Consumer empowerment in today’s digital age has made customer experience (CX) an increasingly important metric. In response, nearly every enterprise has made enhancing and improving consumers’ experience a key strategic priority. While the development of superior products and services is (and should be) paramount, B2C communications are ultimately what drive remarkable CX. Here at Symcor, we believe that forward-looking organizations should embrace any interaction across every channel as an opportunity to improve overall experience and strengthen the relationship between their brand and their customers.
Transactional communications remain the primary consumer touchpoint for enterprises operating across all verticals. As Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends’ most recent transactional communication survey shows, growing consumer demand for personalized, one-to-one service has made improving CX just as vital to customer communications strategy as data security and cost reduction.
CX, cost reduction and security: All high priorities
How important are the following business objectives to your transactional communications strategy over the next 2 years?
N=300 Enterprise Respondents in the U.S. and Canada
Source: Annual State of North American Transactional Communication: Business Survey; Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends 2018
This same study revealed that about 80% of enterprises have a CX strategy in place, but only two-thirds believe they have the right technology to execute it. In an effort to develop a cohesive approach that unites individual consumer engagements across the entire customer journey, many enterprises are working to synchronize their processes to establish a single view of the customer.
Mind the gapIn their efforts so far, most have focused on blurring the lines between transactional and marketing communications while coordinating correspondence across an array of print and digital channels. Unfortunately, a far more obvious gap between inbound and outbound communication processes continues to hinder most efforts to improve CX. The process of managing inbound and outbound communications is typically separated today, even in terms of technology. We’ve found that digital mailrooms typically handle the digitization, categorization, extraction, and forwarding of inbound messages, yet customer communication management (CCM) systems are commonly responsible for composing, producing, and distributing the correspondence. And, while the number of businesses outsourcing outbound communications is accelerating, many firms continue to maintain control of their inbound communications, creating an even greater strategic disconnect.
Efficient customer mappingAlthough this separation might make sense when organizing business functions, we feel it is ultimately short- sighted. Customer journey mapping can help identify every touchpoint, register all communications exchanged between a business and its customers, and create a better understanding of the overall customer journey. Combining the management of inbound and outbound communications will offer instant insights into consumer preference, allowing businesses to communicate a higher level of understanding. Meaningful and ongoing dialogue can ultimately foster trust and customer loyalty. A combined approach might also offer your organization a distinct advantage as business processes shift from batch to real-time delivery.
Real-time communications on the riseAccording to InfoTrends’ multi-client study entitled Pricing for Digital: Exploring New Models for Transactional Communications Delivery, 80% of document volume was still sent by batch in Q4 2017.
Nevertheless, three-quarters of enterprises confirmed that they had recently seen an increase in real-time delivery. The survey data concluded that while enterprises are interested in the delivery of real-time communications, many lack the internal infrastructure to support it. A number of respondents also struggle with a backlog in IT projects, making it difficult to give this initiative the attention that it would need. Furthermore, most systems are not set up to handle real-time communication channels.
Despite these barriers, we know that the demand for real-time communications is only expected to accelerate, especially now that today’s customers have become accustomed to accessing information for themselves on their own terms. As real-time delivery gains prominence, a cohesive approach to inbound and outbound communications will become increasingly vital. Enterprises simply won’t be able to effectively communicate with their customers in real-time if the disconnect between the messages that they receive and the ones that they send out continues.
Take the first stepThe first step toward a truly modern communications strategy involves changing the way your business thinks about and manages its inbound and outbound communications. To do that, you will likely need expert help, either from internal or external sources. Having a single, synchronized Customer Communications platform for outbound and inbound communications is the key that will enable your business to obtain, organize, store, and deliver vital information to clients and customers as efficiently and intelligently as possible.
Tell us how you enhance and improve your consumers’ experience.
