Developing a highly efficient customer communications team that delivers a top-notch customer experience with minimal error takes time, planning, and forethought. That forethought should include developing a comprehensive customer communication management (CCM) strategy with the goal of benefitting the overall customer experience (CX).
Companies that strategically link or integrate CCM and CX see massive benefits in a variety of significant business metrics. Let’s take a look at CCM and CX, and at how integrating the two makes life better for a company and its customers.
The Customer Experience
The customer experience is composed of many different aspects including, at the highest level, strategy and tactics. The real-world definition comes down to the emotions customers feel after engaging with any single touchpoint along an individual customer journey.
Customer Communication Management
CCM has two sides: technology and discipline. On the discipline side of the coin are the CCM practitioners and processes while on the technology side are software (and especially cloud-based) solutions like INTOUCH® from Topdown.
While CCM is traditionally thought of as an operating expense, it’s becoming more readily recognized as an important contributor to the customer experience, impacting an array of key metrics such as customer retention, customer loyalty, and customer lifetime value.
A comprehensive CCM-CX strategy amplifies your business as a whole.
The CCM-CX Integration Strategy
An organization and its customers benefit from the company defining and following a comprehensive and effective CCM-CX integration strategy.
Customers benefit by receiving more timely, personalized, and relevant communications than they had previously experienced; now they receive communications over their most preferred channels. These factors contribute to fostering new positive reactions and emotions: customers come away with the impression that they feel known and valued by the company.
On the company side, the organization begins to realize additional benefits from CCM-CX integration and implementation. A few of these benefits include, but are not limited to: lower call volume related to customer communications; higher customer satisfaction rates; and a lower error rate (i.e., less work and waste from “redos” and no related regulatory issues). You can find in our on-going blog discussions a number of other potential benefits related to operational excellence and customer experience.
All of these factors make it easy to see why many companies are choosing to develop a comprehensive CCM-CX integration strategy and implement it into their business plan.
Building The Strategy
In building the CCM-CX integration strategy, the professionals and decision-makers involved need to first evaluate the current CCM solution as it stands. During this process, the team identifies touchpoints that are managed within—or at least serviced by—the CCM technology.
Once identified, the company can include these touchpoints in customer journey maps and CX metrics, allowing executives, managers, and decision-makers to make informed decisions to move forward with their CCM-CX integration strategy.
Additionally, it’s considered a best practice to include at least one CCM specialist on any customer experience team or CX steering committee. A key and essential step in this process requires linkage of the most impactful CCM metrics to their CX counterparts.
The Results of CCM/CX Integration
The results of dedicating and committing to building a comprehensive CCM-CX integration strategy are significant.
According to Aspire, companies that commit to and follow through with their CCM-CX integration strategies see an increase in customer satisfaction, customer retention, and customer loyalty. Additionally, organizations also experience operational savings and a reduction in risk. Finally, companies see a reduction in costs plus a higher success rate with up-selling and wallet share initiatives.
Ultimately, marketing organizations and industry experts continue to recognize the customer experience as one of the most significant factors to influence customer loyalty rates, customer retention, and customer lifetime value. As such, the most competitive, and fastest-growing companies are making a point to commit the necessary time, resources, and personnel to a comprehensive CCM solution that positively impacts their overall customer experience strategy.
For four decades, Topdown has been helping our customers increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention and decrease operating expenses related to customer communications. If you’d like to learn more, get in touch with Topdown today!
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