5 Benefits of Customer Communications Management
From the very beginning, even before they are loyal customers, every step of a customer’s journey and experience with an organisation involves communication. Customers are the heart of every business and effective customer communication is integral in building a solid foundation for impactful and positive customer experiences. As people have become more digitally connected, the number of communication channels has grown excessively, and businesses are experiencing greater challenges in effectively managing communications across all touch points. That is why customer communications management (CCM) has become an increasingly important tool in driving better experiences for customers and businesses alike.
What are Customer Communications Management (CCM) Solutions
CCM solutions provide software to help businesses organise and manage customer communications. It also enables a synchronised view of omnichannel communication efforts on a centralised platform. This increases the ease at which businesses can ensure consistent, accurate and personalised messages are being communicated to customers across all channels. A CCM Service provider offers all of this and the experts to manage the execution as well.
As CCM and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions involve customer interactions, they may sound similar. However, they are essentially different concepts. CRM solutions involve managing customer interactions and cover both sales and marketing functions. In comparison, CCM solutions focus specifically on enhancing customer interaction through communication. Specific tasks under CCM solutions are geared towards delivering more personalised messages and managing omnichannel communications to provide more meaningful customer experiences. CCM solutions can benefit organisations in multiple ways, including:
1. Personalise and Automate Customer Communications
CCM solutions enable organisations to integrate customer data from multiple systems and draw a comprehensive target audience profile. The profile helps companies to better understand and monitor the needs and preferences of their customers. With insights from this data, businesses can craft more tailored messages that are more meaningful to customers. And knowing customers’ communication and channel preferences enables businesses to communicate in ways their customers are more receptive to and can understand more easily. Meaningful communication increases the likelihood of purchasing or finding out more about products or services because the customer can see how they relate to their lives and needs.
Additionally, CCM solutions can automate communications processes. Manual customer communications management is often time-consuming and expensive, especially when businesses have a large number of customers. By automating the communications process with a CCM solution, businesses benefit from greater cost efficiency. Messaages are sent out automatically, communications are more timely, helping businesses to capitalise on market opportunities more efficiently. Meanwhile, enquiries and requests can also be responded to much more quickly. All these capabilities contribute towards elevating a customer’s experience. And, better customer experiences increases the possibility of sales conversions and customer retention rates. This is supported by Zippia’s findings, which show that companies can experience a 10 – 15% increase in revenue after improvements in customer experience, and 89% of customers switch to a competitor brand when they have a negative experience.
2. Track and Streamline Customer Engagements
When companies want to improve customer engagement rates, it is crucial to first understand how customers interact with their organisation. This is where CCM solutions come help by providing a clear, detailed view of the customer experience and drawing data from multiple customer touchpoints to identify communication gaps. Knowing where the gaps means companies can make targeted adjustments to bridge these gaps. This ensures they can always provide the best service and deliver the most impactful messages to encourage customers to move through the consumer journey more quickly, resulting in increased buying. As a bonus, streamlined processes make it easier for employees to perform their duties, which can lead to greater employee satisfaction. As research has found that happier employees are 13% more productive, businesses can benefit from a happier, more efficient and productive team.3. Build Relationships and Improve Customer Experience
Often, customer feedback can be lost in communication when they go through teams and different channels. This prevents customers’ concerns from being addressed promptly or even addressed at all. With CCM solutions, this feedback can now be communicated directly and through the right channel, enabling swift problem management and resolution. When customers see that businesses make an effort to resolve their issues, they develop stronger trust, and their relationship with the company improves. With a more favourable impression of the company, consumers will likely remain loyal customers.
Additionally, communication channels can be pre-populated with forms and information, facilitating a faster and smoother onboarding experience. This is complemented by how CCM solutions allow data to be presented more interactively, enhancing customer engagement with marketing content. With smoother onboarding and engaging content, customers’ experience can be significantly elevated, and can lead to increase in sales and loyalty.
4. Improve Operational Efficiency
When customer communication is managed manually, the lack of collaboration between teams can complicate workflows. More time may also be spent when work needs to go through more levels of approval or more people before it can be completed. With the implementation of CCM solutions, the management of all customer communication channels is combined, enabling all employees to edit anything quickly by themselves. These changes are also reflected in real-time, allowing everyone be across the latest information and updates. With web-based collaboration businesses also minimise inefficiencies created by miscommunication and prevent unnecessary expenses from duplication of work. With consolidated efforts and a more efficient workflow, organisations can achieve more with less.5. Strengthen Digital Transformation
CCM solutions can also seamlessly integrate with multiple platforms. This helps companies avoid spending much time resolving system incompatibility or migration issues, enabling digital initiatives to be launched rapidly and effectively. The customer insights gained from CCM solutions can also be helpful when companies automate workflows in other business functions beyond communication.Drive Greater Value With FUJFILM Business Innovation's Digital and Customer Communications Services
With advancing technology, more customers are going digital, and more communication channels are being created, increasing the number of customer touchpoints. Regardless of how you choose to reach out to your customers, having a strategy to effectively manage your communications will go a long way in ensuring business success and sustainability. While CCM solutions provide you with the right tools to get started, effective deployment requires your organisation to partner with a service provider with a robust platform, strong technical expertise, and a track record of successful deployment who can manage your communication strategy end-to-end.
At FUJIFILM Business Innovation Australia, providing effective solutions and services that help businesses unlock more cost-efficient and productive ways of working is at the heart of what we do. That is why we offer Digital Communications and Customer Communications Services to provide your business with an end-to-end managed service. As well as CCM services, we also offer print, software and workflow management solutions to help streamline processes and improve efficiencies and productivity across your organisation. As an accredited solutions provider since 1960, we are confident we have the experience to deliver more value and help your business get the most out of your investment. Find out more about our CCM Service today.