Customer Communication Management

High customer expectations are a byproduct of digitalization. We are spoilt by technology, if you will. Whenever we want to listen to some music, order out for pizza, book a flight or check in with a loved one while we are traveling – all of that is just a few clicks / swipes away.

Digital giants like Google and Amazon have made instant gratification possible, and now we want it everywhere, all the time. If we feel that a service or product is not relevant or readily available to us, we instantly move on, safe in the knowledge that there are alternatives. Businesses that fail to realize this, or simply ignore it, will struggle.

If you want to succeed – and what company does not? – you need happy customers. How do you make your customers happy? By giving them a great customer experience, which is only possible through effective customer communications.

Personally involved

Gone are the days when customer communications meant sending a letter – actually, usually it was just a bill – to your clients once a month. In today’s digital age, you can and should use multiple channels to reach your customers: your website and social media, phone, email, but also physical locations. And communication is now a truly two-way process: your customer expects to be able to use their initiative to contact you whenever they feel like it. You need to offer a range of choices and let your customer opt for the one(s) they prefer. If they choose to do business with you through their smart watch, you must be ready. Come to think of it, if you are serious about communications management, you already know your customer’s preferences. How? By acquiring and then harnessing consumer behavior data.

Personalization only works when you know what your client is interested in, which of your touchpoints they interact with or what transactions they complete. While surveys can gather customer information, they have their limitations and no longer meet today’s demands. Businesses can now track purchase history, patterns of product usage and even social media activity, and create much broader and deeper customer insights based on all that data. By analyzing it, they gain a better understanding of their customers’ needs and desires, and can target individual clients through personalized communication. That is what effective customer communications management (CCM) is all about: making sure that your clients receive tailor-made content via the channels of their choice. And given the number of channels – mobile, website, social media, print – you need a central tool to be able to coordinate your processes: a CCM solution.

Meeting everyone’s needs

Many companies find the implementation of a CCM solution, indeed of most digital technologies, a challenge. They rely on legacy systems and have a siloed organizational structure with various departments, each with its respective roles, data and objectives. Add to that the fear of uncertainty – “What if it’s not going to work?” – and you can understand why many businesses are hesitant to adopt a CCM solution. But as soon as they realize that such a digital platform provides a synergy of innovative technologies, a one-platform approach that enables data unification, workflow automation and, most importantly, seamless customer interactions (both inbound and outbound), their doubts will be dispelled.

Whether it’s receiving an invoice, using a chatbot FAQ, or renewing a subscription, every customer interaction is an opportunity for you to develop or strengthen your relationship with your client. A CCM solution ensures that every touchpoint offers the same customer experience. You can manage the entire communication process, boost the efficiency of all your departments, while also allowing your customers to be in charge whenever they choose to. Everyone is happy.