The Final Step: 3 Practical Steps to Better Customer Communication Experiences

That leads us to the final step of 3 Practical Steps to Better Customer Communication Experiences:

Analyze the communications workflow.

To analyze your communication workflow, start by defining your customer experience goals (i.e., provide customers with a consistent print and digital experience, re-establish digital delivery platforms to meet customer expectations, improve timing of customer communication transactions, etc.) Once your goals are defined, we recommend pinpointing gaps across people, process and technology for achieving those objectives. There are many variables to address in reaching an omni-channel structure – and that is why it is imperative to understand your current environment.

We then recommend conducting an inventory of publishing platforms – both internal and external. This includes everything from composition applications of external providers to internal home-grown platforms. After you inventory the platforms, determine their applications (e.g., there may be specific platforms that are utilized for transactional versus marketing communications). This analysis will help you determine where you can optimize.

Closely tied to the publishing platform inventory is determining resource alignment. Start by classifying external providers that support both your transactional and marketing requirements. Remember to also identify your internal resources; this is an area that is often overlooked. Our consulting team has seen a lot of “a-ha moments” when clients realize the number of redundant resources within their organization.  

Hear Lisa share more insights in this recent Reimagining Communications podcast, “Take an Outside-In Look at Optimizing Communications”.

One of our large retirement services clients had an “a-ha” experience as they were seeking to be a leader in customer experience. After they conducted their own evaluation to assess their then-current communications workflow, they felt there were gaps in their understanding of the workflow and also in defining solution requirements to achieve a more focused CX and omni-channel platform. Our team conducted a thorough detailed assessment; we identified how the people, process and technologies were interrelated as part of an overall communications ecosystem. We looked at the process flows in various lines of business, applications, platforms and output – basically, the whole document value chain. We identified where content resided, internal and external integrations, dependencies and resources utilized throughout the workflow. We then looked at the areas with the most opportunity for impact as we developed their transformational roadmap.

Ultimately, we recommended removing legacy software and identifying providers that could deliver a single composition omni-channel structure. We implemented a common platform and broke down the internal silos between marketing and operations. We introduced a process that simplified the platforms and workflows, plus we removed manual touches, reduced the number of vendors and streamlined the overall customer communications process – and that enabled them to reach their goal of being a customer experience leader. 

Discover what you can do today to make an impact by watching our on-demand webinar, 3 Practical Steps to Better Customer Communication Experiences.