These days, everyone receives a lot of communications - both businesses and individuals alike. Sometimes, we can feel positively inundated and, when this is the case, it’s the messages that stand out that will get our attention.
Various Channels
We have never been so connected as we are today. Customers now engage directly with brands through social media, transact with them online and get updates and account information by email. Within this communications channels mix, printed mail still has an important role to play. Many customers don’t prefer all digital or all print - it’s often a blend of the two according to what suits them. They may like receiving brochures in the post to peruse at their leisure, but prefer invoices by email and reminders by text.
Against this backdrop of multi-channel communications, brands that don’t give customers choice are likely to suffer. While simply utilising all channels can be a challenge in itself, the goal should be to use each channel in the right way, according to customers’ preferences.
What do you know?
Customers are also likely to be put off by brands that demonstrate a lack of knowledge about who they are and their history with the company.
In today’s data-rich world, most companies hold a good deal of information about customers. Customers know that and they expect it to be reflected in the messages they receive. All of which means promoting a product to a customer when they already have it, isn’t great. Neither is sending conflicting information by email and through the post. Failing to address the customer by name is also a no-no. Personalisation is a great way to boost engagement through communications and to demonstrate the company’s investment in the relationship. Targeted, personalised communications ensure customers receive the right information, and they also open up opportunities for the company to promote the right goods and services to each customer segment.Combine this with optimal use of the communications channels preferred by each customer and the chances of gaining their attention are elevated.
Yet, all of this is hard to achieve with fragmented, manual processes that handle different communications channels separately and that fail to tap into the right customer data.Multichannel output management software centralises communications to manage customer channel preferences and communications distribution. It introduces automation to many elements of the process - such as addressing – to reduce the risk of errors. Customers are likely to be put off communications from brands sent to them in ways they don’t wish to be contacted and by companies sending them impersonal or poorly targeted information. By meeting customers’ preferences and expectations of communications, companies can deliver a better experience for superior customer engagement. To find out more, take a look at what output management software can do.
