We all know that companies compete today based on customer experience. Today’s customers want relevant, personalized communications that are available on-demand and accessible via the device of their choice.
But in this discussion, we’re not talking about marketing communications that attract customers through social campaigns or digital ads. We’re talking about all the interactions that occur after that – quotes, customer onboarding, contracts, welcome kits, bills, statements, upsell/cross-sell communications, and so on.
The truth is, once you’ve earned a new customer, the rest of the customer journey is even more important. And that’s where many organizations fall short. Especially those in highly regulated B2C industries like insurance, banking, healthcare, government and utilities. These complex enterprises face a number of challenges, including:
- Legacy IT systems
- Operational & data silos
- Ever-changing regulations
- Lack of IT time and resources
- Pressure from nimble startups
Customer Communications Management (CCM) defined
According to Gartner, “CCM technology supports the creation, management and distribution of B2C or B2B customer communications. CCM applications create personalized, on-demand communications that support multi-experience distribution, often based on the recipient’s preferences, rather than the senders.
CCM solutions are primarily used in industries like insurance, banking, healthcare and utilities to generate documents such as invoices, statements, correspondence, alerts/notifications and marketing communications. These communications are often highly regulated and contain personally identifiable information (PII) such as account numbers, financial data or health information. As a result, these systems provide a level of governance, auditing and data security that is not always necessary in marketing-based communication platforms.”
CCM Capabilities
Leading CCM solutions:
- Have highly advanced design capabilities
- Handle complex variable data with ease
- Make keeping up with ever-changing regulations simple
- Give business users the power to send personalized messages at any time of the day or night, on the customer’s preferred channel
- Enable two-way interactions
- Break down organizational and digital silos
- Power complex busines processes such as digital onboarding
And so much more. Some even provide contextualization with integrated customer journey management capabilities.
Think of all the interactions that take place after you have won a customer. How do they measure up?
- Are they relevant, personalized, and accessible on-demand?
- Do they reflect positively on your brand?
- Are they consistent and compliant?
- Are they bi-directional?
- Are they delivered via your customers’ preferred channel? What if their channel preference shifts?
- Do they incorporate the knowledge of your subject matter experts?
If you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions, I encourage you to sign up for our free email course, "CCM 101: The Critical Piece that's Missing from your Tech Stack".
CCM 101: a free email course for beginners
The course was designed specifically for newcomers to the CCM world - folks who want to understand (in simple terms):
- What is CCM?
- What does it do?
- Who is it for?
- Why it's a critical component of the enterprise tech stack
- How it can empower your staff to deliver meaningful customer interactions across the entire customer journey
Here's a sneak peek of the course syllabus:
Lesson #1: What is CCM?
Lesson #2: What CCM delivers that customer relationship managment (CRM) and marketing automation platforms (MAP's) can't
Lesson #3: Connecting silos and empowering business users
Lesson #4: Connecting communications to the customer journey
Lesson #5: Making the right choice: hybrid vs. cloud communications
Think of these lessons as "Cliff's Notes" for understanding CCM technology. If you're already past the beginner stage of your CCM journey, simply pass the link along to a friend or colleague who's just staring out!
Sign up for the free email course by clicking here. Choose if you want to receive the lessons to your email inbox all at once, or once a week. Each lesson takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and when you're done we'll send you a personalized completion certificate for taking the first step in your CCM journey,
