Key trends in customer communications management (CCM)

Madrid, Sep 07, 2023 – As the market evolves, several trends have emerged that will undoubtedly shape the future of Customer Communications Management (CCM) in the short term. Let’s take a look at the most important ones.

Seven key trends in CCM

1. 24/7 customer care: With digitalization and globalization, companies are offering 24/7 and even 365 days a year customer care service.
2. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics: AI, embodied in chatbots and virtual assistants, is changing the way companies interact with customers. AI can solve routine queries and free up human agents to deal with more complex problems.
3. Personalizing customer experience: Companies are using data to tailor communications and deliver a unique experience to each customer. This includes customized recommendations and offers, and content based on customers’ previous behavior.
4. Omnichannel experience: Customers interact with companies across multiple channels, including email, social media, mobile apps, and websites. That is why companies strive to provide a consistent and seamless experience across channels.
5. Self-service: Customers prefer to solve their problems themselves rather than contact customer service. Companies know this and make it easy for them by creating extensive knowledge bases, tutorials, and forums.
6. Sentiment analysis and digital reputation management: With the rise of social media, it is essential for companies to monitor what is being said about them. Sentiment analysis can help them understand how the public sees them and manage their reputation.
7. Proactive communication: Instead of waiting for customers to have a problem, companies are starting to take a proactive approach and contact customers to provide relevant and useful information to prevent problems.

Trends in CCM by economic sector

These trends are carefully analyzed across economic sectors because Customer Communications Management is a concern for all of them. However, there are some industries that focus more on this area due to the nature of their work, the intensity of competition, or the speed with which they are changing. Four in particular are worth highlighting:

1. Technology sector: With the growth of technology start-ups and the acceleration of digitalization in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, effective customer communications management has become crucial as technology products and services can be complex and change rapidly.

1. Financial and banking sector: With the rise of fintech and the move towards digital banking services, banks and other financial institutions are placing greater emphasis on communication with customers, who expect tailor-made and secure experiences, as well as top-quality care.
2. Retail and e-commerce: In an industry as competitive and customer-focused as retail, communication is essential. E-commerce companies, in particular, rely heavily on digital customer communication and have been at the forefront of many of the trends mentioned above.
3. Tourism and hospitality industry: This sector has always been clearly committed to customer service, but with the disruption caused by the pandemic and increasing competition from shared accommodation platforms, effective customer communication is more important than ever.

24/7: the magic numbers in CCM

Let’s dwell on the star trend: 24/7 customer service. This is a Customer Communications Management strategy that seeks to provide assistance and resolve queries at any time of the day. This service can be especially important for companies with customers in different countries or operating in sectors where problems can arise at any time, such as technology and finance.

How to beat the competition and provide the best 24/7 service? By pulling four levers:

1. Chatbots and artificial intelligence: Chatbots are computer programs that can interact with customers automatically. They can answer frequently asked questions, provide information about products or services, and guide customers through basic processes. Chatbots are becoming increasingly sophisticated thanks to the development of AI, and some can even understand and respond to queries in natural language.

1. Support teams in different time zones: Some companies hire support teams in different time zones to ensure that someone is always available to help customers.
2. Automated responses and knowledge bases: Companies can set up automatic responses to inquiries to provide customers with basic information and redirect them to useful resources, such as online knowledge bases, which contain answers to frequently asked questions.
3. Social media and messaging applications: Some companies use social media and messaging applications to provide customer support outside office hours.

When should human beings intervene in the CCM process?

Customers value 24/7 support availability, but also quality, as they may become frustrated if 24/7 service is provided solely by chatbots or receive automated responses that do not resolve their issues. Therefore,in a well implemented Customer Communications Management process, it is important to know when to refer the query to a human being:

1. Query complexity: If a query is too complex for a chatbot to manage, it should be referred to a human being, especially in situations that require judgment, contextual understanding, or emotion management.

1. Customer frustration: If customers seem frustrated or dissatisfied with the answers provided by a chatbot, a person should intervene. Signs of frustration may include negative language, repeated use of certain phrases, or attempts to circumvent the chatbot.
2. Importance of the query: If a query involves a high value or risk, it is time for a person to enter the scene, for example, to manage consultations on large financial transactions, legal problems, or urgent matters.
3. Customer preference: Some customers simply prefer to interact with other human beings. Deep down, we have had enough of artificial voices and recordings with the same old speech. If customers want to talk to a person, let’s grant that request.

To implement an effective escalation system, companies must train their chatbots to recognize these situations, establish clear procedures for transferring queries to humans and ensure there are always people available to deal with queries transferred to them.

It is important to remember that the goal of 24/7 customer service is not to eliminate human interaction, but to improve the efficiency and availability of customer service. Humans remain an essential part of the CCM process, especially in solving complex problems and providing high quality service. It is not all about reducing personnel costs.

As we have seen before, important parts of a comprehensive CCM process involve technology, like chatbots, AI and personalized customer experience, as well as omnichannel communication paths, common to the diverse business sector. In the latter two is where sophisticated Customer Communications Management software solutions play an important role.

 

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