Customer communications management (CCM) is a process that organizations use to create, store, retrieve and deliver outbound communications such as billing statements, renewal notifications, claims information and marketing materials. This correspondence can occur through a wide range of communication channels like printed documents, email, Short Message Service (SMS) and web pages.
CCM solutions are becoming more common as businesses transition from competing on price and quality to competing on customer service. However, this technology is still maturing, so its scope isn’t yet well-defined. A document software solution includes a number of specific processes as a result, and CCM software often specializes in one or more of these. The following are some of the most common types of communications customer management solutions:
- Customer Communications.
- Automated Document Factory.
- Business Process Automation.
- Omni-Channel Management is.
Customer Communications
Clear, effective customer communications require an organization to first identify its customer segments and develop customized communication plans for each of them. One of the most important reasons for this segmentation is that some of these groups will require more regular communications or greater detail than others, including customers with specific needs or buying patterns.
The next step in developing a communications plan is to select the best method of reaching each customer segment. For example, some segments may belong to a loyalty program that already has a way to contact those customers. Other common communication channels include social media channels and the company website. Media outlets are also an option in cases where an organization needs to deliver the same message to a large number of customers.
It’s also important to stay on top of conversations, especially on social media. Customers can share their thoughts and opinions 24/7, so the direction of these conversations can change very quickly. Daily monitoring of social media platforms ensures staff members are able to efficiently join conversations. A proactive approach to customer communications also helps organizations emerge from a crisis without losing their customers’ trust. It’s also essential to openly address concerns and provide solutions to pressing issues as a means of strengthening customer relationships.
Automated Document Factory
An automated document factory (ADF) is a set of processes for managing the high-volume creation and delivery of documents. Raw materials enter the factory in a particular sequence, which then transforms these materials into the final documents and prepares them for delivery. An ADF accomplishes this through the use of templates and customer information, which it pulls from various sources. It, therefore, acts as the control center for the document creation and delivery process.
An ADF also maintains its document assets in one space, including templates as well as sub-documents, graphics and logos. This practice ensures the APF applies assets consistently across all communication channels. The right document software solution can also minimize the use of templates it requires through the use of pre-defined rules, thus saving time and money. An ADF is particularly helpful for batch processing such as monthly billing statements, invoices, and annual reports. It also runs in a fully automated manner, thus facilitating the production of on-demand documents for individual customers such as certificates, quotes, and other requests.
Additional benefits of an ADF include its ability to simplify the workflow of a document software solution. An ADF automates complex communication processes by defining participants and their roles, which the right CCM software can use to bring stakeholders together with an efficient communication plan. An ADF also automates other processes that are common in manufacturing such as data collection, task review and approval, final assembly and distribution.
Business Process Automation
Business automation (BPA) is the process of automating business processes through the use of technology. It includes restructuring resources and integrating applications throughout the organization. Robotic process automation is a subfield of BPA that’s becoming increasingly common, especially manufacturing. The benefits of BPA include simplifying business processes, increasing service quality, reducing costs, and improving service delivery.
Organizations can implement BPAs in a variety of business areas such as marketing and sales. The sophistication of these software solutions vary greatly, but the general trend is towards the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These capabilities allow a BPA to interact with human beings and solve new problems without direct instructions from a human operator. In addition, customer communications management solutions that focus on BPA tend to specialize in a specific industry.
Automating these processes requires connectors to join these disparate systems together, which typically includes another layer of architecture to exchange information. A process-driven messaging service helps optimize the data exchange layer for some BPA solutions. Such a messaging service also provides users with the ability to develop their processes with jobs, triggers in workloads. Some organizations build a workflow with APIs, such that the workflow serves as the data exchange there.
Omni-Channel Management
Omni-channel management is the synchronized planning, monitoring, and management of multiple sales channels. It’s an extension of earlier forms of channel management such as cross-channel and multi-channel management. Omni-channel management allows organizations to optimize the customer experience (UX), especially for channel hoppers who frequently switch between channels. The complete digitization of an organization requires a customer communications management solution with omni-channel capability.
The number of communication channels an organization can use to communicate with its customers has greatly increased since the days when phone and physical mail were the only options. Today’s businesses have many more channels available, which has increased the need for a customer communications management solution. All of these touchpoints represent an opportunity to improve customer experience (UX) throughout their journey towards a purchase.
Customers now expect a personalized UX that’s specific to their needs and provides a consistent message, regardless of the touchpoint. Purchase decisions depend on many different experiences, which is why Omni-channel management is so important today. Customers often choose a different channel based on a particular situation since most customers don’t gather information in a linear manner or make purchases only on one platform. The increase in channel-hopping is also a major reason for the challenges in omni-channel management.
Summary
Customer communications management may seem like a relatively straightforward concept until you consider the number of different communications that organizations sent to the customers. The growing number of communication channels is also a complicating factor, as is the need to handle multiple languages in a global economy. Creating many documents from disparate sources of information makes it difficult to create a consistent CX that keeps customers engaged. Furthermore, the increasing likelihood that customers will leave a business after a poor experience makes it even more important to choose a flexible customer communications management solution that can meet these needs across an entire enterprise.
J.C. Olivares
Business Development Mgr. at DocPath Corp.