And while the majority of companies can only aspire to the same levels of market penetration, what’s apparent is that the quality of customer experience offered by the big players sets the standard by which all are judged.

It’s all too easy for any brand to mis-step in customer engagement, especially given that the journeys customers take with brands are long and, in an ideal world, continuous as companies seek to build loyalty and repeat business.

In previous articles we’ve covered the importance of unifying customer communications by using a CCM platform (customer communication management) to create a coherent, personalised experience at scale both with an existing customer base and prospects. If we take the need for such a solution as a given, choosing a CCM (or migrating to a new CCM platform) comes down to examining the fundamental capabilities of the offerings from different vendors and identifying the business impact the core strengths of each will have on an organisation in 2024.

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The Quadrant Knowledge Solutions SPARK Matrix^™ breakdown of the leading vendors’ offerings in this regard is highly informative, describing the 11 fundamental capabilities that a CCM must offer and highlighting six key differentiators that are especially relevant in today’s business environment. In this article, we want to focus on two standout features that deliver significant competitive advantage for companies that embrace the concept of putting digital technologies and resources at the heart of customer experience building.

Enhanced CX and Personalisation

It’s essential that engagement with customers happens throughout the full lifecycle of the customer journey, and high-impact CX depends on two mutually connected factors: personalisation and channel preferences (the what and how). By giving customers control over which channels they communicate on (how) and ensuring each touchpoint comprises personalised and relevant content (what), brands create better relationships with each individual and establish trust that, in turn, encourages continuing business.

For that to take place, the CCM that oversees each engagement needs to be able to create individually customised content, offering different data in different ways. Blanket messaging down a limited number of favoured channels is a hit-and-miss approach that can easily alienate as many customers as it converts, with potential buyers or service-users looking to competing companies that they feel they have a stronger association with.

An unfocused messaging strategy also sparks fears in a user base that their data is not respected and that their privacy is being abused. Carefully personalised messaging through favoured channels also tells the customer that a brand’s data governance and security measures are in place and observed.

The right data AND the right messaging

Most companies actually use only a proportion of the information they have access to about customers and prospects. Their data sources can be, at best, only partially integrated with the central CCM. With a deeper integration of disparate data sources drawn from right across the business, communication professionals have a deeper insight into what makes each contact tick.

Today’s best CCM platforms draw from rich data sources, using AI tools to sanitise and normalise information to create more detailed pictures of the individual, better to tune messaging at every touchpoint. With a CCM platform like the market’s technology leader Quadient, data can be pulled into the central messaging platform from rich yet uncommonly-used data sources like member portals, helpdesk, or support databases like JIRA, SMS records and email.

Brands using InspireXpress migration technology, for example, get automatic ingestion of data, aided by AI algorithms, from legacy CCMs and templates. The same systems not only normalise all available information so it’s ready for use in communications but also can be used to propose rationalised CCM templates to increase a team’s efficiency and reduce duplicate content. A clear migration path and tools to enable it should be a priority when considering which CCM to deploy.

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Yet whatever the data sources, every message – especially in highly regulated sectors like healthcare and finance – has to adhere to compliance standards to avoid fines and potentially disastrous reputational damage. The CCM platform is responsible for readying data for comms so it complies with evolving rule sets that keep the organisation on the right side of industry-specific governance.

An open and extensible approach to data allows the growth of a CCM over time, extending capabilities with differentiating elements, like BlueRush’s video capability to add enriched experiences to comms, or Salesforce integration for enhanced CRM-based capabilities.

With a host of potential third-party services in the cloud and drawn from a company’s existing IT stack, brands have the capability to go above and beyond their competitors’ offered customer experiences and turn customers into brand advocates.

Next steps

You can read the Quadrant Knowledge Solutions SPARK Matrix^™ report to dig deeper into the 11 fundamental capabilities of a CCM by following this link. The leader in all the paper’s measurements, Quadient, can be found here. If you need measurable business outcomes from your brand communications, you can start building using the best, host-anywhere (on-premise or cloud) solution today.

The post Next-gen CX is based on customer communication management systems. appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Raymund Chao, the chairman of PwC Asia Pacific and China, said:

“Competition continues to intensify, risks of disruption remain and societal expectations are rising, which collectively challenges the viability of every business. To truly flourish in an environment that is continuously evolving, organisations must transform and adapt at speed. One of the primary ways to help them achieve such agility is by adopting best-in-class digital technologies.”

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Customer Communications Management (CCM) has evolved from a traditional tool for one-way communications to a pivotal component in the customer experience (CX) stack. The “experience economy” demands seamless, digital-first interactions, compelling enterprises to prioritise proactive and personalised experiences.

Along with economic challenges and shifting business priorities, companies in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly seeing the critical role of CCM in addressing customer expectations and reducing friction across channels. This is driven by the need for cohesive, integrated platforms that leverage data, technology and human interactions to visualise and manage customer journeys effectively.

To determine the tangible impact that CCM is having on APAC businesses, Omdia (on behalf of Quadient) surveyed 419 CX-focused leaders in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand about the priority of CCM in their customer experience management (CXM) ecosystems.

When asked about the top priorities for this integration, 56 per cent of the respondents cited process automation, 54 per cent emphasised personalisation and 42 per cent said self-service. This indicates an overall shift in business priorities towards enhancing customer journeys and engagement.

About a third of the leaders in financial services, banking, telecoms and utilities said they had employed Chief Experience Officers (CXOs) to guide their CCM initiatives, demonstrating the elevated importance of successful platform deployment.

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Across all departments, “increasing productivity gains” was cited as the primary objective for their CCM investments. This shows that CCMs are becoming key to addressing employee shortages and turnover, which has become an issue for APAC business leaders due to the out-migration of skilled workers, an ageing workforce and insufficient resources for training.

In addition to allowing companies to remain competitive, digital technologies like CCM platforms are becoming an essential line of defence against rising phishing scams and electronic fraud.

Complaints to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) related to scams doubled in 2023 over the previous year. A notable example was the scammer who tricked consumers out of their life savings by sending texts pretending to be HSBC Australia.

Elsewhere, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has proposed a ‘Shared Responsibility Framework’ which outlines how responsibility for phishing scam losses will be shared among the relevant financial institutions and telecommunications companies as well as the consumer. In this context, compliance, timeliness, authenticity and process automation in communications management are crucial for organisations to prioritise, not only to enhance customer experience but also to safeguard against the escalating threats of fraudulent activities.

The CCM platform organisations choose to deploy must support a seamless and personalised CX, simplify communications management, be interoperable with other customer engagement applications and defend against bad actors. A leading provider of such a solution is Quadient. By incorporating wizard-driven forms, mobile onboarding and real-time automated interactions, the Quadient Inspire CCM actively enhances customer engagement and satisfaction. It views the CX as a continuous journey by employing a customer journey map that incorporates key performance indicators (KPIs), tracks issues, conducts analysis and assigns relevant content to each stage of the customer journey.

The Quadient AI engine can suggest minor content improvements for sentiment, tone and readability, as well as more significant changes through alternative sentences and translations. On top of providing cleaner and more engaging communications, this feature ensures personalised communications with a consistent voice.

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Quadient’s versatile deployment options, including software-as-a-service (SaaS), public cloud, on-premise or a hosted managed service, cater to diverse organisational needs. It provides the flexibility businesses need to remain profitable through difficult economic conditions. It also allows those in countries with stringent consumer data laws to maintain compliance.

Recognised for its performance and scale by customers and partners, Quadient efficiently handles large communication volumes with its Scaler engine executing multiple output delivery and processing tasks. This contributes significantly to increased productivity and, ultimately, a better employee experience.

With tedious, repetitive tasks taken off their hands, staff can hit their KPIs more quickly and concentrate on more interesting, strategic work.

To help facilitate quicker adoption and return on investment, Quadient streamlines the implementation and migration experience from legacy CCM systems with migration tools and prebuilt integrations, templates and content objects.

Discover more about how CCM is revolutionising APAC businesses by downloading the Quadient whitepaper ‘CCM’s Essential Role in the Asia Pacific CX Ecosystem’, and find out how the Inspire CCM can future-proof your business by visiting the Quadient website.

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