2020 Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Smart Communications Blogs

Redefining the Utility Customer Experience

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Ayla

By: Nick Umney, Technical Director at Salesforce

We are in a fascinating time in which customer expectations are continually rising. In a recent survey from Salesforce Research, we learned that 62% of customers expect companies to adapt based on their actions and behaviour, and 54% of customers think that companies need to fundamentally transform how they engage*. Customers assume digital ease of use, expect great service, information on demand, and on any channel. The challenge for Utility companies is how to truly understand their customers, and their expectations.

As a result of COVID-19 customer demands, unsurprisingly, continue to evolve. Customers are increasingly gravitating towards companies and products that are purpose and values driven. They are no longer satisfied with disconnected and inefficient experiences and are expecting integrated processes that bring together the entire journey – from awareness to engagement and advocacy.

As customer demands increase, the market is responding as companies compete in this race for relevance. Traditionally, large companies beat out the smaller ones by controlling messaging and the supply chain. In the UK, we saw the rise of the ‘Big 6 energy suppliers.’ Today there’s been an explosion of fast moving, market entrants who are figuring out new ways to grab market share quickly, attracting customers with a combination of price, sustainability credentials and customer service. The larger companies are reacting though, creating start-up businesses of their own in an effort to leverage the benefits of scale and agility needed to quickly meet the demands of today’s digital-savvy customer.

Digital tools can certainly power a new level of customer experience, and help organisations connect with their customers in a whole new way, across each stage of the customer lifecycle. Understanding customer behaviours has been a core tenet for organisations for some time, now a true 360° customer view is a reality. With technological advances, we are now able to understand customers with more detail, more clarity, and more granularity. We are able to collate and understand customers product holdings, consumption and usage, even micro-signals from web browsing and app usage into this single customer view. Based on this understanding and leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), we’re able to provide both intelligent recommendations to our customers (and service agents) and predictions that help us make better decisions.

As we understand more about our customers, the context that they’re operating in, and what they’re trying to achieve, we’re able to use technology to create differentiated experiences that feel incredibly relevant. In addition to customer acquisition, AI is now playing a huge part in the full customer lifecycle. For example, through machine learning organisations can predict causes of customer attrition, take proactive steps, and communicate with the customer in a timely manner with relevant information to help resolve their issue.

By leveraging this data, we can attract, engage, and retain customers through personalised journeys that include both targeted outreach, and contextual interactions when they’re interacting with our brand across numerous communication touch points.

Finally, from an employee perspective being able to continue to serve customers from wherever, in a seamless way is key. Customer experience is directly linked to employee experience, and according to Forbes Insights Research, it’s an intricate relationship in which one depends on the other to gain maximum results. All employees need a clear line of sight as to how their roles play a part in enhancing customer experiences. We need customer service technology to almost be invisible – to enable the agent to connect with the customer, understand their issues and queries without the technology getting in the way. Gone is the need for customer service agents to alt-tab between multiple systems to resolve a customer issue.

So yes, customer expectations are rising but the latest technical innovations, such as SmartCOMM^TM and the Energy and Utilities Cloud, (along with people and processes) enable Utility companies to meet and hopefully exceed them.

Discover how Salesforce is Powering a digital Utility future and how the Energy and Utilities Cloud can help transform your customer experience.

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Nick Umney, is a Technical Director at Salesforce who brings a depth knowledge of Cloud technologies and broad industry insight. Nick has a demonstrable record of innovative solution delivery across enterprise scale customers – delivering business value with strategic vision. To hear more from Nick, watch this webinar, Redefining the Utilities Customer Experience, or download the full event recap here.

How Digital Onboarding Boosts Member Engagement for Health Insurers

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Ayla

By: Neal Keene, Field CTO at Smart Communications

With customer expectations growing at a rapid pace, organizations across all industries are moving toward customer-driven, digital-first experiences. This year in particular has forced health insurers to reevaluate their current enrollment and onboarding processes in an effort to improve member engagement. Did you know the most critical time to establish a relationship with your members is within the first 90 days? This is the period of time when health insurers have the opportunity to ensure new members understand their plans, find them easy to navigate, and are satisfied with their level of coverage.

Think about it from a member’s perspective – signing up for a new healthcare plan often occurs at the start of new employment. During this time, the volume of forms and paperwork required is high and the process can be time-consuming, and insurance enrollment is only one set of forms among many. Sadly, too many business processes still require customers to complete and sign paper forms and either scan and fax or even worse, mail them back. No one enjoys this tedious and time-consuming effort, either externally or internally.

The cumbersome process of filling out a form isn’t a good first impression. One way to boost member engagement is through smart, guided, interactive interviews that make onboarding frictionless.

Here are five ways a smarter onboarding process can help differentiate your member journey and keep members engaged from day one.

Replace Paper Forms with Guided, Adaptive Interviews

It’s time to re-imagine the form as your onboarding mechanism. Instead of serving up static paper forms or online PDFs shift toward delivering adaptive interviews through an interactive and mobile-friendly process. This allows you to tailor questions and responses to each individual and guides them through the process efficiently keeps them more engaged throughout the entire process.

Personalize the Experience by Reusing Information

It’s likely you have already collected plenty of information from your new member or employee. Asking members to enter or re-enter information you should already know, or posing irrelevant questions creates a frustrating, time-consuming onboarding experience. A new employee’s name, address and other data should available in a company’s HR system to establish payroll and other administrative requirements. Make the process easier and speed up onboarding by prepopulating information from your core systems and then have employees simply verify it.

Ensure Your Onboarding Process is Consistent and “Device Agnostic”

Members today have multiple devices, but they still expect consistent experiences—and the onboarding process is no exception. Whether interacting with your company via phone, desktop, or mobile app the experience should be equally rewarding and, better yet, seamless. This means that information collected via one interaction should be used to inform subsequent interactions. And, ideally, a process could start a process on one device and finish on another—picking up right where they left off.

Integrate Digital Signatures to Save Time

If you still require members to print and sign an onboarding document to move forward, you’re creating bottlenecks that put the onboarding process and overall member experience at risk. By starting with interview-style conversations and finishing with simple e-signature solutions, like DocuSign, forms are completed in a timelier manner.

Improve Operational Efficiency

Digitizing the onboarding process matters to your staff as well. Traditional forms can lead to data integrity issues as they open the door to errors due to ineligible handwriting or typos. Inaccurate data can cause operational inefficiencies, especially if your back-office staff is still relying on manual processing of form data. A digital, interactive onboarding process reduces the need for manual work, ensures data is captured accurately, and ultimately enhances member and employee satisfaction.

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Looking for more ways to create meaningful connections with your members across every touchpoint? Download our whitepaper, From Onboarding to Lifelong Relationships and get inspired!

The Human Element in Digital Transformation and More Insights from Our Virtual Roundtable

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Ayla

By: Phil Ostberg, Senior Product Manager at Vlocity, A Salesforce Company

Developing an omnichannel claims strategy, where policyholders can engage with you in their channel of choice and seamlessly switch between channels, is an important component of digital transformation in the claims space. As one participant pointed out at our recent virtual roundtable discussion “A New Paradigm in Claims,” a good claims experience involves listening to a customer’s story so they feel heard. Technology should streamline the claims management process so that customer service reps can take the time to listen to the cases with a sympathetic ear. It was also discussed how, surprisingly, it is often the younger policyholders that seek the reassurance of a human voice after their first basement flood or car accident, while older, more seasoned customers may be more inclined to turn to digital channels for filing a claim.

And when policyholders do choose to go online, whether for the First Notice of Loss (FNOL) or to check the status of their claim submission, intelligent, guided, mobile-friendly experiences with limited typing are the requirements for the modern claims experience according to our panel. The more you can prefill data about the customer, policy, property and peril, the less painful the process will be. And customers always want access to real-time updates on when they will get paid for their loss.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of claims process transformations and unleashed innovation, especially for insurers that have been slow adopters on retiring legacy systems and moving to cloud based platforms. All panellists in our roundtable agreed that there is no turning back, especially when the move towards digital results in both operational efficiency and significant improvements in customer satisfaction. The claims experience is, after all, the most important touchpoint a carrier can have with a customer, with 87% of policyholders believing that their claims experience impacts their decision to remain with insurers, according to an Ernst & Young global insurance survey.

Vlocity, now part of Salesforce Industries, is working with carriers globally to leverage the Salesforce platform as a single source of customer data, along with its omnichannel capabilities, to make the end-to-end claims process both efficient and customer-centric. As discussed in our roundtable, we believe it’s important to look across industries to understand what types of experiences customers today expect. Together with our valued partners including Smart Communications, we aim to deliver the next generation of the insurance claims experience.

To read more about our virtual roundtable discussion, visit: https://marketforcelive.com/insurance-innovators/post/a-new-paradigm-in-claims-summary/

About the Author

Phil Ostberg has 20 years of experience in building insurance claims software, working in a wide range of capacities from managing systems integration projects at Fortune 100 carriers to leading product development efforts at industry-leading software companies. Phil is particularly passionate about using software to enable organizations to optimize efficiency by creating elegant user experiences and fostering a test and learn culture. At Vlocity, A Salesforce Company, Phil is a product manager leading the Vlocity Claims product strategy, including product development, roadmap, and customer success initiatives.

Next-Generation CCM Powers the Future of Utilities

Posted on August 19, 2020 by SmartComm

By: Nick Kelly, Account Director at Smart Communications

It’s no secret that customer expectations continue to evolve at a rapid pace. One-click, mobile shopping experiences, ridesharing services and online banking, among others, have revolutionized the way customers interact with their favorite brands – and companies across industries and verticals are navigating how to adapt their businesses to meet customers’ changing needs.

Utility companies in particular face new challenges when it comes to delivering customer value. Many of the changes shaping the industry’s future center around evolving service delivery models and emerging technologies, which could significantly impact how customers interact with utility suppliers in the long run. But there’s one thing utility providers can do right now to build better relationships with their customers, and that’s re-thinking how they communicate.

Typically, utility companies rely on traditional methods of communication, such as email, phone calls and direct mail. But today’s digital-savvy population expects more. They want the same level of personalization and convenience they get with other industries, from entertainment to banking. This means shifting customer communications management strategies and engaging in real two-way conversations.

Legacy interactions are no longer enough

Today, most traditional utility customer communications involve the simple distribution of information— mailing or emailing bills and notices about things like upcoming scheduled maintenance or equipment upgrades and automated phone calls or website updates when there’s been an outage. Even if this information is sent out electronically, it’s still a one-way street — leaving customers unable to engage in conversations with their utility providers.

For the most part, utility companies only interact with and collect information from customers when they open a new account or when there’s an issue that needs to be resolved. This kind of static communication leaves little room for engagement. And without a two-way conversation where customers feel heard and utility providers can ensure an optimal customer experience, it’s virtually impossible to learn customer preferences or sell new services and solutions.

Building on a key advantage: customer trust

When it comes to customer relationships, utility companies have a head start. As an essential service that consumers rely on to literally power their lives and livelihoods, utility services have already been invited inside. The connection to people’s homes is key and can be built upon to strengthen customer relationships, while also making life smarter, simpler and safer for them.

Sophisticated technology platforms can provide dynamic, two-way conversations as the next generation of customer communications management. Smart Communications allows companies to move beyond just sending communications and, instead, engage in SMARTER conversations that are personalized throughout the entire customer lifecycle, and at massive scale.

The power of SMARTER conversations

Beginning with the onboarding process, companies can better understand customer preferences and behaviors and continue the conversation throughout the customer’s tenure with them. Beyond collecting information and checking boxes, they can understand customers on an individual level to uncover new ways to meet their needs and provide additional value. This could mean having conversations about things like energy efficiency, smart homes and solar power. Or, it could be about lowering their bill, maintaining equipment or upgrading services. In addition to letting the company identify relevant solutions, involving customers helps them become more engaged in managing their account and energy use, which increases customer loyalty and makes them less likely to switch providers.

Personalizing everything from bills to legal notices helps strengthen the customer relationship and build trust. And by staying connected, companies can gauge the market for new service models and emerging technologies that may add real value to their customers’ lives.

The future of utility CX starts now

Digital transformation has changed the way consumers do everything from getting a ride and booking a holiday to paying bills and managing their money. It’s time for utility suppliers to catch up – and the time to act is now. Adopting the best processes and technologies to really drive change will set utility companies up for future success. Smart Communications is ready to help.

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To learn more about where the utility industry is headed, check out the recent Future of Utilities Roundtable 2020 recap from Nick Kelly, account director at Smart Communications, and Gavin Geekie, regional vice president of energy & utilities EMEA at Salesforce Industries.

Why I Joined Smart Communications

Posted on August 11, 2020 by SmartComm

By: Sam Couzens, VP of Global Demand Generation at Smart Communications

Sam Couzens VP of Global Demand Generation, Smart Communications

The last few weeks have been a flurry of activity as I start my new role with Smart Communications. Many people have asked how I made the decision to join this dynamic organization so I thought I would share a bit about my journey! Making the decision to leave an organization is sometimes easy. In my case, in this instance, it was not. I had been with my former company for almost six years and worked with some great people. When I learned about this opportunity, I was intrigued. Smart Communications’ reputation in the industry is strong. They have earned accolades as an established CCM leader by numerous analyst firms and have a unique approach in the industry as a next-gen CCM provider. The newest addition of Smart IQ, the forms transformation solution had also created a positive buzz for them in the industry. Demand Generation is my passion, so I knew the role was a good fit. It was when I met the leadership team that everything clicked and I was convinced that this was an opportunity worth exploring. It was obvious that they know their stuff, and that they are super passionate, driven, and SMART (pardon the pun).

As I thought through this life-changing decision, I came across an insightful article that helped me think through some of the important factors when joining a company. The author suggested there are 4Ps to evaluate before joining a company. Being a marketer, this caught my attention. The 4Ps of Marketing are Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. This author had a different take on the Ps and it really resonated with me.

The first P mentioned was Product – does the organization deliver real value to markets and customers? Check! That was an easy one. The history of Smart Communications is built from the cloud up, giving their customers the ability to take advantage of what true multitenant SaaS can offer. And, what an important time it is for the industries they serve. There is an absolute need to be more customer-centric and more digital-first.

Moving on to the second P mentioned – Potential. Can I achieve wins for the company and myself? With the knowledge I had about Smart Communications, and reading about their recent successes in the trade publications, coupled with my passion for Demand Generation and the fact that the industries Smart Communications serves have never needed to scale their conversations more than they do now I was convinced there is great potential for myself and the organization.

The third P for this author is Purpose. Does the company have purpose? Based on my conversations with the leadership team, this felt like a strength. The Smart Communications culture is healthy—with a team spirit, a focus on customer success, and a dedication to keeping employees engaged while working remotely. Having purpose in a time of crisis, such as a global pandemic, is essential for any organization, and this company is thriving.

And the last P, the one that may be the most important to me is People. Is the team passionate, intelligent, and committed? To this, I could also answer 100 percent yes. I could feel the passion, excitement, and organizational pride with each and every person I spoke to and so, I was hooked.

Making the decision to leave an organization is sometimes hard and shouldn’t be taken lightly. But when you know you are moving on to a fantastic team, with a leading solution and committed leadership, it makes it that much easier.

Situations Change, So Too Must Your Processes

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Ayla

By: Nick Smith, VP Sales & General Manager, APAC at Smart Communications

In the digital era, there’s no shortage of data. Most organizations in both the private and public sectors have an abundance of it—in fact, many have more than they know what to do with. According to a recent survey, 55% of data that companies collect goes unused.¹

Not just data, insights

Getting the most out of your data starts with how you collect it. While many organizations have moved away from relying solely on outdated paper-based processes, simply becoming more digital-first doesn’t necessarily mean you’re making the most of the process. Static forms and generic questions only provide point-in-time snapshots of the people submitting them. While this information is useful at that moment, its value is limited because that data soon becomes outdated. In order to gain more valuable insight organizations need to transform one-way intake processes into two-way conversations.

Agility in action

Most organizations collect at the outset of the relationship, but many fail to continually update the information they have on file. However, needs and preferences change every day, and companies need to stay one step ahead in order to stay relevant. For government organizations, educational institutions, and healthcare companies, it’s even more vital to have data that’s current, which means users need an easy way to update their information.

This recently came into play for the Australian National University (ANU). With 25,000 students, approximately one-third of them international students, the onset of the COVID-19 crisis called for immediate action. The University needed to quickly gather important circumstantial information that would help them provide vital support as well as minimize the potential health impact on their community. ANU formed a crisis management team and, using SmartIQ, very quickly distributed a smart form to all international students to inquire about recent travels and what support they would need in order to stay safely engaged with their learning community.

And when it became clear to ANU that a broader lockdown would be put in place, they expanded the process to include all students, with the goal of enabling targeted communications and support based on immediate needs—from health status and access to groceries for anyone self-isolating, to housing needs and access to the internet and online learning materials.

The University recognized that student needs were likely to change just as the situation was evolving. ANU students were able to return to the smart form and update their answers as circumstances changed—for example, once they completed a self-isolation period, when they reached their destination, or when their access to the internet changed. Especially in a time of rapid change and increasing uncertainty, it is vital for respondents to be able to update their information as needed.

Better insights, better outcomes

While we have known for some time that digital transformation and more customer-centric processes were necessary, the events of this year have significantly increased the need for organizations to find better ways to collect information and use that information to deliver exceptional experiences throughout the relationship. The forms process of the past must be transformed into adaptive, intelligent conversations that allow for flexibility and deeper insight. And they must be digital-first, mobile-friendly and frictionless.

Ideally, the lessons learned in 2020 will continue well beyond the return to the new normal. When you get to know people better, you’re able to serve them better. And transforming static processes into interactive, two-way conversations at scale, is an excellent way to start.

Priceonomics, 2019: “Companies Collect a Lot of Data, But How Much Do they Actually Use?”

Engaging and Empowering Employees During this Remote Revolution

Posted on July 14, 2020 by Ayla

By Jo Sweet, HR Director, Smart Communications

The remote work revolution has resulted in a learning curve for both businesses and employees. These challenges only become more complex when workforces are located in disparate corners of the world. But despite the hurdles, companies must find ways to empower their entire organization so it can achieve the best results possible. Among many challenges, one of the most pressing issues facing companies in 2020 is addressing is how to keep employees engaged, productive and fulfilled now that the majority of workers are fully remote. With that in mind, here are a few areas companies should focus on to successfully navigate the new remote working world and accomplish this goal.

Rely on previous remote experiences

Because our platform was built to help large companies effectively communicate with their customers at tremendous scale, we’d like to think we’re experts when it comes to communication across different channels and formats! Even so, we never thought we’d be working 100% virtually as a company. Yes, we’re well versed in connecting with our global team members with technology vs. face-to-face meetings, but still the transition to a fully remote working infrastructure changes the dynamic in many ways. This can be a hectic transition for employees and human resources teams. In many cases, however, it’s important to remember how your business was already facilitating success with remote work scenarios, even before the current pandemic began. Chances are, this has been happening in big or small ways inside your business, and the leap doesn’t have to be as giant as a result. Inside Smart Communications, many of our U.S.-based team members worked remotely full-time since well before the crisis. They served as great resources to us as we scaled up remote working for the long-term. By asking yourself what has and hasn’t worked in the past for remote workers, company leaders can lay out a solid foundation for the entire organization without getting too overwhelmed.

Culture, culture, culture

In many ways, remote working is a tradeoff for both the company and team members. While remote employees can work without a commute, avoid office distractions and have more flexible schedules, there are still drawbacks. Those “serendipitous” moments of running into someone in the hallway for a spontaneous brainstorm or problem-solving session don’t happen naturally. Therefore, for remote teams, it can be difficult to recreate unplanned in-person interactions or foster the sense of cultural belonging. But it is doable.

By leveraging technology properly, companies can maintain this collaboration and camaraderie. For example, teams can set up dedicated virtual catch-ups and meetings to check in with co-workers and stay connected. In addition to shifting more of our formal in-person meetings to virtual video conferences, we have also developed “Watercooler” chat rooms via Microsoft Teams for Smart Communications employees to continue to share those informal moments and more personal insights—such as how they are using their commute time to maintain a healthy work-life balance, photos of their pets or children as their new office companions or suggestions on the best new shows to binge watch. This type of interaction is so important right now when even our U.S. colleagues—accustomed to being alone in their home offices well before COVID— are feeling more isolated. In addition to our ongoing monthly All Hands video meetings, our Leadership Team also post a weekly vlog to kick start the week, providing more casual updates on what is new with the business. For a remote work environment, continuous communication and celebrating success is particularly important. In addition, we have encouraged managers to support our employee’s personal circumstances as many have had to juggle home life with work life. Actively encouraging work-life balance to ensure that employees feel able to be their true self whilst working at home. We have ensured employees do not feel that they need to apologize for their children or pets occasionally interrupting video calls and wherever possible have allowed employees to modify their working hours to accommodate child-care responsibilities. All these things help to maintain your company’s culture and employee engagement even in remote circumstances.

Allow remote work to inform future decisions

It is important to establish a remote infrastructure that maintains business values and success. However, we should also keep our eyes peeled for lessons that come out of remote working that could lead to better results moving forward.

One positive of a remote culture we’re seeing is that it lends itself to a more relaxed approach to what are still very busy days. We’re finding that when employees are more comfortable in their respective work environments, they are less self-conscious about offering ideas, participating in group discussions, or opening themselves to a freer exchange of thoughts and opinions. We have also found that our conversations with customers (who are also working from home) have become even more productive and rewarding. This is because they now have more time to spend exploring possibilities and diving even deeper into strategy than was possible when people had trains or flights to catch.

Remote working en masse has definitely made this year unique for employees, human resources teams and enterprises more broadly. However, with the right tools, technology and processes, continued innovation and employee success is still possible. It just might look a little different for us right now. Want to be part of our currently remote yet still very much engaged team? Take a look at our open positions.

How Re-imagining Communications Can Deepen Member Engagement for Health Insurance Carriers

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Ayla

By Brian Damiani, MBA, CHCIO, Founder and CEO, Wendigo Advisors

In my nearly twenty years working with health insurance carriers I have seen an amazing number of good things come to pass. From the increasing adoption of new technology to the adjustment to value-based reimbursements and the ACA/Medicaid expansion efforts that brought insurance to those who traditionally did not have access. This year will be no different with many companies dealing with new interoperability requirements and benefit changes related to COVID-19. Having an insider’s perspective allows me to see the good side of the health insurance market more easily than most.

However, health insurance companies continue to have some of the lowest customer satisfaction ratings of all companies in the U.S.—rivaled only by cable and internet service providers. While the health insurance industry overall needs some definite improvement there is no reason why they cannot improve relationships with their members. The problem is that the current methods of communicating with members are not effective and, in many cases, actually reinforce the negative attitude members have toward their carriers.

Take members with chronic conditions as an example. According to the CDC approximately 60% of adults in the U.S. have at least one chronic condition and this number increases with age. Additionally, more than two-thirds of deaths in the U.S. come as the result of chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease and it is estimated that 90% of the $3.5 trillion annual health care spend goes toward treating chronic conditions.

It is clearly in the best interest of health insurance carriers to work closely with members with these conditions yet members’ trust in these companies remains at all-time lows. According to a recent JD Power survey only 36% of members believe that their health insurance carrier has the members’ best interests in mind and only 25% view their plan as a trusted partner in the members’ health and wellness. This study also showed that customer satisfaction is directly linked to customer engagement. One of the key components for improving trust, and thereby health care outcomes, is member engagement. Improving how companies interact and communicate with members is key to positively affecting this dynamic.

Traditional disease management efforts by health insurance carriers tend to leverage printing and mailing educational materials to members or placing robocalls in an effort to get members engaged. These methods have resulted in very limited success. However, as new communications technologies come in to play they can, and should, be leveraged to allow members to receive communications in the most appropriate and effective way for that individual, and to allow plans to share critical health related information in a more interactive and conversational way.

Imagine if we could change the traditional, one-way, “fire and forget” communications to efficient, bi-directional, conversations between plans and members. Members would be more receptive to advice and information shared by their carrier. Carriers would be better able to communicate the benefits of programs and would get more traction on efforts to reduce things like re-admission rates and chronic disease impacts. Following up on procedures to ensure complications are caught early also becomes easier. Through these methodologies engagement, satisfaction, outcomes, and trust all increase.

So how do carriers accomplish this? They need technology solutions that not only improve conversations with members but also improve internal administrative requirements such as reducing the number of communication templates while increasing the number of communication channels available for use. Increasing the personalization of communications to members helps them feel less like a “number” and more like an important consumer of the company’s services. All of this can help in changing how members view and interact with their plan carriers.

Wendigo Advisors
Wendigo Advisors provides CIO-as-a-Service in part-time and interim roles to health plans across the US.

Having SMARTER Customer Conversations Requires Forms Transformation

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Ayla

By James Brown, CEO of Smart Communications

It was less than one year ago that we announced we had acquired Intelledox. We knew at that time that this decision would allow us to empower our customers to deliver the smartest, most interactive communications possible, throughout the entire customer lifecycle—from acquisition to servicing, and every interaction in between. Today, we are making that vision a reality for companies that want to bring to their customers a customer-centric, digital-first experience that is truly rewarding. To do this most effectively required a deepening of the integration between the forms transformation capabilities that Intelledox was already delivering to the market and the next-generation customer communications management capabilities made possible by SmartCOMM.

The result? Intelledox is now SmartIQ, a key component of our customer conversations management platform. The timing of this important shift is critical. To be successful today organizations must become more digital-first and engage their customers in dynamic conversations. To achieve this, they must first more effectively collect customer information and then use that information to respond appropriately, quickly and via preferred channels. If interactions are still paper-based and static, enterprises risk creating a significant gap between what customers expect and what is being delivered. This starts from the very beginning of the customer relationship and remains critical throughout every stage of the lifecycle.

To evaluate the experience they are delivering, companies need to ask themselves a few very important questions:

Are all of your forms online (and preferably mobile-friendly), or are you still requiring paper or scanned PDFs you then have to extract?
Can you be sure customers are using the most recent version of the form?
Are the fields pre-populated with what you already know, so the individual only needs to confirm data rather than rekey it in?
Do you know your NIGO (Not In Good Order) rates of incomplete or inaccurate submissions?
Are you asking only relevant questions? (For example, do you ask single customers to enter information about their spouse? Do you ask people in different states or countries the same compliance questions?)
How much time does it take your internal IT team to launch new forms or make changes to existing ones?
Do you allow for users to start in one device and finish on another, even allowing that to take place offline?
What happens when you receive a returned form?
Is manual work required to rekey information introducing the risk of human error and taking time away from valuable employees?
What’s the risk you’re creating if you are not building an interactive, digital conversation with your customers today?

Your answers to these questions might reveal that your processes are tedious, time consuming, outdated and not customer-centric. Today’s consumers prefer instant gratification.

How do you deliver that? We would propose that the form of the future isn’t really a form at all.

Forms transformation needs to be a top priority as companies focus on digital transformation. Companies must embrace the concept of adaptive interviews, that turn forms into intuitive, guided journeys that are contextually aware based on the customer’s personal preference, device and location. In an adaptive interview, you ask intelligent questions based on known data and new responses. This eliminates unnecessary fields and the need to enter and re-enter information into a static form. Ideally, customers should be able to easily submit information, track their progress and quickly pick up where they left off. Furthermore, companies must also understand that at some point in the process the customer will likely be using a mobile device and the experience must reflect that and be able to adapt accordingly. Now is the time to transform processes and shift to more adaptive interview-like processes. This improves customer experience and speeds up the business process.

So much has happened in the last year. Not just for our company, but for the entire world. At a time when delivering digital-first customer interactions is more important than ever, cloud-based technologies, like SmartIQ, allow companies to be agile and empowered to respond to rapid change while also keeping their customer relationships front and center. When companies recognize the need to digitally transform in order to meet or exceed customer expectations, the benefits to the customer are tremendous and so too is the impact on the bottom line. We are thrilled to be able to enable our customers to achieve all of this and more. Let us know if we can tell you more about how we do that.

From Legacy to Flexibility: 3 Benefits of a Cloud-based Customer Communications Management Platform

Posted on June 9, 2020 by Ayla

By Chris Murphy, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Smart Communications

Digital transformation is obviously a key priority for nearly all strategic leaders today, but companies have been experimenting with new digital ways of conducting business for decades. Yet, its importance has never been so keenly felt. Even well before COVID-19 IDC predicted that 80 percent of revenue growth by 2022 will depend on digital offerings and operations. However, when it comes to customer communications, many companies are still using a combination of business intelligence applications, home-grown document processors, and manual document templates to manage their customer communications.

The reality is that these legacy architectures can no longer keep up with the demands of modern communication due to poor integrations with core systems, costly maintenance, and time-consuming production processes. Not to mention, these outdated systems make it extremely difficult to provide consistent and timely messaging – which is key to meeting customer experience expectations. Here are three key benefits of breaking free of the status quo:

Organizational Agility

One of the key benefits to moving from an outdated legacy system is building an organization’s ability to be agile – increasing both the speed and the efficiency in being able to respond to changes. Whether organizations are looking to adapt to changing market dynamics, launch new products, reach new market segments, scale up agile teams with new services for their customer-base, or incorporate a newly acquired business into their existing infrastructure, having the ability to design, integrate, test, launch and ultimately maintain supporting communication services with minimal friction is paramount.

The use of in-house document creators, ad-hoc word templates, and the reliance on business intelligence applications to locate data and populate forms are all blockers to being able to promote agility and speed in your organization. We’ve seen several instances where organizations can drastically decrease the number of labor hours required to make template edits once transitioning to a modern customer communications management (CCM) platform. A more streamlined and efficient template process allows IT staff to work on more pressing business objectives. Shifting template changes to line-of-business workers allows everyone to focus on what they do best. In fact, Smart Communications helped one customer reduce their number of templates from 1700 to 300, a reduction of around 82 percent!

Cost Savings

With the ability to engage customers via digital channels and offer on-demand access to important relationship documents, companies can reduce the reliance on sending this information via standard mail. According to recent findings from our Forrester TEI Report, companies can expect a 25 percent reduction in annual paper and postage spend by simply shifting communications to electronic forms.

Additionally, the cost of maintaining an on-premise solution can add up significantly. Depending on the number of environments, companies typically require at least one full time employee, if not more, that is solely dedicated to maintenance and upgrades. Not to mention the hardware and support costs that coincide. By transitioning to a digital-first CCM solution, future updates and necessary upgrades are performed in the cloud, which means that budget that was typically associated with labor and maintenance costs can now be allocated to other areas – like digital transformation initiatives.

Improved Brand Recognition

With the reliance of business users having to create their own templates, on-premise systems typically prohibit a consistent branding environment. Without a system that centralizes various logo files, fonts and formatting, there’s a lot of room for messaging and branding errors. Modern CCM platforms empower organizations with clearly defined enterprise-level customer communication standards that need to be adhered to across the business. They eliminate the usage of ad-hoc templates historically used by individual agents or business users. Organizations can appreciate a consistent look and feel across all its customer communications touchpoints and channels – which ultimately improves brand recognition.

Need further convincing? Moving to a cloud-based and digital-first CCM solution won’t only empower a more rewarding customer experience, but also provides material financial benefits, including a three-year risk-adjusted ROI of 139 percent and payback in less than six months. Download The Total Economic Impact of Smart Communications and learn how one customer experienced these benefits firsthand.

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