Have you ever thought about how much correspondence you really need to manage? Think about it: every memo your staff sends—emails and printed letters, document that gets shared with customers, colleagues, and partners—these are all components of an array correspondence that you need to read, delete or respond to in some fashion. Now consider that anything populated with content that moves your business along can benefit from better, more transparent systems. Every piece is important and it all needs to be managed.

Measuring customer experience (CX) can be murky and filled with anecdotal, qualitative information. However, measuring the effectiveness of a CX strategy can be very straightforward. It involves setting goals and performing a quantitative analysis of the results.

We have been writing about the convergence of customer communications management (CCM) and digital customer experience (CX) management technologies for over four years. We researched with Forrester, produced an ebook, and authored a white paper, all digging deeper into the detailed why’s and how’s of the topic.. We were way ahead of the curve then, and still are now.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance in sophistication and acceptance, robots and technology are taking on more human characteristics and responsibilities in daily life. So ubiquitous has AI become that one Danish study even wonders if robots could be considered our “friends” in the future. Though making connections with machine sounds extremely futuristic, one customer experience (CX) technology available today has improved our ability to get to know our customers on a more intimate basis. Modern digital experience (DX) technologies are changing the game when it comes to making a personal connection.

Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms [paywall] (Gartner, Inc., February 11, 2019) predicts that through 2021, 85% of the effort and cost in a digital experience platform (DXP) program will be spent on integration. That’s partly because Gartner has refined its definition of a DXP, i.e., it is not a monolithic product from a single vendor anymore. Now it is an anchoring tenet in an ecosystem of best-of-breed composition, management, delivery and optimization capabilities that support contextualized digital experiences. It’s also because a DXP is but one piece in the larger mosaic of what Gartner has called the customer engagement hub and others refer to as the digital experience (DX) stack, i.e., the software that powers customer journeys.

What is CCM Technology? Customer communications management (CCM) software streamlines the design, personalization, delivery, and tracking of customer communications like letters and statements that inform and engage customers across web, mobile, and print channels. CCM allows companies to present a cohesive, consistent image for communicating with customers. The primary function of CCM software is to enable companies to create, deliver, and manage highly personalized communications with customers at scale. CCM software tames people and processes to show the customer one, uniform brand. There is a reason the focus is on customers rather than on company or product or service. Imagine a sports team. Although the main goal is for the players to perform well during games, a lot of behind-the-scenes effort goes into keeping them part of the team. Player interactions with coaches, trainers, staff psychologists, HR, fans, and teammates all affect how a player feels about the team. Every touchpoint pushes the player closer to (loyalty) or further from (indifference) the team. Indifference is dangerous because, given the right opportunity, a player will switch teams. Teams spend quite a bit of money on valuable players ensuring their loyalty. Team owners know that the return on this investment (ROI) is worth it. The same holds true for CCM. Given the right CCM software, you can keep customers happy and engaged. Here’s a look at the five key pieces of CCM that help keep all of your customer communications in sync. Like cogs in a system, the various parts of good CCM software work together as one.