Go back a little in time, and try to remember how financial services looked before the advent of technological advancements and an omnichannel customer experience. The picture that comes to mind includes printed account statements or policy documents as the only customer touch point, and it doesn’t take a genius to guess these didn’t add to customer delight of any sort. The lack of personalization and appeal did not help either.
From then to now, a lot has transformed
In a digital world full of hyper-connected consumers, the desire to feel special and noticed is at an all-time high and customer communication management (CCM) takes centre stage. Customers hold in their hands more power than ever before. A variety of digital devices, ranging from smartphones, tablets, to laptops, keep them online 24/7 and allow them access to a plethora of information as and when they need it.
Sample this. When a customer interacts with a bank or insurance company through websites, mobile apps, or calls with customer representatives, what they receive is a seamless customer experience. It, then, is a given that he/she would continue to shop, pay bills timely, and maybe even recommend your business to other customers. The takeaway being: an omnichannel digital experience for consumers is more of a necessity than a luxury for financial organizations.
How Does One Ensure Happy Customers In The Digital Age?
With the detailed discussion about the obstacles and what is expected of organizations, the answer to this question becomes an imperative. Financial services such as banks, insurance, healthcare are all highly regulated industries, and the need to abide by government regulations makes customer experience a trickier domain for them. Apart from being consistent across all digital touch points, they also need to keep up to rules in terms of disclosures, mandated language or font types.
What such industries need is a solid CCM platform, with the following components.
- Multi-Channel Engagement: A modern CCM platform should let you engage with your customers through multiple channels, and ensure engagement is consistent across all channels to avoid any customer dissatisfaction.
- Personalization: Highly targeted and personalized communication that strikes the right chord with each customer is the need of the hour. CCM enables you to cross-sell/up-sell your products or services based on customer profiles, generate communications in local languages and comply with local regulations.
- Legacy Integration: Integration with back-end legacy systems, such as core banking or insurance systems is crucial to ensure a 360-degree insight into customers’ data and help generate consolidated information.
- Centralized Control: All the data assets and templates are maintained within a CCM system centrally. This is essential for any multi-national organization with customer relationships across the globe and ensures a holistic view of customers present across product-lines or departments.
- Security: Security is the critical to outbound communications, especially in the Financial Services sector. CCM provides out of the box security features on the documents, such as password protection, barcodes, QR codes, digital signatures, and follows security standards like PCI DSS or HIPAA for data encryption.
A personalized and engaging relationship with customers is essential for business growth. In an age dictated by customers, CCM is the road that leads to the omnichannel, personalized and interactive experience which can make you a success story.
