Personalization is the core of what we do in customer communications management (CCM), on a scale that requires specialized software beyond the capabilities of marketing or office editing tools. The sheer number of personal data fields in a single communication, generated in such a short amount of time, is integral to CCM. We sometimes forget to pause and reflect on just how incredible it is. Given that personalization is such a core aspect of our business, it’s easy to miss new opportunities to expand it and start conversational customer experiences.
We typically think of personalization as the content within a communication, designed for optimal engagement through specific delivery channels. As we gather more information about an individual’s behavior related to a single communication, we gain an opportunity to rethink how personalization can elevate the recipient’s experience and begin conversations. This approach improves customer satisfaction (C-SAT), creates a more engaging experience that evolves into a conversation, and guides the customer towards behavior that leads to the desired outcome.
Unlocking the power of personalization: 5 layers of maturity
- Communication preferences: How the communication is delivered is crucial to providing a personalized experience. It’s not just about offering print versus electronic options. It’s understanding which channels are preferred for different types of communications, whether it’s statements, letters, notices, or reminders. Preferences could even include language preferences or communication frequency. For example, credit card bills are important to receive monthly, but investment account materials may not need such frequent review. Thus, a preference might be to receive a printed statement quarterly or biannually, while receiving monthly statements electronically.
- Combined communications: Combined or consolidated communications show customers that you recognize their loyalty. If someone has multiple products—say a checking account, savings account, credit card, and a loan—they prefer to manage everything with one financial institution. Aggregating communications from these accounts into one can provide a much better customer experience. It also reduces mailing costs for printed preferences and encourages electronic delivery to keep their inbox cleaner. It enables understanding common account combinations, allowing for conversational messaging that reflects the customer’s relationship with your organization.
- White space management: White space management is an often-overlooked element of CCM. Scaling it to full production regularly is challenging because data is siloed and incomplete. Without a 360-degree view of the customer, which can be analyzed for patterns and trends (an opportunity for AI!), it is difficult to personalize white space effectively. The more you know about an individual, the greater the opportunity for impactful personalization.
- Targeting with variations: Targeting is crucial in CCM use cases but often overlooked for its potential in personalizing communication messaging and experience. Communication variations might include state or country-specific legal text, language translations, variable images, or other information based on specific input data. Variations can also be based on customer history, such as sending a different version of a communication for the second or third time or identifying new customers. The goal is to deliver a communication variation that is more specific to the individual.
- Orchestrating within the context of the journey: In CCM, we focus on specific communication touchpoints, which are single moments within a larger journey. Transactional communications have specific requirements for timely generation and delivery to comply with regulations. However, to the recipient, related communications are part of a larger conversation. For example, if a customer pays their bill before the second reminder is sent, we can use that touchpoint to send a different, more relevant communication. Journey management helps understand what communications are sent today, their success, and how to create conversations in context with related touchpoints. It allows pulling additional information from other business systems to drive communication personalization, segmentation, and A/B multivariate testing to improve outcomes while reducing the cost of sending unnecessary messages.
Personalization is more than content and messaging within a communication. It’s about catering to preferences, adjusting messaging and variations to specific audiences, and leveraging related touchpoints to orchestrate communications in context. To take personalization to a new level, reevaluate your data strategy. Journey management provides the context needed to turn static communications into engaging conversations, personalized to the individual.
