Customer Communications Blog

Efficiency is one of those terms that’s thrown around a lot in the circles of organizational management and leadership. While efficiency is always a central focal point of conversation and a heralded result, there isn’t any one path to creating internal efficiencies. However, there are systems and frameworks that can be installed into organizations that help improve various aspects of operations, and therefore, bolstering organizational efficiency. Efficiency isn’t only important to management, though. Efficiency is also a top priority among the majority of economic demographics; not only in the way of actual operations, but also regarding the speed and fluidity of communications and an organization’s ability to meet consumers where they are. With a consumer base that puts such a heavy emphasis on efficient and time effective communications, organizations need to be equipped to handle a bulk volume of customer communications smoothly and effectively. This is one reason utilizing document creation tools is considered a best practice that simplifies customer communication. 

Over the past decade the importance of the customer perception of a brand has increased dramatically. This is in correlation with the rise and spread of the internet, as well as smart technology in general. Regardless though, customers are priceless to any organization. As such, one focal point in modern business operations is building and driving customer engagement. Customer engagement comes in many shapes and forms, but it’s official definition is, “an interaction between an external customer/consumer and an organization through various online or offline channels.” In other words, customer engagement encourages on-going conversation, multiple points of access, and multi-channel communications. 

The modern economy is a conglomerate of all the prior economies to todays. An evolved version, if you will. However, there remain remnants of these older economies if you know where to spot them. Customer service, for instance, and more specifically the customer experience is still, today, one of the most vital aspects of running and operating a business. In other words, customer relationships always have, and always will be, a top priority for legitimate business owners. In today’s economy, it’s so vital, in fact, that a single negative customer experience can lead to that customer moving to a competitor. As such, creating a reputation for a highly rated customer experience is a significant advantage in the modern economy.

Using Master Data Management to Close Gaps in Customer Experience Gartner defines master data management (MDM) as “a technology-enabled discipline in which business and IT work together to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency and accountability of the enterprise’s official shared master data assets. Master data is the consistent and uniform set of identifiers and extended attributes that describes the core entities of the enterprise including customers, prospects, citizens, suppliers, sites, hierarchies and chart of accounts.” Basically, it means linking all data sources into a single master file that provides a common point of reference.

Company #1: EmblemHealth EmblemHealth had a problem. This large regional HMO and health insurance company, dedicated to providing excellent health coverage and administrative services to 3.4 million people, had less than excellent customer communications. They had previously used Microsoft® Word to generate communications to members, care providers and facilities, which resulted in templates scattered across nearly 3,000 desktops in 16 workgroups at seven facilities spread across three states.