8 Things a CCM Application Can Do for Your Business
Taylor Pettis 
October 29th, 2019
As a business, you need to always be able to help your customer at the drop of a dime.
Since technology today is so expansive, you have more tools at your disposal than ever. With this in mind, one of the best investments you can make is in a customer communications management (CCM) application.
A CCM application can bridge the gap between you and your customers, as it provides up to the moment service to them in a way that is productive and efficient.
Keep reading to learn more about this software and how it can be useful for any business.
1. It Builds Trust and Transparency in Your Brand
The relationship you have with your customers is more valuable today than ever. People need to know that they can count on you and that you are attentive if anything goes wrong with the service or product you offer.
With a CCM application, you make yourself widely available to your customers on terms that are convenient to them. This level of transparency sets you apart and makes it so that you stand out in terms of customer care. Building trust is a key trend in business communication that weighs more and more heavily with customers every year.
People will trust you and will feel comfortable making returns, supporting your software, or engaging in any other kind of business dealings you specialize in. You add longevity to your services whenever you allow for open communication between you and your customers.
2. You Will Free Up Your Resources to Be Used Elsewhere
With customer communication management applications, you can incorporate customer service, marketing strategies, emergency alerts, business updates and all of the above under one umbrella.
Work that used to require resources from multiple departments can now be done with the help of a single software platform. As a result, employees in these departments have their time and energy free to focus on other things.
This lets your employees build on their areas of interest while outsourcing the day to day tasks and heavy lifting to the software. As a result, your company becomes more streamlined and potentially more profitable since you aren’t wasting as much time or money.
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3. Your Customer Communication Will Be Interactive and Consistent
When you adopt CCM, your tone and voice become consistent. You’ll be able to communicate with customers across phone, e-mail, social media and other platforms using the same branding, and will develop a better rapport.
Communication is a two-way street, so you will also be able to have more impactful conversations with your customers. This gives you qualitative information that you can pair with analytics to find better ways to serve your customers.
Rather than blasting information out to your customers, as was customary with traditional communication tools, a CCM system makes the communication more organic and productive.
4. Troubleshooting and File Transfers are Speedy
When you’re communicating with customers or building a campaign, there are often times that you might need to send large batches of information. Having a CCM application makes this easy because it can process huge data transfers quickly.
This definitely comes in handy when you work within an industry that has detailed and complex infrastructure, such as banking, engineering, government, and utilities. Automated CCM streamlines your ability to upload and download this information so that the communications pipeline stays open and fast.
5. The Software is Cloud-Based
The beauty of today’s CCM applications is that they are entirely operational in the cloud. This means that you don’t have to bog your hardware down with lots of data. You also won’t be hampered by system crashes or changes in location.
Since the data shared in a CCM workflow is so sensitive, valuable, and time-sensitive, you will need to make sure that you have access to it remotely. Properly built cloud-native CCM software will work quickly in the cloud as well.
6. It Lowers Your Costs Tremendously
Without a CCM platform, you will be shelling out large sums of money for things like mailing and shipping costs, phone bills, wired infrastructure, delivery vehicles, and paying customer representatives.
A CCM application accomplishes a lot of those jobs and will cut a significant chunk out of your budgeted operating costs. These platforms also make use of artificial intelligence (AI), so your customers can get the positive attributes of human interaction without you having to staff as many people.
This also tremendously increases the number of customers you can help at any given moment, which will boost your sales and retention numbers. A boost in revenue when matched by lower operating costs means that CCM will be an incredible return on investment (ROI) for your company.
7. Your Company is More Likely to Stay in Compliance
With communications, marketing, and other such issues, you’ll always need to be mindful of regulations and compliance with industry standards. Having access to automated CCM is valuable in this regard.
Not only does the software give you a deep and accurate digital trail, many also include compliance checks and balances that will keep you on track. When your company stays in compliance and is able to consistently help its customers, your reputation will always stay positive.
8. The Customer Service is More Effective
Simply put, a CCM application is necessary because it does customer service better than older business models. Companies that use these platforms improve their productivity by a large margin and the processes are more effective for solving problems.
Anything that improves your customer service is a positive investment in your business as it grows. When you have the right customer experience strategy, it will improve the way that your company runs as a whole.
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The Value of a Single CCM Application
There is gradual progress toward a business world fully driven by CCM because of how people are learning about the product. Upon hearing of a tool that helps with customer communications and data management, many assume they have it already: maybe they house a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, an email client, or some variant of technology purposed for Business Process Management (BPM). Maybe they have all of the above.
What they may not yet know is that a Customer Communications Management (CCM) application integrates all of these functions (and more) into a single tool, intended as the only resource for all document production and customer engagement needs. There are significant benefits to this:
- Lifetime support for every one of your solutions
- Seamless connection between customer data and mission-critical document production
- Collaboration between technical and non-technical staff through a single interface
These factors are unique to an integrated application, valued for the resources they save, and the money they make in the long run. Better communications make for increased customer retention, while streamlined internal processes, digital documents, and integration of multiple solutions not only enhance communication, but save on the cost of paper, cost of labor and the confusion that might arise in the process of editing between multiple stakeholders (your developers, designers, writers, etc.).
Businesses that are quick to upgrade to an all-in-one solution immediately gain an edge in their respective industries. CCM applications have a built-in focus on customer-centricity, getting to the core of customer communication needs and preferences.
This personal connection, with constant returns on information and limitless technical support, is at a level that cannot be accessed with any legacy system.
The Best Choice, Financially
Continuing to manage a legacy system will cost more in the long run. A lack of built-in collaboration tools, technical support of multiple solutions, and phase-out of older systems that need replacement will all contribute to these higher costs.
Any one of the solutions contained in a legacy system could be compromised down the road, or they might just need to be updated. In either case, when the solutions are not maintained by the same provider, it takes special help to get them integrated and working; it also takes adjustment from the personnel working around the system to optimize their processes.
The longer a company waits to update their legacy system, the more radical and costly the update will need to be. The rate at which communication is changing seems to only increase, so these businesses will need to update their systems with relative frequency to keep up with competitors that have integrated their solutions.
This a costly practice that will only cause these businesses to fall further and further behind, while their competitors receive regular updates to all of their solutions, continuing to operate around the efficient, structured coordination that a CCM application allows their organization.
Never Too Late
Of course, it’s to the benefit of any company to adopt a CCM application as soon as possible. But it’s also never too late.
The benefits of CCM can be applied to many organizations in a number of unique ways, but in every way, it saves on expenses carried by legacy systems, and contributes new revenue streams with internal collaboration and outbound communication that no other systems can offer.
View our Infographic – What Is Customer Communications Management?
Invest in a Quality CCM Application
Your company can reap these benefits with a quality CCM application. If you’re looking for a platform to try out, we would love to help you get started.
Get in touch to request a demo and learn more about our customer communications management tools.
