Conversation Cloud Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Smart Communications Blogs

Outsourcing Communications: Can Non-Core Activity Cause a Meltdown? Yes.

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Scott Draeger

By Scott Draeger, SVP of Product Marketing & Vertical Solutions at Smart Communications

Many banks, building societies, insurers, and government agencies routinely outsource customer communications. These organizations consider the production of customer communications to be a “non-core” business activity. But when a service bureau experiences financial difficulties, these organizations scramble to contain the damage of a communication meltdown. Recent developments at Communisis, as covered by Printweek, are a cautionary tale for organizations that outsource too much of the valuable part of their voice to a third party.

Suddenly, many leading organizations learned that lawyers, businesspeople, and consultants in other countries are important stakeholders in their customer communication supply chain. “More broadly, we [Communisis] have been working closely with our advisors, customers and stakeholders over the past few months to explore a number of strategic options which will enable Communisis to move forward independently on a positive and sustainable footing,” per a Communisis spokesperson as quoted by Printweek.

For organizations outsourcing communications, chaos at a key supplier throws leadership teams into crisis mode for a supposedly low-risk “non-core” activity. We have evidence that has firmly established that communication is a core business activity. At a minimum, impacted organizations have been forced into wasting months of effort in crisis management activities, massively increasing the cost of a “non-core” activity.

Organizations that internally manage the design, content, rules, and other IP associated with their customer communications are immune to situations like this. The design, content, rules, and other IP that form the customer experience layer of your business should be entirely within your control. Smart Communications' clients using SmartCOMM™ and/or SmartIQ™ have total control over their voice across all channels and interactions while retaining the flexibility to manage the truly non-core production process in any way they choose.

Leaders have already been moving in this direction by shifting to digital communications. According to the Printweek article, “Its [Communisis’] transactional print business took a big hit with sales down 20% as banking customers accelerated their migration to digital comms.” This demonstrates the degree to which banks, and other industries, are regaining control over their digital communications.

Take notice of this situation, as hundreds of millions of communications in the UK will experience a change in the supply chain. Hopefully, it will be invisible to the customers and recipients due to the heroic efforts of reactive leadership teams. For you, it is far better to avoid the chance of a “non-core” meltdown by retaining control of the design, rules, content, and other IP that support your customer relationships. Learn why Smart Communications has earned the only “Customer First” award for Customer Communications Management from Gartner.

Discover how The Conversation Cloud makes it easy for highly regulated industries to maintain compliance and mitigate risk, or get in touch for a CCM Migration Consultation.

What You Need to Know About Customer Complaints Management in Financial Services

Posted on July 11, 2023 by SmartComm

By Karen Oakland, VP of Financial Services Marketing at Smart Communications

Complaints management can be a costly affair, especially for regulated industries like financial services and insurance. Support staff and call centers are expensive, which is why improving digital self-service capabilities is an important priority for many financial institutions. Meanwhile customer expectations for fast response time and personalized attention are higher than ever.

Apart from managing customer service costs, businesses now need to factor in the cost of reputational damage when customer complaints are aired in the digital arena. No company wants to be “flamed” online. Yet the trend has been for customers to voice complaints on social media rather than through traditional channels like contact centers or complaint letters, particularly among younger generations.

In financial services, customer complaints management is drawing the attention of federal and regional regulators. In Australia, regulators are taking a stronger approach to consumer protections that sets a precedent for rules makers in other countries, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the U.S., and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the U.K.

Here’s what you need to know, and some tips for how your business can more effectively manage complaints and credit disputes (even if you’re not operating Down Under).

What are the Key Provisions of Australia's RG271 for Complaints Management?

In Australia, financial services institutions (FSIs) are regulated by the Australia Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which acts in partnership with Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). In October 2021 ASIC issued Regulation Guide 271 (RG271) for Internal Dispute Resolution, or IDR.

Some key provisions of RG271 include:

Expanding the definition of "complaints" to include dissatisfaction with a company, its staff, products or services
Expecting financial institutions to proactively address complaints, even those expressed on social media and not submitted directly or in writing
Ensuring ease of complaint filing for customers and providing clear communication about the complaint process
Requiring financial institutions to acknowledge a complaint within 24 hours

Mandating a written response with the outcome of the IDR process to be delivered within 30 days (reduced from the previous 45-day timeframe)
Requiring FSIs to record all complaints and regularly report to the company's board and senior management
Introducing a new IDR data reporting framework, necessitating the submission of reports to ASIC every six months on complaints handling starting in 2023

Different timeframes apply for resolving certain types of complaints, including those related to superannuation (or retirement fund) death benefit distributions; credit-related complaints involving default notices; and those involving hardship notices or requests to postpone enforcement proceedings.

While these requirements may seem straightforward with the advancements in digital technology, regulators believe that many banks and other FSIs struggle due to inadequate capacity and resources to investigate and resolve customer complaints promptly.

In fact, the ASIC found late last year that 20 percent of all superannuation funds were still not meeting the regulatory requirements for communicating with customers as part of a dispute resolution process. And it said that 80 percent of the funds were poorly managing systemic issues around complaints management. Most failed to ensure all complainants were kept informed within the required time frame. If your business wants to improve in this area, here are three areas to consider.

1 in 5 super funds fail to adhere to ASIC’s dispute resolution guidelines – InvestorDaily

How to Ensure Compliance with Complaints Management Regulations

The Smart Communications Conversation Cloud™ (the combination of our cloud-based customer communications management solution, SmartCOMM™, and forms automation solution, SmartIQ™) platform offers capabilities that can help your organization achieve RG271 compliance for IDR in Australia, or simply enhance the effectiveness of your customer support operations, in the following ways:

Rethink your use of traditional forms to capture data on complaints. For many customers, forms are frustrating and mind numbing. Moreover, they often require manual work for internal employees to process and retype data into other systems. Our SmartIQ forms automation software supports digital and mobile interactions, while making it faster and easier for FSIs to process the information with connection to employee task dashboards and workflows. This type of guided interview can elevate your customer self-service and can be used in internal contact centers to improve efficiency. And with a low-code architecture, you minimize the burden on IT. (Take a closer look within our Ultimate Guide to Digital Forms Software.)
Utilize customer communications management (CCM) software to centralize your templates for complaints communications across output channels. SmartCOMM, our cloud customer communications management (CCM) solution, enables FSIs to be confident that every message and document is compliant, from automatic acknowledgements to IDR responses to regulatory reporting. Cloud-native, SmartCOMM provides prebuilt integrations to CRM, intelligent automation and ECM archives, giving you even more cost efficiency and flexibility to design the best customer journey. If you use a process automation solution like Pega or Appian, for example, you can use those solutions to trigger these dynamic communications to be sent via the customer’s channel of choice. With our Pega connector, customer service representatives have the ability to create ad-hoc letters and correspondence from within that user interface.
Improve insights into complaints using content intelligence. With our built-in content intelligence capabilities, you can understand where customers are missing questions in a complaint interview, or where customer communications can be improved across the lifecycle. With our Content Intelligence module, you can evaluate the readability, sentiment and tone of communications to make sure they are both empathetic and effective.

At its core, resolving complaints and disputes requires a two-way conversation between the customer and your support team. Resolving them quickly means re-imagining that conversation in a digital-first world, improving the ability to self-serve. By leveraging the power of composable, cloud-based software platforms, you can connect all your touch points and remove points of friction.

Case Study: Digitizing Credit Card Dispute Resolution for Improved Complaints Management

Here’s a real-life example that illustrates this new way of thinking. We’re working with one of our largest banking clients in Australia to re-imagine the customer experience and digitize the process of resolving complaints such as credit card disputes. Like many services requests, the resolution process requires the customer to submit a form to start the process.

Historically, that form was only available as a blank PDF the customer was required to download and complete on paper. Why was this a problem?

It wasn’t an easy experience – and not mobile friendly
The burden was on the customer to complete it correctly

It required an employee to rekey data into another system – with the risk of NIGO errors
That data needed to be input into another system before any process automation could begin

With SmartIQ, the bank is now able to provide branded, device-responsive digital interviews from within its secure customer portal. Integrated with the bank’s CRM system, these guided “forms” are prefilled, making it easier for customers to complete and reducing errors thanks to real-time data validation.

In addition, the data automatically generates acknowledgements and other customer communications as required by regulators – all integrated seamlessly with the bank’s e-signature and document archiving solutions. The incoming data further triggers automated processing via Appian, ultimately speeding up compliant resolution time and improving customer experience.

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Enable customers to easily upload supporting documents and switch between mobile or desktop.

Resolving Customer Complaints Faster Has Long-Term Impact

Beyond the regulatory “bite” of potential fines and penalties, improving the way you manage complaints and disputes can deliver results in terms of greater efficiency and customer loyalty scores. Many organizations today are adopting the use of “Customer Effort Scores” as a key measure of client satisfaction, in addition to traditional churn metrics, according to analysts like IDC.

Our benchmark research reveals that 81% of global consumers consider the communications they receive as important to their overall experience with a company. The increasing number of communication channels, coupled with customers’ ever-changing expectations, is putting more pressure than ever on financial institutions to keep pace across every interaction, not only in complaints management.

At the same time, you’re continuing to face cost pressures and need to squeeze efficiencies out of every process to stay competitive in a volatile economy. Servicing is still primarily a cost center, not a profit center. That means it’s more important than ever to automate and streamline your complaints management processes while deploying your staff where they provide the most value.

If you’d like to talk about ways to take your complaints and disputes management process to the next level, reach out and talk with us.

7 Questions to Ask a New Vendor Before Switching from Legacy to Cloud CCM Software

Posted on April 19, 2023 by SmartComm

By: Brad McGeown, Vice President of Strategy, Financial Services at Smart Communications

Making the most out of every customer interaction is an essential part of any enterprise and having the right SaaS Customer Communications Management (CCM) software in place makes a big difference as organizations across all industries continue to focus their investments into sophisticated tech that enables their workforces to be more agile, efficient and future-ready. While many business leaders are on board with the digital transformation from legacy to cloud, there’s still a lot of progress to be made. Here’s what Kaspar Roos, Founder & CEO at Aspire, had to say about investing in newer tech: “If there’s a gap between where your business is today and where the industry is going, the longer you wait, the bigger that gap becomes and the deeper the chasm that you need to cross. It’s not a question of ‘if’ you need to make the leap to newer tech, it’s ‘when’.”

If you’re looking at making a switch from a legacy on-premise to cloud-based CCM solutions, it’s important to ask certain questions before signing a new vendor contract. In this article, we highlight key questions to ask a CCM vendor when planning to migrate (or consolidate CCM systems) – to help you streamline the planning process and ensure a justifiable investment.

RELATED READING | ‘Building a Business Case for Change’

How CapEx and OpEx Budgets Are Impacted by Cloud Software

Capital budgeting is a financial planning approach that focuses on long-term investments. Capital expenditures (CapEx) involve purchasing assets that will benefit the company over time, such as equipment or property. On the other hand, operational expense (OpEx) budgeting focuses on the day-to-day operational costs of the business. For instance, SaaS CCM software that is hosted on the cloud and is subscription-based, is considered an operating expense.

Capital expenditures associated with private cloud/hybrid may encompass the acquisition of hardware, such as servers or the establishment of a data center, thereby qualifying as CapEx. A pure SaaS CCM software subscription will require zero hardware purchases. Traditionally, the purchase of on-premises software constituted a capital expense that could be amortized over time for accounting purposes. In such cases, software was accounted for as a one-time expenditure as opposed to a subscription model. It was feasible to procure the software once and continue using it indefinitely, even ceasing to pay maintenance fees if so desired.

Today, subscription-based software purchases typically result in the buyer obtaining a license but they do not own anything so it can only be expensed not capitalized. This can be an advantage in terms of flexibility and reduced hardware costs, but it also means that businesses do not have full control over the software's development or customization.

Overall, a SaaS CCM software model helps businesses reduce the high costs associated with on-premises technology which requires a significant investment in hardware, licensing and maintenance, whereas SaaS allows businesses to scale to real-time needs and avoid the need to track the ‘highest need’ day.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the vendor you choose when switching from legacy to cloud CCM software should have rigorous standards for security and data privacy. Also consider which professional partnerships they offer as any leading CCM provider should be able to provide integrations that help enterprises be more agile, efficient and less dependent on IT resources. Don’t forget to look for these additional benefits:

Reduced total cost of ownership
Enhance customer experience
Consistent innovation and product investments
Enhanced speed and agility

Want to learn more about how a leading cloud CCM provider can enhance your business? Read ‘The Ultimate Guide to CCM Software & Strategic Solutions’

How Cloud Adoption in Insurance Can Help Enterprises Remain Agile and Improve Business Outcomes

Posted on March 30, 2023 by SmartComm

By: Ruth Fisk, VP of Insurance Strategy at Smart Communications

It’s no secret that cloud functionality is, and will remain, a factor that can produce big benefits for insurers, now and in the future. Recently, Smart Communications joined many leading companies in the insurance industry at Guidewire Connections in Las Vegas . We heard about the importance of cloud adoption in insurance, the current state of the industry and what is still required of insurers in order to remain agile, improve business outcomes and deliver on customers’ ever-changing expectations.

Of the many themes discussed over this four-day event, it was interesting to hear about what’s keeping insurance leaders on their toes. Things like cyber risk, new distribution models, data and analytics potential, as well as the ability to quickly adjust to inflation and changing market conditions were all referenced as key priorities. Additionally, cloud adoption became a focal point when discussing how insurance companies can attract top talent.

In this blog, we cover how digital transformation — with a focus on cloud technology — will remain integral to the success of insurers going forward especially as leaders aim to address:

Employee turnover and skills shortages
The need for agility and scalability
Deciding on the right cloud solutions to help insurers secure a future-ready organization

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE | ‘3 Ways Insurers Can Leverage the Cloud to Close Gaps Between Customer Expectations and Their Experiences’

Attract Top Talent with Cloud Adoption in Insurance

Although the current skills shortage is a hot topic across all industries, the insurance industry is especially in need of top talent. Not only will cloud adoption help insurance organizations remain agile, but it will also give them the ability to recruit better talent. Today’s talent wants to be part of something bigger than themselves – to be seen as an innovator and a game-changer.

This means that as insurers aim to attract and hire top talent, manual processes and legacy systems should be retired. This will give digitally savvy employees the processes and solutions that keep them excited about working for a forward-thinking organization. Leveraging the power of the cloud can also make insurance professionals’ jobs easier by improving employee engagement and internal NPS scores. When employees are happy, they tend to perform better, and this has been proven to extend to the customer experience.

Finally, cloud technology allows employees to be more proactive in their day-to-day tasks. Legacy, on-premise systems can offer band aid approaches to daily issues, but they’re not helping staff work toward larger challenges and/or wider company goals. With cloud, employees can be more strategic, allowing them to get ahead of customer needs and provide a better experience all around.

Enable Cross-Functional Agility with Pure Cloud Solutions

Cloud solutions help modernize IT operations, another key initiative insurers must adopt in the face of changing market demands. Part of that modernization includes enabling teams across the business to work cross-functionally with less friction and more ease. Balancing the need to maintain stable, resilient systems and the need to innovate requires an agile platform across the complete insurance lifecycle, making cloud technology the right approach

Insurance is an industry that continues to change, and it will take strong vendor partnerships in order to transform the industry standard. This means leading by example and helping to shift mindsets across industry leadership. Undoubtedly, this will require stricter alignment between the IT function and the business, enabling them to respond to market demands much quicker and in a more agile fashion.

With solutions like the Smart Communications Conversation Cloud, insurers can connect all data, applications and history, giving them actionable data in real time. Of course, this is made possible by leveraging cloud solutions with strong APIs. With the ability to act on this data, insurers can scale as needed to deliver personalized, omnichannel conversations that help their policyholders feel seen and heard as individuals. This also helps insurance companies prepare for the future and increases their internal efficiencies—all feats made possible by pure cloud solutions and impossible by sticking with on-premise solutions or legacy systems.

KEEP READING | ‘2022 Forrester Consulting TEI:SmartIQ Enables Cost Savings, Solves Business Challenges’

Leverage the Right Cloud-Based Solutions for Insurance Companies

Legacy systems or platforms don’t have the necessary interoperability to power core operations that modern, forward-thinking insurance organizations use. These systems lack the sophisticated APIs that allow companies to integrate key elements of their technology stack. Without the necessary customer data at critical touchpoints, it’s impossible to provide a personalized, omnichannel experience—all important factors in offering value to customers.

Ultimately, it’s about making insurance fit the business rather than asking insurers to adjust to a software solution. Building modern technology gives insurers the confidence to keep their attention on customer needs rather than managing systems and software. This following quote from Mobilitas, during their session at Guidewire Connections, exemplifies how Smart Communications’ pure-cloud solutions can do this:

In providing more value to policyholders, insurance companies can enhance brand loyalty and trust while increasing customer retention and satisfaction – top priorities for insurance leaders around the world. Cloud-based solutions help insurance companies reach a significant improvement in customer satisfaction (CSAT) and renewal retention by allowing organizations to deliver more value at a faster rate than if they were using on-premise solutions.

Existing – and succeeding – in a highly regulated industry means insurance companies need to stay abreast of the compliance requirements and regulations that are always changing and oftentimes region-specific. This is impossible to do with legacy systems and processes that are both error-prone and costly to update. For instance, something as simple as an update to the Terms and Conditions of a policyholder’s contract could go unnoticed and become an expensive oversight that damages not only the organization’s reputation but also leads to fines and fees. With cloud solutions, content can be easily updated across all instances, using the power of AI instead of leaving it up to human error or doing nothing at all.

Conclusion

Digital-first strategies are no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ for insurers, they are a necessity across an insurer’s operations. This allows insurance organizations to remain competitive and agile, helping them to take a more decisive approach to becoming a customer-centric enterprise. To effectively reduce costs and risk while also increasing customer satisfaction, retention and top talent across the business, insurers must continue to invest in cloud adoption.

Interested in hearing about how Smart Communications’ cloud solution can help insurance enterprises modernize business processes? Listen to what our customers at Mountain West Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company had to say at the Guidewire Innovation Awards 2022:

Embedded Lending: How Customer Expectations Are Changing the Rules of Traditional Financing

Posted on March 30, 2023 by SmartComm

The banking industry can seem like one gigantic, complex experiment these days, with embedded finance, open banking and fintechs top of mind for many executives. According to new research Smart Communications conducted recently with MoneyLIVE, in partnership with OneSpan, 45% of loans could be obtained through non-financial ecosystems over the next five years—a clear sign that borrowers are leaving banks in exchange for the speed and convenience of accessing credit from other sources, from Amazon and Apple to other fintech app-based businesses.

So, what are the strategies banks and lenders are developing to compete and remain relevant in this time of disruption? One key is in making sure the customer experience is frictionless and consistent across digital and mobile channels – for both borrowers and third-party business partners.

Below, we outline key findings from the MoneyLIVE research. For starters, let’s dig into what embedded lending means.

What is Embedded Lending and Why Does It Matter?

Embedded lending (also referred to as embedded finance) can mean a variety of things, from Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services to Banking as a Service (BaaS) offerings delivered in partnership with non-banks or smaller institutions. Basically, it’s about shifting the availability of financing closer to the point of sale, or “embedding” it into the buying process.

Many incumbent banks have launched their own BNPL offerings to compete with fintechs like Klarna or Affirm. Others are building partnerships to offer IT and operational processes to non-banks. Business lending is seeing particular growth. A 2022 study from Bain Capital predicts that embedded finance-driven business lending will grow five-fold over the next five years in the U.S. alone, from $200 million in 2021 to $1.3 billion by 2026, thanks to the rise of a range of new specialist providers.

Embedded lending speaks to the necessity for credit solutions that deliver the instant gratification expected by today’s digitally savvy customers, and shines a light on consumers’ desire for convenience, ease and speed. Data shows this is particularly important for younger generations who may be shopping for credit for the first time – and tend to be “mobile first.”

As noted by Bain: “In the years to come it will have a transformative effect on the relationship we have with our finances, removing friction from the sector and making financial services more contextual, accessible and helpful.”

Embedded Lending: Driving Innovation in Customer Experience

So as this embedded lending concept takes off, it’s clear that banks and lenders need to focus on providing a seamless digital-first customer experience – not only for their own traditional loan products, but for partner solutions as well.

That means shifting from paper forms to digital and doing the necessary optimization to reduce abandonment rates. It means shifting to on-demand communications produced in real time on demand and available for e-signature, perhaps white labeled for a partner brand, rather than sent out in a huge batch. These are all focus areas for innovation, our research shows.

93% of survey respondents said the rise of embedded lending will make smooth and effortless loan applications not just a competitive differentiator, but a survival factor
60% of respondents expect it will be “very important” to provide borrowers with the option to switch channels and stop/start on different devices (though one in five don’t offer this today)
89% say paper or static web forms are trigger points for form abandonment, yet 65% still use them
At least 75% expect to be able to communicate with borrowers via messaging apps, social media and voice-activated digital assistants by 2027

Reducing abandonment levels have been found to be highest when loan applicants are forced to enter in repetitive information while switching channels; a headache that’s typical when using paper forms, fillable PDFs and/or one-size-fits-all web forms. This manual approach increases the burden on the customer and drives them to other lenders that seem easier to use. This is the sort of problem we solve with our SmartIQ forms automation solution.

Is Friction Good or Bad? Regulators Weigh In

Eliminating friction from the customer journey seems like a smart idea to compete in this disruptive era of embedded lending. However, some federal regulators are taking a different tack, requiring banks to include more friction. In July 2022, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, for example, announced a new Consumer Duty requiring every financial firm to ensure that “it includes appropriate friction in its customer journeys to mitigate the risk of harm and give retail customers sufficient opportunity to understand and assess their options.” The Dutch Payments Association has also suggested that such “positive friction” should be introduced BNPL payment journey. Similarly, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the U.S. and Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) are increasing regulation of lender communications.

So what gives? It reflects a focus on making sure that borrowers understand the cost of borrowing money, especially when it’s faster and easier to get through embedded lending products. Nearly all respondents – 97% – agree that responsible lending will require more digestible and personalized customer communications about the affordability and cost of credit to ensure that borrowers are making informed decisions. This is a great reason why incumbent banks and lenders need to strengthen and modernize their customer communications management solutions, taking advantage of automated workflows and open APIs to make sure their documents and messages are as personalized as possible while being fully compliant and in the right brand.

Conclusion

Overall, leaders across the finance industry are beginning to make strides toward innovative processes and solutions that will significantly reduce customer effort, improve engagement and ultimately close more loans. The MoneyLIVE study shows that as the financial world responds to shifting customer expectations, embedded lending presents both an opportunity for growth and a possible threat to lenders that don’t adapt and embrace new strategies.

Ultimately, it could make the difference between financial institutions becoming future-ready or stone-age relics.

**To learn more about the future of customer experience in embedded lending and how financial institutions can prepare for the shifting market demands, download the infographic, ‘*The Future of Customer Experience in Embedded Lending***’.

Digital Acceleration in Insurance

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By: Thomas Harrington, Global Industry Markets Leader for Insurance at Pega

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wax and wane across the globe, now is the time for insurers to use the digital acceleration triggered by the crisis to reinvent themselves as digital-first businesses fit for the 21st century.

In the U.S., the unemployment rate reached 14.7% in April, a level not seen since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The U.K. saw its highest rate of welfare support claims in six years; and a 3% rise in unemployment is forecast for Asia Pacific. Many insurance regulators have implemented guidance for payment grace periods or temporary protections to prevent policy cancellations. But as mandated forms of help expire, a significant number of consumers will reach out with questions and concerns about their insurance portfolios.

Tackle customer service volumes with digital channels

Industry leaders are asking, “How do we weather immediate customer service challenges and prepare for the new normal?” Requests related to premium holidays, policy options, hardship withdrawals, and rebates are increasing, yet closed offices and distributed workforces slow the ability to respond. As the volumes of inquiries increase, the ability to scale capabilities to distributed workforces, capture a policyholder’s questions or concerns, connect the data from all of these channels and mobile apps, and provide an accurate response is exposing major operational gaps.

The insurance business over the last few decades was built around an inbound model where you wait for something to happen and then react. By contrast, a digital-first experience creates opportunities for customers to engage how they want, and when they want. Increasingly, this means self-service through digital interfaces. This frees time and capacity to deliver more personal and empathetic service to customers who have more complex queries. It’s not just taking some volume off the plate; it’s a fundamentally different thought process.

Digital servicing options help address these pressures now and prepare for the increasingly digital-first preferences of future consumers. In many cases, you can stand up a digital service capability that connects with your systems of record and other apps within days. Examples of the most cost-efficient ways to do this are:

Reduce manual work by automating email – Email bots can process thousands of incoming emails and email attachments fast. Natural language processing capabilities can read, triage, and route incoming mail. You can even automate responses to simple inquiries and personalize the messaging.
Intake and track requests to provide responsive and accurate customer service – Integrate your current systems and apps to capture, triage, and route customer inquiries to the right person or team. Systems should be designed to adapt to changing business processes and regulatory requirements, to help you streamline operations and provide an auditable trail of actions for all customer inquiries.
Unify messaging in a single desktop – Seamlessly connect digital channels and enable agents to smoothly navigate among conversations to deliver efficient user experience. Virtual assistants work alongside agents to help contain service volumes and deliver immediate answers to common inquiries.

Examples of success with this digital servicing approach include an insurer with an at-home workforce that used both chat and email bots to help improve customer service response times; and a government agency that was able to design and implement a case management-based economic assistance app in just five days.

Start engaging proactively with your policy holders

Another way to mitigate customer service volumes is to get ahead of them. Don’t wait for that phone call. If your data shows a customer is experiencing a financial hardship or their needs have changed, proactively reach out. Provide something as simple as the initial steps to submit a claim or arrange a payment to mitigate policy cancellation. An empathetic approach goes a long way in letting customers know you understand their situation and value their relationship.

Think big, start small, scale fast

Companies trying to navigate their way through an uncertain world can be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed. So, start with something small and grow. Do not think about the end point in five years’ time, but about what you can achieve in the next two weeks, the next 60 days, or the next 90 days to deliver value that will make a tangible difference to your customers.

It’s important to think pragmatically as you start any project in the digital space; recognize that you are making initial forays and it’s highly likely that what you do will be changed at some point. This mindset of build and grow puts you in a different stance to build long-term success. More importantly, immediate improvements should be foundational elements of a digital experience that enables insurance carriers to change, expand, and automate servicing today and in the future.

Luckily, implementing new digital tools and leveraging a case-based approach to eliminate operational complexity and deliver customer outcomes does not require ripping and replacing existing systems. It just requires focusing on one customer outcome at a time and building from there. For example, think about the steps needed to respond to and complete a claim status request. Pega calls this a microjourney – an interaction that is part of a customer’s overall journey with your business. By focusing on the steps needed to complete that one microjourney, you define the data you need to access and define the rules for the channels you’ll use to connect with your customers. When you build those processes and rules into the operational layer of your architecture, you can easily reuse and modify them for other microjourneys. Pega calls this building from the center out – an approach that helps businesses transform across all channels and systems. A center-out approach not only frees staff to spend more time helping customers with complex inquiries now, but also enables them to deliver the customer experiences of the future.

About the Author

In his role as Global Industry Markets Leader for Insurance at Pega, Thomas Harrington works with leading organizations to drive performance, customer experience, and revenue growth through digital transformation.

To hear more from Thomas and Neal Keene, Field Chief Technology Officer at Smart Communications, watch the on-demand webinar: Digital Acceleration in Insurance: Meeting New Demands at Speed or read the webinar recap.

Customer Experience Takes Center Stage at Bank Automation Summit

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

Automation has always been seen as a pathway to greater operational efficiency, but most banking operations and IT people I met at the Bank Automation Summit this month are aiming at a different higher purpose: better customer experience – for both external clients and internal employees and teams.

We were delighted to sponsor this spring event and get back to meeting with banking executives face to face in Charlotte, N.C. I was particularly excited to discuss trends in automation around commercial lending in a panel alongside Daniel Seay, SVP of Wholesale Transformation at Fifth Third Bank, Ahul Verma, CIO of BMO Personal and Business Banking and Chris Gufford, General Manager of Commercial Product at our partner nCino. We talked about a variety of issues and best practices, including how banks are looking to remove friction to meet changing customer expectations for speed of delivery.

Seay noted that the biggest area of focus for Fifth Third is leveraging third-party services and data in smarter ways to support faster turn times. We also discussed the importance of taking a hybrid approach, empowering clients to interact digitally while still supporting the human element provided by relationship managers.

In addition to the panel discussion I was a part of, I also enjoyed several of the other sessions led by banking executives. Here are a few highlights and takeaways from the sessions:

Using Automation to Make Banking Seem Effortless

John Elton, CIO for TIAA Bank, said he views the goal of process automation as making banking transactions easier so that they feel almost effortless to clients. “We need to take a look at the industry to change our focus from looking at single departments to looking at all of the interactions in the process and the customer journey,” Elton said. That’s one reason the company has an enterprise Center of Excellence focusing on automation projects.

The team breaks down customer expectations into five key areas of focus:

Safety and security
Availability
Performance
Speed to market
Cost

Customers know when something is inefficient, Elton stressed. Even if they can’t see inefficiency in the back office, they can feel it. Echoing the comments from Seay of Fifth Third Bank, Elton said turnaround time is a key part of improving that customer experience, especially for areas like commercial lending that require a lot of documentation and data collection. Improving business processes around new customer acquisition is a priority for the bank this year.

Eliminating Human Error and Reducing Banking Compliance Risks

Changing the culture of a bank that’s been around for 200+ years isn’t easy. But that’s just what Dominic Cugini, CIO of Service Digitization for KeyBank, has been doing to help the bank look and operate like one that was born digital. Like TIAA Bank, the team has focused on removing human error from repetitive tasks through Robotic Process Automation (RPA). “We had people rekeying data from system to system. To maintain data quality, we need to keep digital data digital,” Cugini said.

In automating processes around the Paycheck Protection Program, the KeyBank team was able to squeeze what he estimated was nine years of work into just two weeks, putting approximately 160 automated bots in production in that time. “RPA saved our bacon,” he declared. Current focus areas for RPA include looking at automating fraud reduction and reducing overall security risks to the business.

Improving Employee Experience Equally Important

In addition to external customers, internal employee experience is also a key focus area for banking automation, as noted by Ami Iceman Haueter, VP of Research and Digital Customer Experience from MSU Federal Credit Union. “Identifying pain points from the people perspective is important,” she said. “Simplifying their day-to-day so they can do less monotonous work.” The company has invested in an internal chatbot named “Gene” that has created significant efficiency in employee-to-employee communications, she added.

Some of the biggest applause came for Cugini as he inspired attendees with a line from basketball great Michael Jordan: “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” It takes mental strength to create and manage change in organizations, he noted. But for people who push back and say they don’t have time to innovate, or they think a process is too complex and difficult to change, he says: “Great – you know what happened to the dinosaurs.”

If you’re comfortable with a mask or otherwise feel safe, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to head out to meet with your peers at a conference this year. We have a full events calendar in the next few months that includes DocuSign Momentum in San Francisco, Digital Banking Summit in Austin, Texas, and Financial Services Customer Experience in London. And of course, we’re excited to meet you at our annual INNOVATE conference in Nashville May 18-20. Stay tuned for INNOVATE dates for London and Sydney later in 2022.

Could Postal Delays Lead to an Increased Focus on the Digital Customer Experience?

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By: Sally Schulte, Director of Product Marketing at Smart Communications

Beginning Oct. 1, the U.S. Postal Service implemented “new service standards” that could slow target delivery times by about 30%. While this will obviously have implications for online holiday shoppers in the near term, it will also have a long-term impact on how industries like insurance, healthcare and financial services communicate important information to their customers. Wells Fargo even notified customers of the potential interruptions – pointing out that the delivery delays could impact customers’ mailed payments.

As enterprises face disruptions on all fronts – whether it’s USPS, supply chain delays, natural disasters or a global health crisis– it’s critical for businesses to reimagine interactions with their customers—and focus on their digital customer experience.

This post highlights why digital customer experience solutions are key to business continuity, how companies can efficiently reach customers on their preferred channels and how an enterprise cloud-based customer conversations solution can protect the business.

Accelerating Digital Transformation for Business Continuity

The latest development from USPS has the potential to disrupt millions of individuals and companies—and further solidifies how important business continuity and contingency planning are. Constant change and disruptions mean enterprises need to be responsive and agile – something only achievable via digital transformation.

When COVID-19 took hold, 65% of business leaders indicated that the pandemic led them to identify digital-first approaches they could implement quickly. In many industries, employees continue to work from home at least part time while customers now overwhelmingly expect (and prefer) digital-first interactions. Investing in digital customer experience solutions and implementing organizational changes will allow enterprises to put the customer at the center and seamlessly manage the experience across functional areas.

Orchestrating Omnichannel Customer Experiences

With the recent announcement from USPS, companies need to rethink how they get critical information to their customers – and vice versa. Today’s customers expect to be able to initiate conversations on their own terms, making two-way, digital conversations more important than ever.

Every interaction a business has with a customer is an opportunity to shape their overall experience and in today’s always-connected landscape, customers’ expectations are increasing quickly. With the majority of customers more comfortable with digital, they prefer to interact with businesses across a number of channels.

SMS, in-app messaging and WhatsApp are just a few of the channels where customers want to be able to initiate conversations with businesses. Unfortunately, many organizations have siloed tools that only allow for one-way, single-channel communications. This ultimately leads to internal inefficiencies, compliance risks and an inconsistent customer experience. An omnichannel, orchestrated approach, however, puts the customer at the center of two-way, interactive conversations – achievable with a cloud-based platform that optimizes the entire customer experience.

Owning the Customer Experience with Two-way Conversations

Whether it’s USPS or another service provider, relying too heavily on third parties to shape the customer experience poses risk for businesses. And, this risk will only continue to grow. Today, leading enterprises should own the entire digital customer experience, from start to finish.

Conversations between businesses and customers have never been more important, especially as customers prefer a digital-first, personalized approach. And since customers’ expectations will only continue to increase, enterprises must optimize the end-to-end experience to succeed. Businesses must provide the tailored, personalized conversations today’s customers expect. Investing in pure cloud platform that delivers personalized, omnichannel conversations across the entire customer lifecycle is the best way to succeed.

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Customer expectations will only continue to evolve, making it more critical than ever for enterprises to invest in the resources and technology that future-proof their businesses. No one knows what the future holds or what the next disruption will be, but investing in the right technology (and technology partners) that evolves and scales as customer needs change over time will be critical to long-term success.

How can businesses deliver impactful, relevant and personalized conversations at scale? Check out “Deliver SMARTER Customer Conversations in the Cloud” to learn more.

Communications in the Time of COVID-19: Delivering SMARTER Digital Conversations Just Became More Critical

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By James Brown, CEO of Smart Communications

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted nearly every aspect of daily life for everyone around the world. While we continue to limit human contact in an effort to slow the spread of the illness, businesses still must support their customers from a distance. As a result, many enterprises are now faced with accelerating their digital transformation plans in order to deliver the high touch, yet digital, interactions customers need and expect.

We knew 2020 would be a critical year to evolve from static communications to two-way, interactive, SMARTER conversations, but we couldn’t have even imagined just how quickly this shift would need to occur. We’ve been talking about digital disruption for years now, but businesses are now faced with a new type of disruption. Futurum Research Senior Analyst, Oliver Blanchard, said it best, “At its core, disruption is disruption. It doesn’t matter if it’s technological, economic, environmental, political, or a pandemic.” This pandemic is a wake-up call for businesses of all shapes and sizes – and IT leaders are faced with an unexpected opportunity to revisit their business continuity plans and response strategy. As they do so, it is critical to prioritize and stay focused on what matters most—the customer experience.

Keeping the Customer at the Center

Even before this crisis began, consumers have been trying to tell businesses that they need more. They don’t want to simply receive communications, they want to have SMARTER conversations—interactions that are digital-focused, interactive, relevant and timely.

With anxieties heightened, the need to receive accurate information quickly is more important than ever. Companies that can’t deliver highly personalized, nearly real-time interactions risk losing customer trust and loyalty, and eventually losing customers altogether to a vendor that is better equipped to meet their needs.

By going beyond delivering static, one-way communications and engaging in SMARTER, two-way conversations, companies can actually deepen customer relationships and increase customer loyalty at a time when customers need to feel genuinely supported by every one of their business relationships.

Removing Friction is Key to Meeting Customer Needs

To facilitate more dynamic, interactive conversations, companies must efficiently collect needed information from customers, and use that information to respond appropriately, quickly and via preferred channels. Those companies holding customers on the line for indefinite periods of time aren’t winning deeper loyalty points today. Your customers are as busy and as taxed as you are right now. Emotions are running high as bills mount, family needs continue to grow, and demands skyrocket for each of us. The way you gather information from your customers sets the tone for the immediate interaction – as well as those that will follow during this current pandemic period and beyond. If your company is still highly reliant on paper or scanned PDFs you are delivering an outdated experience that is time-consuming, not customer-centric and ultimately putting your business at risk during this unprecedented pandemic.

Now is the time to transform your forms processes and shift to more adaptive interview-like processes that are more efficient, more meaningful and deliver more value. By asking intelligent questions you can eliminate unnecessary fields and the need to enter and re-enter information into a static form. Customers are guided to either confirm known information or provide necessary details via the shortest route possible. All of this improves customer experience and speeds up processes—both more critical today than ever before.

We Can Help

In our latest piece of thought leadership, we address in more detail the specific shifts enterprises can make to improve their business processes and engage in more meaningful conversations across the entire customer lifecycle. Some of these items can be initiated today; others are items businesses are beginning to consider now knowing that digital transformation is no longer a “nice-to-have” initiative. As stated by Strategy Meets Action’s Mark Breading, “The more that people and businesses get used to operating remotely via digital tools, the more it will be expected – even after the virus is contained. The genie is out of the bottle, and it will be hard to put it back.” Regardless of where you are in your journey, we’re here to help navigate through these uncertain times.

As we work through this global challenge together, we stand with you in support of a stronger community that remains connected through SMARTER digital conversations.

Cloud-based Customer Communications: Choosing the Best CCM Solution for Your Business

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By Simon Tindal, CTO of Smart Communications

No longer a buzzword, the cloud is here to stay! With an anticipated 17.3 percent growth in public cloud revenue in 2019, more and more organizations are turning toward cloud-based customer communications to strengthen satisfaction and retention. Anyone who has done their research already knows there are a multitude of terms being used to describe cloud deployment models. And even the most tech-savvy agree that interpretations of “the cloud” can get a bit foggy.

If your organization is starting to warm up to the idea of a cloud-based customer communications solution, it’s time to familiarize yourself with the various deployment options available to find the solution that best fits your needs. To help guide you in your cloud-buying journey, here are four criteria to look for as you choose a modern CCM system to ensure you find the solution the best fits your needs and allows you to fully reap the benefits only a solution truly built for the cloud can deliver.

Faster Time to Market

According to a Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends report, speed of production and execution was a top reason many enterprises opt for a cloud-based customer communications solution. Sure, your on-premise solution will eventually get the job done, but is the downtime and maintenance hindering your speed to market? Those still holding on to their legacy systems are likely leaving innovation on the table and falling behind the competition. A cloud-based solution improves speed by drastically reducing time spent maintaining a local IT infrastructure, freeing up resources to allow organizations to better prepare for anticipated market changes. The cloud also improves business agility, allowing companies to go to market faster, thus maintaining a competitive edge. On-premise legacy solutions that are now hosted in the cloud are limited with fixed resources, making it challenging to scale.

PRO TIP: Ask vendors how frequently their platform is updated. Platforms that are updated frequently and automatically push these updates live to their customers (vs. relying on IT departments to manage complicated upgrades), making it easy to stay ahead of the curve.

Interoperability

Legacy platforms initially built for on-premise deployment likely still rely on outdated technology standards, offer limited APIs, and are unable to integrate with key elements within the customer’s technology stack. As cloud services become more important to today’s organizations, so is the need for interoperability, or the ability for cloud services to connect with and understand each other’s APIs. A true cloud-based CCM solution is equipped with a suite of API integrations and is built with modern standards to enable seamless implementations, giving enterprises immediate access to the latest innovative tools. For example, SmartCOMM^TM’s Conversation Cloud^TM is an all-in-one cloud solution that connects all your data, applications, and history to build conversations that are relevant and impactful, time after time, making it easier to increase internal efficiencies and scale personalized interactions.

The key is finding a platform that offers the flexibility needed to take your customer communications to the next level.

PRO TIP: Examine how extensive a vendor’s API suite is and look for technology that’s built with modern standards to facilitate interoperability. Look for vendors that have a published API set as this will lead to easier interoperability.

Enhanced Organizational Efficiency

A CCM solution that’s truly built with the cloud in mind increases productivity by enabling employees to work together through the number of tools available in the cloud. Cloud-based communications solutions have the power to break down organizational data silos, making it easier for employees, customers and third-parties to communicate and collaborate. Rather than relying on IT as the go-to data source, a cloud-based CCM solution equips organizations with enhanced data visibility across departments, making it easier to decide which users have what level of access to what data. This also streamlines work efficiencies and increases collaboration as staff will know which communication documents are directly assigned to them. Imagine having one version of a document that can be worked on by different people – with the cloud, there’s no need to have multiple copies of the same document in circulation!

PRO TIP: Ask vendors how users can interact with the software to avoid reliance on other divisions within the company for data insights and how quickly important upgrades are implemented. A software that’s truly designed with business users in mind should be more than willing to demonstrate these essential capabilities.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

Easier access to customer data allows organizations to create a more consistent and rewarding experience throughout the entire lifecycle as they have greater insight into behavior patterns and individual communication preferences. As technology continues to grow and evolve, customers expect organizations to keep up or else they will gladly find another option that better serves their communication preferences. As you explore cloud-based communications solutions, it’s important to look for platforms that can easily deliver communications via multiple channels based on customer preferences and allow for recent interactions to inform subsequent outreach to that customer—even allowing a conversation to start on one channel and continue on to another.

PRO TIP: Look for a platform that is poised to deliver interactive, on-demand, and batch communications across multiple delivery channels, and can future-proof your customer preferences as new channels emerge.

Making the choice to invest in a cloud-based customer communications solution is an important step in an organization’s digital transformation journey. It’s also likely one of the biggest investments your business will make. Make sure you fully understand the nuances and the benefits only a platform built from the cloud up can deliver.

For more insight to help guide your cloud-based CCM buying journey, download our latest thought leadership, Conquering the Brave New World of Modern, Cloud-Based Customer Communications Management: A Buyer’s Guide.

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If you’d like to talk about ways to take your complaints and disputes management process to the next level, reach out and talk with us.

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Want to learn more about how a leading cloud CCM provider can enhance your business? Read ‘The Ultimate Guide to CCM Software & Strategic Solutions’

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Conclusion

Interested in hearing about how Smart Communications’ cloud solution can help insurance enterprises modernize business processes? Listen to what our customers at Mountain West Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company had to say at the Guidewire Innovation Awards 2022:

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Conclusion

To learn more about the future of customer experience in embedded lending and how financial institutions can prepare for the shifting market demands, download the infographic, ‘The Future of Customer Experience in Embedded Lending’.

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**To learn more about the future of customer experience in embedded lending and how financial institutions can prepare for the shifting market demands, download the infographic, ‘*The Future of Customer Experience in Embedded Lending***’.