Venture Blog

What is Customer Communication Management (CCM)?

Terra Topik
by Terra Topik

August 22, 2023

Customer Communication Management (CCM) is the essence of connecting with customers. Through personalized, relevant correspondence using omni-channel delivery methods, CCM manages the transactional relationship between a company and its customers, including invoices, statements, notices, letters, and more.  

A successful relationship between a business and its customers relies on communications that are expertly crafted, personalized, delivered, stored, and most importantly, accessible and actionable. You may share your message through print & mail, email, SMS text, personalized videos, on your website, or through social media. 

A CCM plan is vital in today’s competitive market where differentiation is key. If you’re experiencing any of the following customer communication challenges, it may be time to evaluate your Customer Communications Management strategy: 

  • Multiple complex internal systems with different data output formats  
  • Lack of meaningful content engagement from customers 
  • Inflexible, multi-channel delivery methods 
  • Clogged internal workflow silos that delay getting your messages to market
  • Difficulty with customer experience, retention, and acquisition
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Benefits of Customer Communications Management:

Customer communications must be clear, concise, and consistently on-brand to remain competitive in the current marketplace. Employing a robust Customer Communications Management system is not just nice—it’s necessary. 

CCM standards are unique and include: 

  • Secure handling of highly sensitive data  
  • Production turn times of 24–48 hours after data receipt  
  • Fulfillment of all input records
  • Frequent document template and content modification
  • Variable and static data requirements 

Businesses require CCM systems to sustain the bulk creation, production, and delivery of all types of high-volume communications, improving automation and efficiency in your customer correspondence. 

Below are six key benefits of using a strong CCM platform: 

Benefits of Customer Communications Management004
  1. Accelerates Digital Transformation

On-the-go customers require the flexibility to receive personalized communications online, by email, or through text. Increasing digital adoption rates reduces the cost of paper and postage and can elevate brand loyalty. 

If your organization is still leveraging complex legacy platforms filled with critical data that only caters to print output… it’s time to accelerate your digital transformation strategy. Integrate your legacy system with a robust CCM platform designed to reach your customers using their preferred delivery methods.  

  1.  Improves Customer Experience 

58% of consumers are willing to pay more to receive a better customer experience, and adding personalization to your communications is proven to dramatically improve interactions.  

The right CCM platform tracks customer preferences including language selections, accessibility needs, and preferred delivery methods to ensure a personalized customer experience. 

Take it to the next level with personalized video communications that provide an interactive approach to understanding complex communications, making it easy for customers to engage with your content, answer their most common questions, and reduce call volumes. 

  1. Enhances Organizational Efficiency

What if you could edit your customer communications and reduce delays and costly bottlenecks? Using a centralized self-service CCM tool, team members can customize and manage content with just a few clicks. 

You can edit documents, store templates, and replicate changes across your communications, automating them with efficiency and without high programming costs or IT resources. 

  1.  Shortens the Sales Cycle

The right platform can shorten your sales cycle by offering your customers more control features, like fillable forms and interactive documents. An automated data collection workflow eliminates manually gathering important data from clients and speeds up the buying process. Streamlining data collection improves communication between you and your clients while still reducing the sales cycle. 

In addition, the right CCM can help you identify where customers are stalling in your sales cycle. Armed with the right information, you can identify developing issues and provide additional guidance. 

  1. Drives Customer Engagement

CCM platforms can not only promote new products and services, but they also help clients understand their interactions with your organization, follow statements and invoices, and pay their bills on time. 

Clear calls-to-action improve engagement, resulting in increased response rates and expedited payments. This accelerates the sales and payment cycle while providing an overall positive customer experience.  

  1. Ensures Compliance Standards

If you’re in an industry that enforces rigorous compliance standards, like the Mortgage, Finance, Wealth Management, Healthcare, or Insurance industries, a CCM platform is a crucial investment to help meet regulations held both federally and in-state. 

Including regulatory disclosures and disclaimers in your communications can help reduce non-compliance risks and potential penalties. Creating a variety of reusable template designs allows for easy replication, and edits made to one version can be easily replicated in the other versions.

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Key Features of a Valuable CCM Platform

How do I know which Customer Communication Management system is right for my organization?   

  1. Omni-Channel Delivery

Customers are no longer satisfied only receiving invoices, statements, letters, and notices in their postal mailbox; they want to receive communications electronically via email or text as well. This flexibility in connecting with your customers anytime, anywhere, anyhow, can reduce postage and paper costs, and increase brand loyalty and customer retention. Tailoring your communication delivery strategies to maintain strong B2C relationships is essential.

Omni-channel delivery, a communications strategy implemented by the best CCM leaders, is the ability to connect with customers seamlessly across multiple channels; customers can pick up where they left off in an interaction with your organization no matter which channel they’re using.

  1. Personalization

Does your organization store customer information in multiple systems, stagnating your ability to create meaningful, individualized content? Integrating with CCM software capable of correlating multi-sourced data to create personalized content keeps customers connected to your brand. 
 
A comprehensive CCM platform prioritizes personalization using customer-specific information, including demographics, buying history, and delivery preferences to provide offers of interest that engage customers. 
 
3. Scalable Document Generation 

Generating significant amounts of documents daily isn’t easy or economical without a robust CCM system to expand with growing production demands. 

When selecting a CCM tool, verify that it can scale from low- to high-volume document production through self-service options. Save time, effort, and money by ensuring you can create and deploy documents through a streamlined workflow. As your document repository grows, a savvy CCM system will track metrics and provide comprehensive reporting with easy access.   

  1. Dynamic Documents by Design

Optimizing your document designs with personalized messaging is a sure-fire way to delight your customers and increase engagement.  

Interactive invoices and statements, for example, are easy for your customers to understand and act on. Clickable document features also provide data that is recorded in your CCM system to analyze customer engagement and provide tailored marketing messages. 

These interactive digital documents are channel-neutral, meaning they can be viewed seamlessly on all your customer’s devices. An effective CCM platform will ensure documents are designed for each delivery option, using USPS specs for mail, ISP criteria for email, and telecom standards for SMS text. 

  1. Self-Service Solutions

User-friendly self-service options can make you and your team the masters of your CCM platform. Team members can quickly collaborate to compose, proof, approve, and test sensitive documents, helping ensure compliance and speeding time-to-market. Structured approval workflows and version control tracking help your organization create high-quality, compliant communications.  

  1. Real-Time Visibility

Take the guesswork out of CCM: adding real-time visibility to your communications program will always keep you informed at every step of the process. Total production transparency and up-to-date delivery tracking is essential for attentive businesses, and an innovative CCM system makes it simple. Custom messaging, production progress, delivery status, document archives, and detailed reporting are all right at your fingertips.

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Ready to Upgrade Your CCM?

It’s time to find the right Customer Communications Management platform for your organization—and we can help!  Venture Solutions offers expertise in comprehensive CCM to drive digital transformation through omni-channel delivery, with a focus on personalization, automation, and customer experience.  

Our CCM solutions include: 

  • Venture Access™: Our innovative self-service CCM portal offers companies total transparency and control over their customer communications. Venture Access™ lets you see all your communications in one place, so you can know exactly what's happening as it happens. From ad hoc custom messaging to fulfillment and delivery tracking, statement archives, and detailed reports, Venture Access™ makes it easier than ever to manage your customer communications. 
  • Venture Editor™: A user-friendly, self-service CCM tool that centralizes the creation of customer communications. Avoid the added costs of elaborate programming and composition software by streamlining processes through Venture Editor's™ sophisticated automated workflows. 

Let’s collaborate! Contact Venture Solutions today to take control of your customer communications.

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