology in customer service, websites and online sales on the one hand, and innovative and creative business owners developing the possibilities for online sales and service on the other. And with 5G networks comes even better opportunities to bring audio and video to websites to further optimize the customer experience.

One example is live shopping with live streaming of fashion shows, product presentations, etc. that customers can comment on and ask questions about. Brands that are able to transform their personalized customer service 1:1 from in-store to digital platforms grow online because customers value service. Quite literally. A Danish example of a company at the forefront of this development is Matas, which with Matas LIVE sets new standards for the experience their customers are offered online. It is value-creating, innovative and appreciated by customers.

The options you can offer online are in many ways already better and more flexible than what you can offer in a physical store, but you need to set up your organization and websites in the right way. One of the first things to get right is accessibility for customers. All your good intentions fail if your customers can't get in touch with you.

And expectations are rising. Every year, large international surveys of customer behavior and expectations are conducted. And every year, the proportion of consumers who expect to be able to engage with brands when it suits them best increases.

Not only do we as consumers expect to always be able to get in touch with the companies we want to communicate with, we also expect to be able to get in touch in the way that suits us best. If we have our new robotic lawnmower and find that it keeps getting stuck and we can't fix it ourselves, we don't want to send an email and get help an hour or a day later. We want help right away, via mobile, while we have the problem and are dealing with it. Otherwise, we'll shop elsewhere next time.

Unlike the high street store, businesses need to remember that your online store is always open. And customers expect the store to be staffed when it's open. Therefore, it's not only important, but imperative to organize and align sales and customer service resources to reflect customer needs. Everyone knows that extra staffing is needed during Christmas shopping, Black Friday, etc. but it also applies if there are peaks in visitors during the week, month or year. Or if the store is visited at 23.00. 

For many years, the boundaries of sales, service and experiences have been sharply separated when companies purchase customer service or sales solutions. But in the world of online commerce, the lines between sales and service are disappearing. A development that has intensified further during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a global market, there are many big players that are impossible for most Danish companies to match on parameters such as price, delivery etc., so if we also fall behind on service, we as a society will have a big problem. Fortunately, Danish companies CAN compete online on personal service, as we have cultural advantages in the way we organize our workplaces and think about our relationship with customers.

But to win the race, personalized online service must be seen as a necessary investment that enables further growth - not an expense. Perhaps personalized service could even become something we decide Danish online commerce should be known for?

Imagine if, through a joint effort, we could supplement "Made in Denmark" with "Danish Service"...