In today's ever-changing business environment, companies need to build agility into their customer communication management (CCM) strategies. Agility refers to the ability of a company to thrive on change, get stronger, and make it a source of real competitive advantage. To achieve this agility, companies need to consider both internal and external forces of change and implement a cloud-based CCM solution.

A survey conducted by Forrester revealed that improving customer experience through better communication was the top priority for 72% of businesses.

External forces of change can come from social, cultural, demographic, political, legal, economic, technological, and industry factors. Internal changes could come from low performance, low satisfaction, new missions, new leadership, and competition for growth, among others. To remain competitive, companies need to adopt a flexible and agile approach to their CCM strategy.

Here are some ways to build agility into your CCM strategy:

Embrace digital transformation: Digital transformation is essential to building an agile CCM strategy. By adopting digital channels such as email, SMS, and social media, organizations can quickly respond to customer queries and provide real-time support. Digital channels also enable organizations to deliver personalized and targeted communications that meet the unique needs of each customer.

Use a customer-centric approach: An agile CCM strategy is all about putting the customer at the center of the communication process. Organizations should strive to understand their customers' needs, preferences, and behaviors, and tailor their communications accordingly. By using customer data and analytics, organizations can create personalized and relevant communications that resonate with their customers.

Automate processes: Automation is a key enabler of agility in CCM. By automating routine tasks such as document creation and distribution, organizations can reduce the time and effort required to manage communications. This allows them to focus on more value-added activities such as analyzing customer data and developing targeted communications.

Implement agile methodologies: Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban can be applied to CCM to improve agility. These methodologies emphasize collaboration, iterative development, and continuous improvement, enabling organizations to quickly adapt to changing requirements and feedback from customers.

Invest in a flexible CCM platform: A flexible CCM platform is essential to building an agile CCM strategy. Organizations should look for a platform that is easily configurable and can support a range of communication channels and formats. This enables them to quickly adapt to changing customer needs and market conditions.

Adopt a continuous improvement mindset: Finally, organizations should adopt a continuous improvement mindset when it comes to CCM. This involves regularly reviewing and analyzing customer feedback and data, and using this information to make incremental improvements to communication processes and strategies. By continuously improving their CCM strategy, organizations can stay agile and responsive to changing customer needs.

Traditional CCM solutions are usually on premise or managed services with limited APIs, heavy IT burden, hidden and ongoing maintenance costs, long implementations, limited agility, fixed and limited scalability, and the need for configuration continually. In contrast, cloud-based CCM solutions offer extensibility, business user control, cost-effectiveness, and speed.

On the other hand, Cloud-based CCM solutions offer numerous benefits, including scalability options, lower total cost of ownership, reduced capital expenditures, improved security, speed to market, enhanced flexibility in operating/service delivery models, platform availability, and speed of innovation.

Cloud-based CCM solutions offer a range of benefits for businesses of all sizes. Some of the key benefits include:

1. Cost savings: It eliminates the need for businesses to invest in expensive hardware and software infrastructure. This can result in significant cost savings over time, as businesses only pay for the services they use.

2. Scalability: Cloud-based CCM solutions are highly scalable, meaning businesses can easily scale up or down their usage as needed. This can be particularly valuable for businesses with fluctuating communication needs or seasonal spikes in demand.

3. Flexibility: They are designed to be flexible, allowing businesses to customize their communication templates and channels to suit their unique needs. This can help businesses improve their communication strategies and deliver more personalized messages to their customers.

4. Accessibility: They are accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, making it easy for businesses to manage their communication campaigns remotely. This can be particularly valuable for businesses with distributed teams or those operating in multiple locations.

5. Security: They offer robust security features, such as encryption and multi-factor authentication, to protect sensitive customer data. This can help businesses comply with data privacy regulations and protect against cyber threats.

Summing up

Cloud-based CCM solutions can help organizations, incorporate agility into their CCM strategy. Numerous advantages of cloud-based CCM solutions include rapid elasticity, measurable service offerings, capacity on-demand, resource pooling, speedy provisioning, capacity flexibility that can improve CX, scalability, flexibility, productivity, and engagement - paving the way to a resilient, scalable and sustainable business growth in record turnaround time!