Stop Pretending Customers Want 10 Different Ways to Contact You

Why You Might Think It’s Worth Opening More Channels

If you’re not already everywhere, let’s be honest: you’ve probably thought about it. And the arguments sound pretty convincing.

• Reach. Different customers use different platforms. Maybe being “everywhere” means more enquiries.
• Convenience. If someone prefers WhatsApp to email, maybe they’ll buy faster if they can use it.
• Perception. A long list of contact options looks like you’re approachable and always available.
• Competition. If your rival has live chat, maybe you think you’ll lose business unless you do the same.

On paper, those are RIGHT.

But in reality? They’re WRONG.

Because every “pro” has a hidden flip side:

• Reach spreads your attention thin and makes you unreliable.
• Convenience for one person means slower responses for everyone else.
• Perception backfires when your “modern” inbox sits unanswered for a week.
• Competition is irrelevant if your simpler system delivers a better, faster, clearer service.

So yes, you can try to be everywhere. But the price you’ll pay is consistency, clarity, and credibility.

The Illusion of Choice

We’ve all been sold the idea that more choice is better. Supermarkets tell us. Streaming platforms tell us. Tech companies tell us.

But psychologists have been proving for decades that too much choice does the opposite. It paralyses. It frustrates. It creates doubt.

The famous jam study showed that shoppers were more likely to buy when shown six jams than when shown 24. More choice didn’t boost sales — it killed them.

Your contact strategy is no different.

When you open ten doors, you don’t make customers feel free. You make them feel lost. “Do I DM them? Do I email? Which one do they check? Should I try them all?”

That’s not service. That’s stress.

The Hidden Cost of Channel Sprawl

The theory sounds neat. The reality is brutal.

• Messages get lost. The Instagram DM sits unread. The WhatsApp gets missed. The contact form email lands in spam.
• Staff burn out. Instead of focusing on solving problems, they’re firefighting across tabs, apps, and alerts.
• Responses slow down. Nobody can monitor eight inboxes equally. Some customers wait hours, others wait days.
• Consistency dies. One reply promises one thing, another says something else. Customers don’t know which version of you is real.

And here’s the flip side nobody talks about: often those different channels aren’t even managed by the same team. Marketing might run social media. Sales might watch LinkedIn. Customer service might handle email. Support might have the phones.

If those teams aren’t joined up, and let’s be honest, they rarely are (completely), you end up with conflicting answers.

At best, the message is slightly disjointed. At worst, it’s flat-out contradictory. “Yes, we can do that” on one channel, “no, we can’t” on another. Customers don’t know who to believe. They don’t know which “you” is real.

Not your fault? Maybe. But also… maybe it is. Either way, it’s your problem. Because to the customer, there’s no “different team.” There’s just your business.

The punchline? The very thing you thought would create better service actually delivers worse service.

Customers Don’t Actually Want Choice

Here’s the kicker.

Customers don’t want choice. They want certainty.

Three things only:

1. To know where to go.
2. To know their message will be seen.
3. To know when they’ll get a reply.

That’s it.

Every extra channel makes those three things less clear.

Think of Amazon checkout. They don’t show you ten random “pay” buttons. They give you one clear option: pay here. Click. Done.

The Psychology Behind It

When you offer multiple channels, you’re not just juggling inboxes. You’re juggling expectations.

• Ambiguity aversion. People hate uncertainty. Too many channels creates doubt.
• Expectation gaps. If customers believe one channel is “instant” and you don’t reply instantly, they’re angry.
• Cognitive load. Every extra choice adds effort. Customers don’t want to think about how to contact you. They just want to contact you.

By reducing channels, you reduce ambiguity, close expectation gaps, and cut effort. That feels better to customers — even if, on paper, they had “fewer options.”

This Isn’t Just Customer Service. It’s Marketing.

Here’s where most leaders get it wrong. They think this is a customer service issue.

It’s not. It’s marketing.

Marketing isn’t just ads and logos. It’s how you frame value, set expectations, and build trust. Every reply you send is marketing. Every delay is marketing. Every unanswered DM is marketing.

When you scatter across too many channels:

• You dilute your brand voice.
• You send mixed signals.
• You erode the consistency marketing depends on.

And this is why I get so impassioned when I see it, because it affects the core outcome and it’s so easy to avoid. The payoff of “choice” is never worth the loss in clarity.

RIGHT vs WRONG

Let’s call it out.

RIGHT: Pick one or two channels. Do them brilliantly.

WRONG: Open every channel and fail at all of them.

RIGHT: Tell customers “this is the fastest way to reach us.”

WRONG: Let them message anywhere and then ghost them.

RIGHT: Set boundaries.

WRONG: Pretend boundaries are “anti-customer” when they’re actually pro-customer.

Real-World Proof

• Restaurants. The ones that insist on a single booking method — a phone line or a platform — actually get it right. The ones that take bookings on WhatsApp, Instagram, and email? Double-bookings, missed tables, chaos.
• Plumbers. The plumber who says “call or text only” is always more reliable than the one juggling Facebook DMs, WhatsApps, and emails.
• Airlines. Try messaging British Airways on TikTok. Doesn’t exist. They funnel you into proper systems. Why? Because they know you can’t juggle billions in operations across DMs.
• Tech giants. Want support from Meta? You won’t get it by DM’ing them. They funnel you to a help centre for a reason.

Why Leaders Fall for the Trap

Let’s be honest. The reason you open too many channels isn’t strategy. It’s fear.

Fear of missing a lead.

Fear of upsetting someone.

Fear of looking “behind the times.”

But here’s the brutal truth: every new channel you open is a rod for your own back. You’re not showing strength. You’re showing insecurity.

Strong businesses dictate the rules of communication. Weak businesses let customers dictate them.

How to Fix It

1. Audit. Write down every way people can currently reach you.
2. Cut ruthlessly. Which ones can you actually manage well? Which ones can you track effectively Keep those. Kill the rest.
3. Frame it. Don’t say “we don’t answer DMs.” Say “for the fastest reply, email us here.”
4. Deliver properly. Once you limit channels, you’ve got no excuse for sloppy service.
5. Train. Every response should sound like your brand, not whoever picked it up.

The Bigger Lesson for Marketing

This is about more than inboxes. It’s about discipline.

Marketing is not “being everywhere.” It’s being effective where it counts. It’s about consistency, clarity, and confidence.

More channels don’t build trust. They erode it.

More channels don’t improve service. They dilute it.

More channels don’t make you look modern. They make you look messy.

The anti-view is simple: stop pretending customers want 10 different ways to contact you. They don’t. They want one good way.

Choice In Communication = Bad News

Choice is seductive. It feels generous. But in communication, too much choice is poison.

Your job as a leader — whether you run marketing, the business, or a growing team — isn’t to bend over backwards for every whim. It’s to build a business that works — for your customers and your staff.

Stop drowning in “contact options.” Set boundaries. Customers will thank you. Your team will thank you. And your brand will finally look like it knows what it’s doing.