By Melissa Donovan
Customer data is more important—and more powerful—than ever. A company’s ability to reach and serve client communications is enabled with the help of customer communications management (CCM) or customer experience management solutions.
In November 2014, analyst firm Gartner published the Magic Quadrant for Customer Communications Management Software report. It estimates that CCM software was an $820 million market in 2013, based on total software revenue worldwide. It is forecast to grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate of approximately 11 percent.
Transactional print continues to hold an important position in CCM. The extent of its influence is affected by electronic delivery channels, the cloud, and data intelligence. As more customers rely on smartphones and tablets, they request information digitally, often eliminating the need for a detailed printed form. This doesn’t mean print disappears entirely from the equation. Instead, a more summarized and customized document is created.
The Changing Tide
Electronic delivery channels affect CCM as a whole as well as transactional print’s role in the process. In general, electronic delivery channels present new opportunities for organizations to reach customers and transform interactions for a better customer experience.
Communication between the customer and vendor steers away from a one-sided conversation, according to Scott Baker, EVP, Crawford Technologies, Inc. “In the past, when printed documents were the only option, customer communications were unidirectional—from company to recipient. Paper documents limited the vendor/customer conversation, while the proliferation of electronic distribution channels provides myriad opportunities for interactive engagement between customers and vendors to occur.”
The introduction of electronic channels makes CCM more complex, according to Chris Miller, VP of product management, Prinova Inc. “The challenge that emerges is that the tools, even the content, used to support the various channel preferences are owned and controlled by different departments. Driving consistent messaging to the same customer across multiple channels is very difficult as a result.”
Print’s role in CCM is modified. Admittedly, fewer pages are printed today than in the past.
“Traditionally, transactional documents contained detailed information about each transaction, like the listing of each phone call on a mobile phone bill. Today, bills and statements often only contain summary information. This reduces the total page volume per printer, which results in significant savings from paper, consumables, and printing fulfillment equipment,” explains Kurt Jackson, EVP of sales, GhostDraft Inc.
Despite this, transactional print continues to play an important part in the mix. “Surveys show that people still want to receive sensitive financial statements and invoices by mail, so they can keep a hardcopy of their transactions and also because the mail piece serves as an effective reminder to pay their bills,” reports Grant Miller, VP global strategic product management, Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies.
According Patrick Kehoe, worldwide director of product marketing, HP Exstream, despite the market demand for digital first and print second, a place still exists for printed communications. He cites transactional documents, such as insurance policies, contracts, and other long-life documents, as applications better served by paper.
Judy Berlin, VP marketing, XMPie, A Xerox Company, agrees. “Even with the proliferation of electronic delivery channels, print is still a relevant communication medium. There are areas where print is still more desirable, and even required by law,” she notes.
Cloud Moves In
Another factor in the CCM movement is cloud functionality. Similar to its use in other software solutions, the cloud provides affordability, ease of use, and scalability in CCM.
“The cloud delivery model enables a business to optimize multi-channel customer experiences from any device, understand brand health and product perception in real time, and efficiently adjust campaign strategies to increase marketing effectiveness and impact revenue,” explains Howard Beader, VP of product marketing, SDL.
These benefits enable a user to bring a CCM solution under new ownership. “Key decision makers are no longer IT, but the business itself. Based on the complexity of CCM, IT is still an important partner and stakeholder in adopting a cloud solution, but the business can now decide on the right tools to fit their needs, usually at a lower total cost of ownership,” continues Chris Miller.
Grant Miller agrees that the cloud is meant to drive efficiency, however adopters also need to take into account security risks and weigh them to determine whether savings from efficiencies are worth the potential cost of a security breach.
This is why financial institutions, insurance companies, and other large organizations are concerned about storing transactional information in the cloud, according to Kehoe. “CCM technologies are often responsible for communicating the most sensitive and secure information that an organization presents to their customers,” he continues.
For those organizations comfortable moving CCM into the cloud, concerns still present themselves, shares Baker. These include mitigating the risks and costs involved in migration away from legacy applications, regulatory compliance, and enabling access to legacy data and documents via modern delivery platforms.
Data is Welcome Here
Data is an integral part of successful CCM. Today’s solutions enable the mining of intricate customer details to achieve maximum results from a campaign.
CCM is a natural complement to data intelligence, argues GhostDraft’s Jackson. “Data ultimately needs to be consumed as information. CCM enables customers to leverage the information they have to personalize and target each customer,” he notes. This drives greater customer retention and allows for more effective cross and up selling opportunities.
“Effective CCM solutions leverage data to create a more complete and accurate view of each customer and deliver targeted, personalized communications to each individual over their preferred medium at the best time to influence a desired behavior,” adds Grant Miller.
The recent spotlight on data intelligence extends to CCM. Chris Miller believes data intelligence transforms how we view customers. “They are no longer just broad segments; they are now individuals, cohorts, or clusters. The intelligence challenge now becomes one of execution—how do I use these insights to say the right things to the right individuals at the right time.”
To be successful, according to SDL’s Beader, an organization also has to offer the customer a level of trust. “While these personalized experiences are critical, personal privacy must also be considered. To provide a personalized relationship built on trust, brands must be transparent with the data they collect and ensure it is used to enhance the experience,” he continues.
Embracing the Difference
Change can cause havoc if a new system is not implemented correctly. As CCM evolves to function with both electronic and print channels in the cloud with a focus on leveraging data intelligence, enterprises and datacenters must fall in line.
It is partly the customer’s more involved role that defines how enterprises and datacenters function. XMPie’s Berlin says that customers simply expect a highly engaging experience with continuity across multiple channels. “To adapt, enterprises need to find solutions that are not only holistically integrated with customer data, but can also be flexible enough to generate highly creative media across all the channels.”
“Enterprises are working hard to keep up with the velocity of change regarding both customer expectations and systems requirements. They are also working hard to mitigate the risks inherent in complying with regulatory changes as well as how they handle and protect customer data,” explains Crawford Technologies’ Baker.
Scott Draeger, M-EDP, VP of product management, GMC Software Technology, believes datacenters and enterprises are starting to manage communications by type instead of channel. “This requires a different mindset that drives collaboration and innovation across a variety of distribution channels.”
Or as HP’s Kehoe explains, many organizations ensure that today’s CCM solutions are not just the tactical ability to create, deliver, store, and manage outbound and interactive communications, but also a corporate strategy to support all channels.
Datacenters, according to Grant Miller, are changing to serve one core workstation instead of serving each individual channel—print, mobile, Web—on an independent data stream. “In order for them to succeed in migrating from a cost center, an internal services model must move to one supporting direct client communications. They must enable multi-channel and cross-location integration,” he continues.
“The demographic shift taking place and millennials joining the workforce accelerates the pace of change,” suggests GhostDraft’s Jackson.
Accepting the Mix
Mobility, the cloud, and data intelligence directly affect CCM and the evolving role of print. It is imperative that data is used correctly and within the correct communication channel.
Marketing is not a one-size-fits-all approach. What could work for one person, may not work for another or what could work for one marketing message won’t translate well to another. It’s here that we must simply accept the mix that makes up today’s CCM solutions. dps
