Customer Communications Management (CCM) solutions predate the appearance of omnichannel. It also predates cloud technology, microservices, DevOps, and digital transformation. As a result, most CCM solution providers are focused on repositioning and redesigning their solutions for today's omnichannel reality.
Historically, CCM solutions were focused on communication in paper format through the postal service channel, which concentrated on mass printing. During the 2000s, some of these documents were digitized and made accessible through websites; call centers gained access to CCM solutions; and customers got access to download documents digitally. During the 2010s, CCM systems became more dynamic with the expansion of document distribution and the use of CCM solutions for digital sales and marketing.
Nowadays, as it's already well-known, customer experience has been raised to another level, and consequently, customer journey is a key focus area for insurance companies. Insurers can no longer rely on in-person channels for customer interaction, and digital channels must now deliver highly personalized and consistent experiences through multiple channels that are both automated and human. In addition, they must improve over time in their well-informed understanding of each customer's preferences without overtly asking for information. Therefore, CCM solutions must be a tool not only to distribute content in conventional and digital channels but also to provide personalized messages and omnichannel orchestration in order to meet current levels of customer expectations. As CCM solutions can thrive in an ecosystem with effective data management, solution providers have recently invested in not only moving their services to the cloud, but also driving API adoption to maximize scalability.
Besides considering customer communication as an important component of insurers' digital transformation efforts, a large proportion of companies see it as an important driver of innovation as well. The pursuit of innovation through integration enables CCM solutions to succeed as they evolve. CCM platforms, as well as a growing number of other customer experience-related applications, will support emerging customer interaction mechanisms, such as chatbots, virtual assistants, smart speakers, and external applications.
We illustrate below areas where certain CCM solutions are innovating, or have them on the horizon.
