More than twenty years ago we coined the phrase channel of choice. At the time it felt genuinely forward thinking. Brands were experimenting with communicating beyond the trusty printed letter. Email was picking up speed. SMS felt modern and slightly daring. The whole idea was simple but powerful: give customers the opportunity to choose how they want to be contacted, then honour that choice.

Two decades later, the world of channels resembles something closer to a sprawling metropolis than a modest high street. We have push notifications, instant messaging apps, social platforms, personalised portals, in app alerts, targeted ads that follow you around like an over keen shop assistant, and of course the good old mailbox on the doormat, still stubbornly hanging on. So many channels, in fact, that the conversation has shifted from choosing a channel to navigating a labyrinth.

Yet the original concept has never been more relevant. If anything, it needs an upgrade.

Choice is no longer binary. It is layered.

Twenty years ago offering customers a choice between mail, email or SMS was liberating. Today that would be like offering someone tea, coffee or a glass of water and calling it a drinks menu. The modern customer interacts across multiple platforms throughout the day and expects brands to keep up. They do not simply want a single channel. They want priority, context and consistency.

A customer might prefer email for monthly statements, SMS for urgent updates, app notifications for purchases and the occasional piece of direct mail because, strangely enough, printed materials still cut through digital noise in a way that pixels sometimes fail to do. A well-timed letter can feel surprisingly personal. It is the communications equivalent of receiving a handwritten note in a world of quick-fire typing. Not quite romantic, but a small step in that direction.

So perhaps channel of choice should become channels in order of preference, with the ability to adapt as customer needs shift.

Online and offline should not compete. They should collaborate.

There has always been a temptation for brands to think of online and offline as rivals. One must outdo the other. One must drive the sale. One must be more measurable, more efficient, more modern.

The reality is that customers do not care about this turf war. They glide between channels without a second thought. They might discover a product in store, research it online, see an ad on social, receive an email reminder a week later and finally make the purchase after receiving a timely piece of mail that nudges them to act. The customer journey is rarely linear and it certainly does not live exclusively in one channel.

Offline continues to drive online traffic. More importantly, offline often builds trust. It has a physicality that digital channels cannot replicate. You can ignore an email in half a second, but a letter sits patiently on your kitchen table reminding you of its presence. There is a certain staying power in paper. Not always welcome, admittedly, but powerful, nonetheless.

The goal is not always the sale. It is the relationship.

Marketing can be obsessively focused on the immediate conversion. Click here. Act now. Limited time only. As if customers spend their day waiting for the next call to action like a sprinter on the starting blocks.

Real engagement is more nuanced. Sometimes the aim is simply to start a conversation, reinforce a brand value, provide reassurance or encourage a long-term behavioural shift. The first touchpoint does not need to close the deal. It might simply open the door.

When brands respect the customer’s preferred channels and understand how those channels influence behaviour over time, they build relationships rather than chase transactions. And relationships, as we all know, tend to last longer than promotional codes.

What the next twenty years require

The next evolution of the channel of choice should recognise that modern communication is fluid. Customers want control. They want clarity. They want the ability to refine their preferences as their lives, habits and devices change. Above all, they want brands to listen.

This means:

  • Offering more sophisticated channel management, not a one size fits all tick box.
  • Using offline and online in harmony rather than treating them as isolated silos.
  • Valuing long term behaviour as much as short term conversion.
  • Being flexible, transparent and consistently customer focused.

In short, the spirit of channel of choice still stands. It just needs to grow up a little.

After twenty years, so do we.