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How Financial Institutions Can Remove Friction from Data Collection for KYC and AML Compliance

Posted on September 14, 2021October 19, 2026 by Dani Duffy

Financial institutions, especially those dealing with large deposits like wealth management firms, have a dilemma when it comes to compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) data collection and other regulatory requirements. On the one hand, firms and their advisors must comply with these regulations – they are in no way optional. On the other hand, the rules can be cumbersome and add friction to key client touchpoints – like new account opening and onboarding – taking time and making the customer experience more frustrating.

The combination of heightened customer expectations around digital experiences, shifting demographics and intensifying competition from robo-advisors, means wealth management and other financial services firms face increasing pressure to make data collection for KYC as smooth and painless as possible.

Let’s look at actionable strategies for proactively managing the process of collecting information and backup documents for KYC in a way that ensures regulatory compliance while actually delivering a fast, easy customer experience.

Technology Integrations Overcome New Account Opening KYC Compliance Challenges

The trend of opening new accounts completely online had been on the rise for some time but was accelerated by the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Deloitte, 63% of wealth management clients claim that online interfaces are a key component of satisfaction with their advisor’s firm.

And while this might be great news for consumers, it’s a massive headache for financial services firms that need to know exactly who these new applicants are. Running afoul of regulations because of not properly vetting applicants means more than just a slap on the wrist: financial firms have been fined $26 billion in sanctions for AML and KYC non-compliance since 2008.

The best way to avoid non-compliance during account opening, whether completely online or in-person, is to see data collection for KYC processes as a component in a technology ecosystem designed specifically to minimize compliance risks. By leveraging key integrations, wealth management, superannuation and other financial institutions can automate the process of assessing a potential new client’s risk of non-compliance.

Transforming Data Collection for KYC During Client Onboarding: From Static Forms to Dynamic Conversations

Often today the process of KYC data collection for identity and risk assessments starts with a static, non-fillable PDF form. Beyond the fact that they are tedious and time consuming, the problem with these forms is that the advisor or firm then needs to rekey in the information. This manual effort results in high rates of Not In Good Order (NIGO) rejections and a heavy lift on resources to manually correct information.

In addition, KYC regulations require a photo of government-issued ID, such as a passport. But investors don’t have the ability to effectively complete the data-capture process by simply leveraging their mobile device camera while completing onboarding documentation.

What financial services firms need is a solution that orchestrates digital customer communications, establishing two-way interactive conversations. If client information already exists in a CRM solution, why should the client need to enter it again? Instead, they can simply verify that the information is correct and update as necessary. Empower them to start and stop a digital interview on different devices as needed and enable collaboration by capturing information simultaneously from a spouse or other joint investor. The less time clients and financial advisors need to spend on data collection for KYC, the more time advisors have with them to build meaningful relationships.

More than 40% of wealth management firms already offer digital onboarding, and it is expected that nearly 70% will offer digital onboarding by 2022. According to Gartner, 82% of wealth management firms are investing in client-facing technology in the next two years.

SmartIQ^TM, Smart Communication’s guided digital interview solution, uses the open APIs connected by the Conversation Cloud to automatically send data to third-party systems to validate client identity. The solution also easily integrates with other tools that specialize in connecting data and case management for KYC risk assessments, such as OneSpan and Pega.

A guided digital interview solution like SmartIQ changes the entire dynamic of client onboarding in financial services. Instead of the dreary process of filling out paperwork, advisors can transform onboarding into an enjoyable experience that sets the tone for the relationship early on. There’s a huge difference between an exciting conversation around how best to secure a client’s financial future, and “First name? Last name? Address?” Advisors should ask themselves, “which experience would clients return to and tell their friends about?”

Creating Powerful Personalized Experiences – One Client at a Time

At the end of the day, clients want to feel special, whether they are investing $10,000, $100,000 or more. They want to feel like they are receiving preferential treatment and can avoid common tasks that are perceived to be low value, like filling out paperwork. Unfortunately, static PDF forms send the opposite message. And while specific data points are necessary for KYC compliance, the approach to data collection can make or break a client’s experience.

SmartIQ enables wealth management and superannuation firms to avoid filling out information that already exists, but still capture the necessary data for KYC, AML and other compliance frameworks. The ability to do this from anywhere on any device makes discerning clients feel like a name, not a number. It shows that advisors care enough about the customer experience to invest in technology that makes their lives easier. That’s really the essence of personalization – meeting clients where they are with an experience they feel like was designed exclusively for them.

As we’ve seen, financial services firms can be proactive in removing the friction caused by KYC data collection while remaining fully compliant with regulations, both now and in the future – all while providing a personalized experience that high net worth individuals expect. With the right technology in place, wealth managers no longer have to choose between strict KYC compliance and a fantastic customer experience.

Lessons Through a Lens: Pandemics Changing Communication in Insurance

Posted on July 20, 2021October 19, 2026 by Smart Communications Team

By: Ruth Fisk, VP of Industry Marketing, Insurance at Smart Communications

More than 17 pandemics have plagued the world dating back as early as 430 B.C. Some are more well-known than others, but there is no doubt COVID-19 will be well remembered as a pandemic that changed the world. The 1918 Spanish Flu, the deadliest pandemic on record, and COVID-19 have a striking number of similarities. Just more than 100 years apart, each forced business to restrict operations, schools to close, stay at home orders to be enacted, masking and social distancing to become a must. The economic and social impact of each was devasting, forcing a shift in thinking about how we deliver products and services and – as importantly, how we communicate in new meaningful ways with the customers we serve.

Insurers too have been impacted by the outcomes of the pandemic, forcing them to readjust their business strategies so that they can better cater to the expectations of today’s consumers — especially during claims interactions where their customer retention and satisfaction rates are at the highest risk. There may be lessons insurers can glean from the pandemics to help them adjust to the next new normal. Let’s take a closer look.

Evolving the Way Products and Services are Delivered

Today’s “Hollywood” was born out of the 1918 pandemic, when 90% of movie theaters were shuttered. Adolph Zukor, co-founder of Paramount Pictures, had the vision to deliver full feature films through new channels, focused on the customer experience. Adolph purchased the closed theaters, built the movie empire, and transformed the movie industry. Similarly, insurance too will need to adapt to a new way of thinking by reevaluating the customer journey – every interaction can be a make-or-break moment in the retention strategy for that customer. It will not be enough to simply set up a digital front end, while still forcing your customer to engage in antiquated processes, e.g., filling out and returning a claim paper form.

EY reports “The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the transformational trends impacting the insurance sector and highlighting the need to take bolder actions in areas such as digital capability and effective engagement to address the customer’s needs post-pandemic.”

The insurance industry must rethink its business models to meet the expectations of policyholders. Consumers expect insurers to have the ability to have meaningful, two-way conversations whenever they need them to happen, across their preferred channels (mobile, web, human). Insurers must pivot in the way they deliver products and services; to do this, they should retool their communications platforms to have SMARTER conversations with their customers.

Technology Adoption Increases During Pandemics

Communications were difficult in 1918. Individuals relied solely on printed newspapers to receive updates on the pandemic. Businesses sought new and creative ways to reach customers. The 1918 pandemic dramatically changed the way we live and communicate today. One example – in-home telephones became a staple, helping individuals and households to feel less isolated and more connected.

Insurance companies can also learn from this lesson. The policyholder typically has little to no interaction with the insurer until a claim occurs and even then they often feel like communication is scarce, which makes them feel isolated during their greatest time of need. Best practices are now showing significant opportunities to improve customer satisfaction in claims if communications are approached as personalized, two-way conversations rather than broadcasting one-way messages that leave the insured feeling disconnected.

New Communications Methods Become Mainstream

As a result of the pandemics, we can now see the rapid adoption of essential technologies that offer new ways of doing things, driven by consumers’ demands for a more digital, personalized two-way interaction. As these technology imperatives become mainstream, insurers must take the necessary steps to implement a digital-first strategy to orchestrate conversations more effectively across all parties related to the policy.

Most significant will be the continued adoption of modern communications tools and platforms whose growth was fast-tracked because of the pandemic – think on-demand movies streamed via mobile or advanced video communications platforms like Zoom, where daily downloads have increased 30x to provide opportunities for online interactions. That alone is not enough. The digital age is accelerating at an even faster pace for the insurance industry, which now faces more urgency than ever to transform operations to be more nimble and agile. This requires an insurer to act with determination and speed in their adoption of a digital-first platform.

Insurance Industry Responding to New Demands

Insurance organizations have aspired to build truly digital-first businesses over the last several years, however most had not achieved this pre-COVID. Today, the “nice-to-have” imperative is no more, with a true ultimatum in place to shift priorities and focus aggressively on this new paradigm. The pandemic has brought a seismic shift in the way consumers expect insurers to be digitally available and to respond to their preferences or jeopardize their relationship.

Nearly 40% of consumers in the U.S. indicated they changed their preference from direct mail to digital communications due to factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To survive, insurers must accelerate their digital-first approach, which includes modernizing communication platforms. A large percentage of existing insurers are still running legacy Customer Communications Management (CCM) platforms, which impedes their ability to respond to the real-time expectations of policyholders and claimants.

Insurers can build the foundational components of a digital-first strategy by changing their approach to communications including:

STEP 1: Customer Conversations Roadmaps

Create customer roadmaps that define all the communications intersection points and opportunities, as well as customer preferences throughout the claims process.

STEP 2: Modern Customer Conversations Platform

Embrace a modern, cloud-based SaaS Customer Conversations Platform to provide digital-first, automated solutions like chatbots, self-service portals and mobile apps – providing new communications channels to engage customers in meaningful two-way conversations.

STEP 3: Cloud-First Adoption

Future-proof your strategy. Provide the scale, agility, multichannel communications, seamless integration, responsiveness and speed to market by embracing a modern conversations platform purposefully built for the cloud.

STEP 4: Enjoy the Benefits

Achieve long-lasting benefits of modernizing your communications platform as a top priority within your digital-first strategy, maximizing your ability to exceed customer expectations today and into the future, while also reducing costs.

The outcome of the pandemics presents insurance organizations the opportunity to learn from the past, by adopting the newer technologies that have proven their worth in the marketplace. Doing so will enable insurers to build a solid foundation for their digital transformation strategy, making it easier to meet consumer expectations, provide long-term value and carve out new competitive advantages.

Ready to apply these lessons learned to insurance? Contact us today to learn more about how your peers used the experiences from the pandemic to provide SMARTER conversations.

Smart Communications has long been recognized by all major analysts (Gartner, Forrester, Novarica and IDC ) as a Leader & Innovator in enterprise-scale Workflow & Content Automation (WCA) & Customer Communications Management (CCM) – and most recently by Aspire in its 2021 Leaderboard Assessment, based on our proven cloud approach, our strategy for enabling meaningful two-way customer conversations and our platform that’s purpose-built for a post-pandemic customer experience.

Digitizing the RLS Application Process: How UK Banks Can Transform and Win New Business

Posted on July 14, 2021October 19, 2026 by Smart Communications Team

For banks in the UK, the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) presents a great opportunity to help business clients stay solvent during difficult times. The challenge? How to make it faster and easier for clients to apply for and gain approval to access these RLS funds within regulatory guidelines– without using traditional paper and face-to-face channels of communications. By implementing a digital Recovery Loan Scheme application strategy, the reward could be signing new clients and expanding existing relationships.

The answer is similar to what we’ve found with many banks in the U.S. It starts with replacing paper and PDF application forms with rules-driven digital interviews, which enable borrowers to engage over mobile, as well as desktop channels, upload supporting documents easily and automate complex calculations to reduce errors.

Creating Unforgettable Customer Experiences Through a Digital RLS Application Strategy and Maximize Opportunity

The British government launched the Recovery Loan Scheme in April 2021 to help businesses across the nation recover from financial struggles due to the pandemic. Businesses can apply for up to £10 million in government-backed loans through a variety of banks and lenders. RLS financing can be taken as a term loan, overdraft, invoice finance or asset finance.

Like the U.S. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the Recovery Loan Scheme has been incredibly popular, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Many businesses that were financially sound before the pandemic found themselves at the mercy of converging market forces that hit specific industries, like retail, hospitality and travel in unique and punishing ways.

However, like in the U.S., banks and lenders were left to figure out – in a hurry – how to manage the influx of applications and complex eligibility rules. This has resulted in a patchwork of processes that can vary wildly from lender to lender, leaving business owners in a state of confusion as to how they can take advantage of the RLS.

Commercial banking success depends on the ability to lend money quickly and make it easy for busy business banking customers to get the funds they need. While it sounds simple, this is easier said than done. To scale, lenders need to do three things well: digitize, simplify and automate as much of the RLS customer experience as possible.

Common Recovery Loan Scheme Friction Points Impacting the Customer Experience

A few common roadblocks make achieving that trifecta of customer bliss a challenge:

The need to complete, print and sign forms and physical documents create a burden on borrowers who may not be able to visit a branch
Borrowers are often confused about what sections of a form they need to complete, but using dynamic rules to guide them helps reduce abandonment rates
Handwritten forms require manual processing and often have errors that need resolution, slowing down the turnaround time
Forcing borrowers to speak to a loan officer on the phone to complete an application creates frustrations and time delays and puts lenders at a competitive disadvantage to those who offer easy digital application experiences
Basic digital forms that don’t allow a borrower to save progress mid-completion or allow switching between devices can further frustrate applicants

PPP Lessons for UK Banks: Winning Customers for Life

UK banks and lenders looking to differentiate themselves in the crowded RLS marketplace would be wise to apply some of the key lessons learned from the U.S. PPP. Smart Communications helped a number of banks accelerate their PPP Loan Forgiveness process with SmartIQ^TM, a low-code, drag-and-drop platform for forms transformation designed with speed and scale in mind.

Here’s an example of one lender’s situation before and after implementing SmartIQ:

Before:

When the PPP was introduced, the bank was inundated with requests, which was complicated by the inability to meet customers in person due to COVID-19
They had more than 650 loans to process, which would have taken half a dozen dedicated resources weeks to get through
The bank’s 11-page application was challenging for customers to navigate, causing further delays and support requests

After:

Entire loans can now be processed in a day or less
They attracted new customers away from banks who were too slow to meet the needs of PPP borrowers desperate for quick funds
Empowered applicants easily completed their forms with a guided digital interview experience that worked well across devices, resulting in increased customer loyalty (and public praise on social media)

Optimizing the Digital Recovery Loan Scheme Application Process

For time-sensitive market opportunities like the Recovery Loan Scheme, banks need to be agile and ready to deploy new forms in a hurry. Digitizing, simplifying and automating is more than just smart business, it’s an economy-saving effort. Enabling business owners to quickly and easily complete the Recovery Loan Scheme application could mean the difference between staff being made or redundant or meeting payroll. UK banks have a tremendous opportunity to build lasting relationships with customers by supporting them in these difficult times. With SMART technology in place, it’s never been easier.

Watch a short video demo of the SBA Paycheck Protection Loan Forgiveness Solution here.

For Insurers, Ad Hoc Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult

Posted on June 28, 2021 by Mary Featherstone

By: Ruth Fisk, VP of Industry Marketing, Insurance at Smart Communications

Today, most of us carry more computing power in the palm of our hands than all of NASA had back in 1969 when it sent two astronauts to the moon, and yet despite this, most insurers are still saddled with labor-intensive, manual processes to create ad hoc claims correspondence experiences.

The number of smartphone users in the world today is 3.8 billion

Modernization in insurance is slow and difficult, with many systems that must be updated in order to truly deliver on the experiences that we as always-on, real-time consumers expect in every interaction. While many insurers have done their best to build digital façades in order to appear to be a digital-first organization for their claimants, behind the scenes, many of their processes – including the creation of claims correspondence – is still riddled with age-old structured and methodologies.

Years ago, to describe claims communications the industry coined the term “ad hoc correspondence.” By definition, ad hoc loosely describes the significant number of one-off pieces of correspondence that may be created in claims operations on any given day.

However, claims professionals would likely agree that the synonyms that explicitly describe ad hoc are even more fitting:

impromptu · improvised · rough and ready · makeshift · make-do · cobbled together · thrown together · jury-rigged · quick and dirty · as the need arises · when necessary · when needed

Still prevalent today are legacy communication tools that leverage manually created, word-based or other outdated word processing tool templates, stored in individual files or on network shares to accomplish their “ad hoc correspondence” needs. Claims professionals have become so accustomed to – and quite frankly don’t even think twice – about using this approach because it gives them the freedom to “roll their own” ad hoc letters. However, these outdated tools expose a claims organization to higher operational costs and increased liability exposure for noncompliance:

Content control within templates is critical as the wrong message can create significant risks to the insured.
Redundancy in template content often makes the selection of proper templates overwhelming and increases the costs of maintenance and control.
Claims correspondence is always created because of some adjudication activity that occurs in the claims administration system, yet legacy solutions have limited integration capabilities available.
Claims administration systems lack the interactive correspondence capability which most carriers require.
Coordinating communication across all interested/active parties is arduous. Adjusters must prepare correspondence with the claimant, agent, third-party service providers, investigators, witnesses, medical providers and contractors.
Legacy communication tools do not provide the customer-centric approach required in today’s insurance environments, leaving claims professionals that create impersonal experiences for their customers.

The insurance industry is focused on delivering personalized digital experiences to improve its customer-centric approach. However, archaic processes still exist in claims operations which make it difficult to manage the creation of real-time two-way conversational communications without the proper solutions. The ultimate interactive claims correspondence solutions, like our Conversation Cloud, achieve the perfect balance between a business user’s flexibility and critical organizational control and auditability. Claims professionals will be asking why they didn’t make this change years ago!

With the proper tools – ad hoc doesn’t have to be difficult.

Modern conversation platforms provide interactive, real-time, two-way conversational capabilities that enrich the customer experience, enable faster claims resolution and ensure compliance – all while increasing the claim adjuster’s productivity and improving their job satisfaction. Migration tools are accessible to reduce the time required so you can retire those antiquated tools quickly.

What are you waiting for? Start having SMARTER conversations today.

Smart Communications can help you with your digital journey. We’ve long been recognized by all major analysts (Gartner, Forrester , Aspire and IDC ) as a Leader & Innovator in enterprise-scale Workflow & Content Automation (WCA) & Customer Communications Management (CCM) – including Aspire’s 2021 assessment which rates Smart Communications the #1 leader in the industry.

Contact us to learn more!

Survey Recap: How Leading Insurers Can Build Trust

Posted on May 19, 2021October 19, 2026 by Smart Communications Team

By: Neil Greathead, Chief Customer Officer at Smart Communications

The year 2020 was a difficult one for nearly all industries, and the insurance industry was no exception. Customers are now more accustomed than ever to digital-first interactions, and their expectations are at an all-time high. As we enter a post-pandemic world, insurers can build trust by rethinking customer engagement and how they can better meet customer needs.

Data gathered by Insurance Innovators, in partnership with Smart Communications and Salesforce Industries, provides valuable insights into how to improve trust and customer satisfaction. The main takeaway? It’s time to invest in SMARTER digital conversation capabilities that enable insurance companies to deliver targeted advice when and where it’s needed, ultimately recasting themselves as trusted advisors.

In this post, we recap key findings from the research. Read more below or check out the full research report and infographic.

Getting Clear on Better Customer Conversations

The research found that 84% of insurance executives are already bought in on the idea that better customer communications can reverse the trend of eroding trust. They also seem clear on where the challenge lies: 90% believe that when customers find descriptions of product features and add-on products confusing at the point of sale, it makes them more distrustful of insurers. Webpages with too many coverage options overwhelm customers, especially when what they see isn’t relevant to their situation. Respondents agree that personalizing plan options and documents using data and analytics would have a massive impact in minimizing loss of trust.

According to the survey, greater clarity and personalization helps build trust both at the point of sale and when claims are filed. 78% of respondents believe that poor customer understanding of coverage greatly undermined trust when claims proved contentious during the pandemic. Yet insurance leaders also recognized the opportunity this represents: 69% believe trust can be protected by using data analysis to anticipate confusing policy terms and tailor messaging accordingly.

Improving Digital Experiences to Meet Rising Expectations

Insurers build trust by managing customer expectations during the claims process. 89% of those surveyed cited delays as the biggest factor that dented trust during the pandemic. Customers experiencing upheaval in their personal or business finances did not have patience for opaque, slow turnaround times. Again, this challenge points the way to an opportunity: 81% believe that real-time digital updates would safeguard trust.

Ultimately, insurance leaders agree that without a seamless digital experience, the ability of insurers to build trust will continue to suffer. Consumers know what better looks like when it comes to digital experiences, and companies who don’t invest in improving customer communications will be left behind.

The New Recipe for Success: Personalization, Seamless Omnichannel Experiences, and Self-Service Automation

Despite all the challenges the survey touched on, it’s not all doom and gloom. We also uncovered practical tips for how smart insurers can reverse the tide of declining trust to win customers for life. The three-part recipe for success? Personalization, a seamless omnichannel experience, and easy and fulfilling self-service automation.

Personalization

Insurance executives believe it’s time to get personal. An overwhelming 98% said optimizing personalized customer contact in all digital interactions would increase trust. Personalization conveys both relevance and empathy. Customers want to be known and understood by the companies they work with. They’ve been trained by Amazon’s algorithms to receive highly relevant product recommendations and want that same kind of insightfulness across all their digital interactions. This doesn’t simply result in higher sales. Understanding implies caring. When customers feel heard and understood, it quickly translates to positive brand associations.

Omnichannel Experiences

Second, respondents unanimously recognize that customers want an incredible experience no matter what device or platform they happen to be on at the time. 95% agree that frictionless experiences are crucial to insurance building trust, while frustrating digital interactions have a negative impact. In a world where customers rapidly cycle through their devices, and data automatically syncs between them, they expect their insurers to follow suit.

While insurers might feel the pinch of managing communications across so many different digital platforms simultaneously, customers don’t have such a nuanced view. If a customer first engages with online chat, they expect all that information to carry through on any device or platform – regardless of where their next interaction is. Insurers have a major opportunity to invest in technology platforms, such as Smart’s Conversation Cloud that enable this seamless omnichannel experience for every customer, every time.

Self-service automation

Third, customers are clamoring for more and better self-service tools. Consumers don’t mind helping themselves. In fact, some even prefer digital over human interactions. There are several proactive self-service automation strategies insurers can employ to increase trust, according to respondents:

Pre-populate forms with as much of the data as you already have
Introduce advanced virtual agents that can actually help a customer resolve an issue from start to finish
Use AI chatbots to provide proactive guidance where needed

A New Relationship Norm: Insurers Build Trust as Advisors to Customers

For insurers, the end goal of digital transformation is to redefine the relationship they have with their customers. Instead of being viewed as a business you only communicate with when there’s a problem, insurers have a significant opportunity to flip the script and upgrade the value they provide customers. The research indicated that 94% of insurance executives believe that offering personalized advice to reduce risk will eventually become the core insurance company value proposition. Instead of waiting until disaster strikes and helping to pick up the pieces, insurers can instead become known for helping customers avoid disaster in the first place.

How can insurers make this shift? By avoiding cookie-cutter communications. Among those surveyed, 90% warn that unless a touchpoint is personalized, frictionless, and adds value, it will only irritate customers. Conversely, by leveraging SMART technology that provides customized, convenient, and value-added conversations, insurers can win the hearts and minds of their customers.

Ultimately, COVID-19 exposed the gap between what insurance customers expect and their actual experience. With the pain points now clearly revealed, they can be solved. Adding value to a customer’s daily life through enhanced digital communications is the path forward.

Want to learn more about how insurers can increase trust more than ever? Download the full Rebuilding Trust in Insurance infographic or read the full results.

DocuSign & Smart Communications: Delivering SMARTER Conversations in 2021

Posted on May 11, 2021October 19, 2026 by Smart Communications Team

By Chuck Fazio, VP Global Partner Ecosystem at Smart Communications

Global business leaders face several challenges – some that have been around for a while, and others that have emerged or intensified more recently. Customers’ ever-changing expectations and increased appetite for digital-first engagements, remote work and more have forced most organizations to rethink customer engagement. Gone are the days of one-way, transactional communications. Today, enterprises must deliver meaningful, two-way customer conversations.

We recently sat down with Steve Park, Technical Director, Global Partner Solutions at DocuSign to discuss what’s on the horizon for businesses this year, plus how we can all learn and grow from the lessons we learned in 2020.

How did the big changes of the past year impact the employee experience?

DocuSign: The transition to a remote environment quickly altered our culture in some significant ways. The ability to gather, collaborate and connect with our colleagues and customers had to be managed differently in order to maintain DocuSign’s standard of excellence. We’ve had to rely more heavily on the systems and services that keep us connected with each other in order to keep business moving forward.

Smart Communications: It’s interesting that while digital transformation has been a focus for many companies in recent years, it took the challenges of 2020 to really accelerate these efforts. One silver lining of this experience is that it made clear that just translating traditional processes into a digital format isn’t enough. It’s really about making the end-to-end interaction more effective and engaging.

What can business leaders do to ensure employees have the resources they need for success?

DocuSign: Increase the touch points. High levels of engagement from your employees and customers are only achievable the more you communicate with them. That’s even more important in a virtual setting.

Smart Communications: In 5 Key Trends Transforming Customer Conversations in 2021, we collected insights from leaders across industries, and without exception, the employee experience is a key focus for this year. Making the remote work experience as seamless and efficient as possible is essential. Companies that are leading the way are investing in technologies that support a digital-first approach and help employees be more successful by eliminating silos, reducing manual processes and creating more powerful connections at scale.

What kind of impact did COVID-19 have on your customers’ expectations? What changes did you see as a result of the pandemic, and how do you expect those to evolve in 2021?

DocuSign: The vast majority of our customers indicated a need for digital transformation well before the pandemic. Consequently, COVID-19 accelerated those initiatives and DocuSign was ready to assist our customers during these complex times. It’s impossible to predict how things will evolve in 2021, but the power of the DocuSign Agreement Cloud^TM portfolio of products —coupled with the power of hundreds of partner integrations—can continue to help customers on their digital transformation journey.

Smart Communications: COVID-19 definitely brought the need for e-signature software as a business continuity tool to the forefront! Interestingly, we’re seeing that it is motivating businesses to take a look at all of the steps in their customer engagement processes to ensure they are digital-first and mobile-ready. Reducing the need for re-entry of data, enabling two-way data exchange and creating more personalized experiences are high priorities this year.

What are some business processes that are ripe for transformation? Where do you see automation having the biggest impact?

DocuSign: DocuSign has built a reputation of trust unparalleled in the market which is why hundreds of thousands of customers process millions of transactions on the DocuSign platform. However, many of those agreements still require negotiation and evaluation before they are signed—and we believe that’s ripe for transformation. Technologies that use AI to analyze, automate and simplify the process of negotiating, signing and managing incoming agreements will be valuable—DocuSign Analyzer being one example.

Smart Communications: In looking at engagement holistically, we couldn’t agree more. For many, e-signature solutions are just the first step. We encourage companies to evaluate the entire customer journey and identify ways to enhance every interaction by exploring how two-way conversations can improve the customer experience and maximize results. When it comes to collecting information and dynamically generating communications, AI is becoming a powerful tool for enhancing the process. We are truly on the cusp of this promising technology becoming a scalable solution.

What are the biggest risks to businesses in 2021? What are the greatest areas of opportunity?

DocuSign: The biggest risks to any business in 2021 and every year thereafter is complacency. Business doesn’t get any slower. So companies have to evolve, fast. The same is true for innovation—that has to continue at pace, and those that innovate effectively will capitalize on the market opportunity.

Smart Communications: Neil Greathead, Smart Communications’ Chief Customer Officer, recently said that the biggest risk to businesses is doing nothing. After the challenges of this past year, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But this is not the time to slow down or stop making progress. Companies that are thoughtful both about the way they collect data and how they use that data to build stronger connections to their customers are going to quickly get ahead. Technology is important, especially as we focus on being more strategic, as well as continuous improvement and adapting to new realities.

How will technology enhance the customer experience? How can businesses make data more scalable and actionable?

DocuSign: Technology used wisely can make tasks easier to do and in less time. If not, what’s the point? And it starts with data you already have. If you can use systems that make use of that data in logical ways, the sky is the limit.

Smart Communications: Most companies have great insights about their customers in their existing systems. The challenge is connecting the dots and putting that information to work effectively in customer interactions. By connecting core systems of record to customer engagement points, companies have the power to personalize and transform interactions into opportunities to delight. It’s about reimagining forms, communications and everyday touchpoints. Once companies do that, then using AI and advanced analytics to better understand customers and optimize the experience is more feasible. Being ready for what’s next starts with digital-first.

Learn more about how solutions like DocuSign can be a powerful starting point for elevating the digital customer experience in our eBook, Moving Beyond E-Signature: How to Elevate the Digital Customer Experience.

Year in Review: The Top Trends that Impacted Customer Conversations in 2020

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Ayla

By: Leigh Segall, CMO at Smart Communications

A new year offers a fresh start and a new beginning. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on the big trends and events that helped lay the foundation for the months and years ahead. The way people live, work and communicate has fundamentally changed following a year that was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As companies around the world continue to explore new ways to positively influence revenue, differentiate themselves from the competition and enhance customer conversations even in a time that is still far from “normal”, we’ve compiled five of our favorite blog posts from the previous year, that may help them do just that. These tips and strategies for success will empower companies to successfully navigate a forever-changed employee experience, increasing customer expectations and technology innovations.

Communications in the Time of COVID-19: Delivering SMARTER Digital Conversations Just Became More Critical
In the face of a global health crisis, businesses needed to support their customers from a distance. Many enterprises were faced with accelerating their digital transformation initiatives in order to deliver the high touch, digital interactions customers expect. This post from James Brown, CEO of Smart Communications, details how organizations can keep customers at the center and reduce friction, despite remote work environments.
Having SMARTER Customer Conversations Requires Forms Transformation
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the way the world lives, works and communicates. These factors combined with customers’ already increasing expectations are forcing businesses to go beyond traditional customer communications and start implementing two-way conversations. Smart Communications makes this possible with forms transformation via SmartIQ^TM. This post details how enterprises can engage customers in dynamic conversations from acquisition, to onboarding, to servicing and why interactions that are still paper-based and static pose significant risk to the customer experience.
Engaging and Empowering Employees During this Remote Revolution
Among many of the challenges that 2020 presented was how to keep employees engaged and productive in an almost fully remote work environment. This post from Smart Communications’ Jo Sweet, HR Director, details three areas organizations should focus on to successfully navigate a new way of working while empowering employees to achieve the best results possible.
Situations Change, So Too Must Your Processes
There’s no shortage of data in the digital era. Organizations across the public and private sectors have an abundance of data, but all too often are unsure how to best use it. This post from Nick Smith, VP Sales & General Manager, APAC, at Smart Communications, details how organizations can not only use data, but also gain insights that lead to better outcomes for the end-customer.
The Results are In, Customer Demands are Changing and Businesses Need to Quickly Adapt
Throughout 2020, businesses around the world faced challenges that will continue to have an impact on customer conversations in the months and years ahead. Smart Communications commissioned research from Harris Interactive to gain a better understanding of how new challenges, changing expectations and accelerated digital transformation have impacted consumer preferences and corporate priorities. Highlights from the results are featured in this infographic and the full report can be viewed here.

For an in-depth look at the major trends featured above, as well as additional information and thought leadership for how organizations can deliver SMARTER customer conversations in 2021 and beyond, check out our Thought Leadership page.

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.

Next-Generation CCM Powers the Future of Utilities

Posted on August 19, 2020October 19, 2026 by Smart Communications Team

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.

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.

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