How The Customer Communication Dynamic Has Changed

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The recent COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic restrictions have caused countless struggles on organizations worldwide. Regardless of an organizations’ scope, scale, or customer base, the way in which they communicate with their customers had to be adjusted accordingly. Customer communication management, or the way in which organizations communicate with their customers, has changed drastically over the past year. Most changes prioritized providing a high-quality standard for digital communication between organizations and their customers.

Whether or not these changes have made a difference is up in the air. For some customers, they’ve been pleased with the way in which organizations have adapted. For others, not so much. In fact, some customers have gone to say that nearly half of all businesses that they visited throughout the pandemic had failed to adjust accordingly. When customers feel as though their needs aren’t being heard or acted upon, they’re more likely to ditch businesses they frequent to find ones willing to meet their needs. Without a high-quality customer communication management strategy, organizations could begin losing their most loyal customers while also becoming incapable of attracting new customers to replace them.

The challenge then becomes developing the most sound customer communication management strategy for your customers. What defines a high-quality strategy, though? While it’s bound to be different for various industries across the world, three aspects tend to top the list of priorities. The first is personalized communication. This communication allows customers to feel as though their needs are being understood and action is being taken to meet those needs. The next is security and privacy. While customers are willing to divulge their delicate data to organizations, they do so with the expectation that organizations will be able to maintain the safety of that data. Keeping this data out of the wrong hands is then imperative for organizations, meaning they’ll have to develop or invest in digital communication platforms that can easily integrate into their operations.

These three aspects only begin to uncover the expectations of customers across various industries. More and more technological advances mean customers’ expectations will continue to rise as well. Let’s take online retailing as an example. A decade ago, online retail shoppers would happily browse a department store’s digital aisles for their products. Nowadays, with the evolution of live chat services, customers can ask about specific products or styles and get their answer straight from an employee. This is a brilliant strategy but has become so commonplace that customers don’t necessarily appreciate it as much as they should.

Perhaps the most important aspect in tying together a quality customer communication management strategy is omnichannel communication. Omnichannel efforts allow customers the ability to interact with an organization through all online channels. Text messages, e-mail promotions, quirky social media profiles and even unique website developments are just a few of the ways in which customers can communicate with an organization. More avenues for customers to interact with an organization means more chances for organizations to attract new customers. Limiting the way in which customers can communicate with your organization can put your company at a competitive disadvantage.

While it might take some fine-tuning, creating the most optimal customer communication management strategy for your organization is possible. For more information on how to do so, be sure to check out the infographic coupled alongside this post. Courtesy of Conduent.