Written by Posted under: Banking, Credit Cards, Financial Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Telecommunications and Broadband, and Utilities
Smartphones are the new leaders of the pack. For the first time since IBM introduced its “smartphone” concept to the public in the early ‘90s, the majority of all new mobile phone-handsets purchased by U.S. consumers are smartphones.
With so many choices available today, no wonder nearly 58 million U.S. adults have four or more communication devices. It’s a world of mobility and interactivity – and seemingly endless shifts in how people are using old and new devices and applications to save time and money, manage households, plan for the future, address their health and well-being, make connections, and much more.
The digital world is expanding
These ongoing trends show the tide toward how consumers want to communicate – and be communicated with – now and in the future. They are socially networked and they’re demanding more from the companies they do business with. They expect higher levels of service and enhanced communications provided through more channels.
We see the shift in communications impacting not only how communications are delivered, but also their look and the impression they convey. Going forward, our expectation is that companies will need to:
- Make customer communications convenient and easy to use, access and understand.
Engaging in more proactive conversations with consumers to manage and deliver on their expectations is more critical than ever. In order to transform the customer experience into the best one it can be, companies today need to understand how to connect customer analytics and third party information to send relevant messages across multiple channels and devices. Companies today can’t afford not to have customers invite them into their “office,” which is why customer communications should be:
Accessible: Help people receive their communications when, where and how they want to receive them.
Easy: Make a customer’s experience with you as easy and simple as possible.
Personalized: Make each customer feel as though he is the only one that matters to you.
Engaging: Demonstrate a personal understanding of customers’ challenges.
Educational: Provide consumers with relevant, easy to understand information that will make them smarter about your products and solutions.
Authentic: Make the entire experience as human as possible so consumers feel they are purchasing solutions from people and not just a corporation.
- Offer the right customer experience across the entire customer lifecycle, from pre-sale to post-sale.
Effectively communicating with so many people in so many ways places new demands on how businesses grow revenue, manage customer information, get to know their customers, and deliver the right communications at the right time and place – from the first conversation to the time they make a purchase. It’s why you are seeing a continuing expansion of DST Output solutions across the entire customer lifecycle – and across all points of customer interaction – be it in print, online, in person or via mobile devices. This expansion points to the growth of our print on demand and fulfillment solutions with the addition of new CFG and Newkirk capabilities.
- Take cost, time and complexity out of customer communication workflows.
Efficiently communicating with customers across so many channels places new demands on companies to have the right communication technologies, business models, workflows, data security and privacy practices in place. With fluctuating print and electronic volumes, it’s difficult for operations to quickly scale down and ramp-up their operations to meet demand.
We see that this tension between investing in customer communications or investing in the core business is causing more companies to look at a customer communications specialist to help guide the development and delivery of their customer communications.
Bottom line, it requires all of us to be more agile and nimble, and ever focused on the consumer, media channels, and consumer trends. As complex and as complicated as it may seem, the advancements in communication technology are fostering our customer connections – and that’s what it’s really all about.
What do your customers need and want? Comment below to let us know!