How Customer Communications Management Systems Create Better Customer Experiences

Peter Herz | Monday, Aug 8th 2022
Doctors speaking in a hallway

Effective communication is the foundation of any solid customer experience initiative, but with a plethora of communication avenues available, it can feel impossible to effectively manage all customer touchpoints—unless you have a customer communications management system.

Customer communications management software, otherwise known as CCM, leverages the best of digital insurance functions to improve all aspects of the customer experience. And when integrated with other SaaS insurance solutions, CCM can take insurance operations — both internal and customer-facing — to the next level.

Duck Creek Solutions works with an entire ecosystem of System Integrators, Solution Partners, and Consulting Partners to enhance the functionality of our core system. For this article, we consulted the customer communications management experts at Quadient, a Duck Creek partner, to gain insight into this important topic.

What is CCM?

Gartner defines customer communications management as “the strategy to improve the creation, delivery, storage, and retrieval of outbound communications, including those for marketing, new product introductions, renewal notifications, claims correspondence and documentation, and bill and payment notifications. CCM solutions support these objectives, providing companies with an application to improve outbound communications with their distributors, partners, regulatory bodies, and customers.”

In simpler terms, CCM software is a way for organizations to create, manage, and deliver customer communications across multiple channels, such as direct mail, email, SMS, fax, member portals, and more, thereby, creating a consistent, personalized customer experience across media. The main objective is to establish connection paths to customers that enable the delivery of business-critical information and transactional data, such as invoices, statements, new product offers, claims correspondences, and renewal notices, as well as all other, direct communications.

Why is CCM So Important?

There are four primary reasons why having a top-quality CCM software program should be priority number one for carriers.

  1. Customer communications management solutions help companies design and deliver mission-critical documents and communications, such as credit card statements, utility bills, insurance policies, account opening documents, and so on from a single, centralized system.
  2. They enable insurers to communicate with policyholders in their preferred channels, including digital channels, such SMS and email, which, during the pandemic, were oftentimes the only touchpoint carriers had with their customers.
  3. CCM is evolving into the foundation of customer experience management (CXM), as it expands into adjacent areas like customer journey mapping, digital archiving, and more.
  4. Today’s customers expect organizations to be ready to respond to their needs at all times. That means, day or night, weekday, or weekend, you must provide that service to ensure all needs are met, and a CCM software system helps insurers do that. 

What Should a CCM Solution Include?

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Business Benefits of CCM 

Having a customer communications management system will benefit insurers immediately and in the long-term. From a business perspective, CCM help insurers:

  • Create a cohesive/seamless communications infrastructure
  • Improve customer loyalty
  • Reduce total cost of ownership
  • Ensure communications compliance with all government regulations

Duck Creek & Quadient for Better Policyholder Experiences

Duck Creek’s core system provides the perfect foundation for P&C insurers looking to replace legacy systems with modern, SaaS-based solutions and rapidly adapt to changes in the marketplace. Through our partner ecosystem integrations, carriers are able to build custom solutions on top of our platform — solutions that extend the value of our core system and enable them to execute their unique market strategies.

Quadient, the leading provider of customer communications management solutions, is an integral member of that ecosystem. Working together, Duck Creek and Quadient empower businesses to create the world’s most meaningful customer experiences by:

  • Personalizing every customer interaction
  • Optimizing enterprise customer communications objectives and CX strategy
  • Extending omnichannel communication distribution capabilities

Creating a Centralized Member Communications Source of Truth

Quadient’s CCM Inspire portfolio not only improves the customer experience, but also improves regulatory compliance. Many companies have been fined for not being compliant with communications. Inspire ensures that carriers are using the right content for the right jurisdiction, and that they can access content when they need it. Essentially, the Duck Creek and Quadient Inspire integration creates a single, centralized communications source of truth.

Policyholder Benefits of Working with an Insurer that Uses CCM 

Customers will also benefit from working with a carrier that utilizes CCM solutions. Overall, customers expect to receive only the information most relevant to them and their circumstance, rather than a series of disjointed communications. CCMs helps organizations get the right information to their customers at the right time and via the right delivery channel, which results in:

  • Fewer contact center inquiries due to more relevant, timely, and understandable communications.
  • Improved customer loyalty/satisfaction via preference-driven delivery that meets customers where they are.
  • Faster time to settlement and claims closings.
  • Improved brand equity with higher quality communications that have a consistent look and feel across channels.
  • Increased revenue with targeted, dynamically inserted cross-sell promotions.

Transforming Transactional Interactions into Memorable Experiences

Integrating a customer communications management system is only the first step in creating a better CX. Insurers must also aim to design more engaging and personalized communications that are easy to understand, directly address customers' pain points, and ultimately, improve overall CX. Using a customer communications management system, carriers become capable of transforming any interaction into an opportunity to provide a memorable experience and improve customer loyalty.