Despite pandemic restrictions loosening throughout the United States, every B2B and B2C organization learned a valuable lesson: without being able to operate as efficiently online as in-person, no business will have the staying power necessary for long-term success. A sound customer communication management strategy will include provisions to ensure that a business can operate at full strength in either capacity, but what many of these organizations identified throughout the pandemic is that they were lacking in some facet, typically when it came to online dealings with customers. Rather than coming up short even after the pandemic, this post will hope to educate organizations regarding the importance of customer communication management and how it can make all the difference in creating a blended offering for their customers.

Why is being able to provide a blended approach important for these businesses? Many customers throughout the pandemic had less than choice words to say about a number of businesses who made negligent changes in the way they handled customer communication management throughout the pandemic. In times where customers feel this way, they’re more likely to avoid spending money with these businesses post pandemic and instead finding another business that can provide them with what they’re looking for. While it may be too late for the customers that organizations have displeased, strengthening their customer communication management now can ensure no more customers are left to feel this way.

While it’s true that every business will differ in some way, nearly every customer communication management strategy will be built upon three primary aspects:  personalization, security and privacy. Personalized communication is important as it allows customers to feel like their unique and individual needs are being heard and met by businesses. While sharing this information regarding their needs, customers also want to feel like their private information is remaining secure. Providing a delicate mix between personalization and privacy can be a challenge for businesses. A majority of the time this requires highly sophisticated digital communication platforms that are integrated with other critical business operating systems to meet the demands of customers.

Though personalization and privacy sit atop the list in terms of important attributes for high-quality CCM, these only scratch the surface of expectations of customers. As more and more advancements have been made in recent years, the expectations of customers have risen as well. For example, consider something that is now commonplace for many online retailers: live chat. Just a few years ago, an organization having a fully functioning live chat was remarkable. Even if there were a few bugs, being able to communicate to a business representative in real time was truly astounding. Nowadays, this sort of service is common. In fact, it has become more uncommon for an online retailer to not provide this service to its customers.

Learning the foundations of a strong customer communication management strategy should be enough to keep customers pleased throughout their return to normalcy. However, if your organization is hoping to get another leg up on the competition, be sure to spend some time reviewing the infographic featured alongside this post for more valuable CCM information. Courtesy of Conduent.