In today’s competitive landscape, companies distinguish themselves through exceptional customer experiences. Modern customers demand relevant, personalised communications that are available on-demand and accessible via their preferred communication channels and devices. With today’s assortment of customer communication management solutions, not only is it not complicated to deliver what customers want, if you do it well, your relationship status with your customers will be good.
First let’s define customer communications. Google says it this way: “Customer communications are the interactions between a business and its customers through various channels. These interactions can take place in person, over the phone, by text, or through chat.” Typically they occur post sale throughout the customer lifecycle and include business critical communications like policies, Explanation of Benefits, renewal notices, bills, statements, etc. These are the communications that people read.
Customer communication management (CCM) is the strategy, tools, and channels that businesses use to engage with their customers. CCM can help streamline customer data and create personalised communications across multiple channels.
This blog focuses on the these types of communications. Once a customer is acquired, the subsequent journey becomes even more critical. Unfortunately, many organisations, especially those in highly regulated B2C industries like insurance, banking, healthcare, government, and utilities, often fall short. These complex enterprises face several challenges, including:
- Legacy IT systems
- Operational and data silos
- Ever-changing regulations
- Lack of IT time and resources
- Pressure from nimble startups
What to look for in a CCM Solution
Leading Customer Communications Management (CCM) solutions offer a range of advanced capabilities, including:
- Highly advanced design capabilities
- Ease in handling complex variable data in high volume batch and on demand environments
- Ability to reduce risk and simplify compliance with ever-changing regulations
- Empowerment of business users to send personalised messages at the right time in the right delivery channel
- Enablement of two-way interactions
- Breaking down of organisational and digital silos
- Streamlined workflow and approval processes
Some CCM solutions even provide contextualisation with integrated customer journey management capabilities and intelligent forms.
The Importance of CCM in Complex Enterprises
Complex enterprises have sophisticated communication requirements. While Marketing Automation Platforms (MAPs) are essential for nurturing customers through the buying phase with straightforward communications, the complexity increases once the prospect becomes a customer. This is where CCM excels.
Handling Complex Variable Data
Industries like banking, insurance, and healthcare are data-rich, with information stored across numerous disparate core systems. CCM software pulls complex data from various sources and organises it into highly personalised, easy-to-navigate communications. For example, a banking customer can receive a monthly account statement via text message, complete with interactive charts showing spending and savings.
Navigating Industry Regulations
Compliance standards are constantly evolving and vary widely across regions. Many organisations struggle to keep up with these changes to avoid financial penalties. Ensuring the correct regulatory language in every communication requires involving the compliance function from the beginning. This is only done through a CCM solution that enables:
- Collaboration: Legal and compliance teams can take ownership of regulatory content blocks used across communications. Content blocks can be locked down to safeguard regulatory language.
- A holistic view: Compliance teams need a full view of the entire communications package in all formats (mobile, web, etc.).
- Greater control: Compliance teams can manage, track, audit, and approve regulatory language quickly and easily.
Interactivity
By integrating with existing core systems (i.e., insurance policy, billing and claims), leading CCM solutions transform account statements, claims processing, policies, contracts, and bills into personalised, responsive experiences with interactive tables, charts, and upsell/cross-sell messages.
Digital Forms and Processes
CCM simplifies onboarding and account openings for new products and services by providing digital application flows that deliver a guided experience with pre-populated customer data and only displaying relevant questions for recipient. Customers can quickly sign contracts using any device with integrated e-signature capabilities.
Complex Document Management
From investment portfolio packages to welcome kits, contracts, EOBs, and policies, many organisations struggle with complex document assembly and delivery. CCM solutions streamline the creation, assembly, management, and tracking of complex documents from a centralised hub, delivering them across all channels. They offer full control over the relationships between different types of content, document order, and compliance.
Managing all of the silos
Many large organisations still have separate teams dedicated to creating customer communications for mobile, print, SMS, email, web, etc. Some rely on service providers or other third parties to support communications across specific channels. These teams aren’t collaborating and may not be sharing content, which leads to:
- A fragmented and inconsistent customer experience
- Duplication of efforts
- Inefficiency
- Elevated compliance risk
- Inconsistent branding and messaging
There is a better way.
Good CCM solutions help large organisations overcome silo challenges: 1. Data silos 2. Channel silos 3. Organisational silos.
- DATA SILOS - Most enterprises have a complex infrastructure of mission-critical legacy IT technology. For many, these disparate core systems are far too costly to remove or upgrade, but the data they house is extremely valuable. They have access to tons of customer data that can be leveraged to engage in a highly contextualised manner - the key to delivering a personalised customer experience. Leading CCM solutions can pull data from anywhere within your existing data ecosystem, so your non-technical business users can do just that.
- CHANNEL SILOS – Over the years many organisations have assembled a large collection of channel-specific or project-specific marketing and customer communications technologies. What seemed to be a series of easy solutions to isolated problems has morphed into a tangled mess of technologies that hurts the customer experience. Today’s CCM solutions eliminate the need to develop channel-specific messages independently from one another. With a centralised CCM platform, approved templates, content blocks, branding elements, and regulatory language are stored centrally and leveraged across all channels. When there is a change – for example, a new logo – the update is made once, and propagated across all channels. In the case of Quadient’s solutions, communications are designed in a channel-agnostic way. Once the communication has been created, the omnichannel preview allows you to see how the communication will appear to the customer on their preferred channel – for example, on mobile, email, or print.
- ORGANISATIONAL SILOS – Historically, IT was the only department involved in developing technology systems. IT led by default and maintained control and order. However, as the business has become more digital, it’s now the business users that have a say in how things should be done. CCM platforms make it easy for business users to create, edit and manage content, instead of relying on IT to make changes.
CCM = happy relationship status
The answer’s been there all along. You don’t need a massive IT team handling all of your communications anymore. Let them work on the projects that really demand their skills, and use the right technology to let your line of business teams assume the control of the content they know best so you can talk to your customer like you really know them.
The next thing to think about is how to do ensure your customer communications are accessible to ALL of your customer, including those with disabilities? We will cover that in the next blog.
