More often than not companies succeed or fail depending on the strength of their customer relationships. There are several ways for building loyal and lasting customers in today's digital age. You can interact with your customers now on multiple platforms including in-store and on-premise on a personal level or on mobile devices and computers through calls, chatbots, customer support centers, e-mails, marketing campaigns or through paper and printed medium. Regardless of your medium to reach your customers - Customer Communication Management is here to stay and play a crucial role. With that in mind, here's a look at trends that change the ways these conversations are shaped by a robust CCM solution.

New technologies are transforming CCM

The increased adoption of new technology allows companies to communicate more effectively with customers. Chatbots and voice assistants will soon become a new standard for customer communications. They will help companies reduce costs and deliver a new level of automation and ease of use for informing, communicating and delighting the customers. In fact, according to Juniper Research, the use of chatbots will help companies save more than $8 billion per year by 2022, up from $20 million in 2017.

Role of ML, AI and Big Data

Organizations today are tremendously benefiting from machine learning and artificial intelligence to enhance their ability to better customize customer communications. With the advent of big data customer data profiles are available in abundance and at an unmanageable number to be simply handled by humans alone. With advanced analytics and modern developments in AI, brands can now analyze multi-channel customer interactions by dividing data to create a new level of customization based on preferences, behaviors, and actions. Utilizing data-based customer profiles allows organizations to focus multi-way communications according to the expectations of the customers.

Need for CCM

Leveraging these technologies along with ubiquitous communication channels such as social media, mobile and email creates a new and awe-inspiring experiences for the customers. But relying on each of these channels without a unified central platform like CCM, to manage and control the communication, messages can be messy. A central CCM solution can help you offer your customers seamless journey with your products or services at a breathtaking speeding- ending up delighting your customers.

Role of Cloud

A centralized CCM platform that manages the entire communication by leveraging modern technologies when clubbed with cloud solutions work like magic and offers seamless experience to the customers in an omni-channel manner. That is why cloud integration has become necessary to achieve more effective deployment and sharing. The cloud focuses multi-channel communications and allows businesses to simplify document template consistency, individual customer security, and compliance across each channel simultaneously. Each of these sync technologies provides organizations with a new and efficient way to digitize older legacy systems and documents to meet modern standards of how customers want to receive their communications.

Delightful Customer Experience is the new goal of a robust CCM solution

More and more customers are becoming accustomed to inter-connected communication and personalized experiences. In fact, 48 per cent of consumers in all sectors expect professional treatment or communication because they are loyal customers. To provide these services, companies must find new ways to make their customer interactions more personal. After all, 89 percent of businesses believe that customer service sets them apart from their competitors. The company's success begins with the experience of its customers.

For companies operating in highly regulated and compliance-based industries, such as financial services, insurance and healthcare, the first step to ensuring the best possible customer experience is to identify and understand each individual and act accordingly.

Providing customized content based on past interactions is the real deal for brands today. Through machine learning, organizations can learn how specific communications should be executed, as well as where and to whom they should be delivered.

Management of Risk

Legacy systems only allowed companies to obtain basic customer information, such as name, gender, and location. But emerging channels, along with data allows new levels of customization. Because CCM looks to modernize the legacy systems, solutions and practices; the ability to collect, segment, source, and understand customer data when a crisis or problem occurs is a game change. Increased personalization through digitization is the newest trend in CCM space.

In the age of big data and omni-channel solutions - Compliance is the key need

Today, digitization has become increasingly prevalent among companies in a wide range of industries. A study by PwC found that digitization will cut costs by 3.6 per cent and increase revenue by 2.9 per cent annually until 2020. However, digitization also makes commitment more difficult because of the sheer number of channels that open as a result. All channels, whether social media, chat sites or anything else, have their own rules. They should be carefully managed to ensure that every communication sent through them is friendly to the regulations and provides sensitive information to customers securely.

FINAL WORD

Remember that your customers have already adopted the digitization and prefer online digitized services. If you still believe that sending a PDF copy of an invoice or account means you have been digitized, you have really missed the potential of digital customer communications. This is the first step in a long journey to digitize documents. A right CCM solution truly captures this potential to not simply digitize communication but personalize and hyper - personalize relevant, contextual and specific communication.

How can you be a part of this CCM revolution led by digital transformation? Are your customers delighted and loyal? If not, how can you turn the tide towards your brand? Espire Infolabs is changing the game for clients in customer experience space as we are enabling our customers to transform digitally and offer personalized solution for a delightful customer experience. We would love to hear from you and be of any assistance. Drop us an email at marketing@espire.com.