Why You Need a Customer Communications Management Strategy

Despite the ubiquitous nature of mobile phones, tablets and computers, we can sometimes feel disconnected even though we are always plugged in.  More and more information is shared across these electronic wonders, and the pace of life seemingly is increased. People perform all variety of transactions on their digital gadgets — everything from paying a bill to buying a house – and nearly everyone has a smartphone these days. Indeed, what started out as a luxury is now a necessity. So the question becomes: have you kept pace with your digital era members and customers?

A New Era of CCM

The days of static member documents, printed and mailed by the thousands, are gone. Communicating with customers today is much more about connecting, engaging and building relationships.  It’s about engaging in a way that not only provides information, but also deepens the relationship established.  As a result, prospective customers learn from the communications integrity of a financial services company and the simplicity of the solutions they provide.

Craft a Formal Strategy

A formal customer communications strategy is essential for credit unions and other financial services firms interested in remaining sustainable and thriving in the digital frontier.  The competitive nature of the financial services sector is such that without an actionable Customer Communications Management (CCM) strategy, maintaining and/or growing customer loyalty will become more and more evasive. That’s why financial institutions need to be able to drive brand loyalty through tools and applications that not only make people’s lives better, they must be easy to use, solve problems, improve relationships and also be cost efficient.

Leave Behind Tradition

Banks and credit unions have traditionally relied on printed pages to communicate. But paper is burdensome, costly and inefficient.  Paper statements, invoices, notices, tax related documents, compliance documentation and a host of other communications documents clog files, have a higher risk of loss of data and take more staff to manage it all. A Customer Communications Management system developed in the cloud helps your members as well as your bottom line. Benefits are:

  • Improved customer loyalty via communications across social, web, email, paperless statements
  • Tools to build an ongoing relationship that drives brand preference
  • No costs associated with server storage hardware or proprietary software
  • Ease of integration into existing digital communications
  • Centralized data collection improves flexibility for compliance auditing purposes
  • Digital workflow provides a central point for data analysis, planning forecasting
  • Reduction/elimination of paper use, positively affecting the environment
  • Enhanced security due to cloud storage rather than manual filing systems
  • Improved financial records integrity through a secure cloud-based infrastructure

Moving Forward

Communicating with customers is not as simple as it used to be. Between web sites, social media, text messaging — and even plain old print and mail — credit unions find that communicating with members is more complex and more confusing than ever before. Add to that ever evolving demands for more relevant, personalized and transpromotional content and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with all the technologies and multi-channel platforms to manage. A Customer Communication Management strategy, like those designed by OMI, should provide a single platform to manage all of your customer communications whether they take form in paperless statements, web-based correspondence, email or social media. It is crucial to have a central point where communications meet to deliver value to the day-to-day transactions no matter what channel you use. In this way you will satisfy your customers with a consolidated and measured approach to content, promotional offers, brand loyalty and online services that make the most of experiences and relationships.

Brad Banyas

Brad Banyas

Brad Banyas is CEO of OMI, a leading cloud-based customer communication management service and platform provider. OMI delivers cost-effective solutions for marketers and brand managers to connect with customers through ... Web: www.omi.co Details