COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES FOR UNCERTAIN TIMES
by Andy Austin, Strategist
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you already know that the financial services industry has been experiencing severe turbulence. And you don’t need to be told how this affects the U.S. and world economies – we’re seeing it in the rising costs of energy and almost everything else.
With markets volatile and consumer confidence wavering, what can your business do – what must it do – to survive and even thrive in uncertain times? Consider these topics and tactics.
Customer Communications
When it comes to customer communications, your first impulse may be to slash costs. Good idea, but only if you do it right. If your business is like most, various internal groups have been producing printed materials for years, often without coordination. This can cause redundancy and significant amounts of waste.
Tactic: Conduct a top-to-bottom communications audit to determine what’s being produced, what’s effective and what’s not. Based on the results, you can create new, consolidated materials to fill gaps while eliminating any communications that don’t continue to add value.
Customer Experience
How is your customer experience? That is, how positively do your customers experience your business, your products or services? How do they interact with you? Is it working, or could it stand improvement? In good times, satisfying customers is important; when times get tougher, it becomes that much more critical.
Tactic: Assess how you interact with your customers and how they prefer to interact with you. You may find ways to improve your customer interactions and improve your bottom line.
E-engagement
What about e-engagement? “E-engagement” is shorthand for a whole range of electronic interactions that touch your customers and connect them with you. If you have a customer-facing website or use e-mail, you’re already e-engaged to an extent. But chances are that you’re not as e-engaged with customers as you should be.
Tactic: Develop and implement an e-engagement strategy. If you’re not already, start using interactive technologies to deliver statements, invoices and required regulatory documents such as prospectuses, online and on demand.
An effective e-engagement strategy starts with a communications audit. Look at all the ways you currently communicate, and see which communications can be delivered electronically instead. Next, determine how to integrate your e-engagement and offline communications, and how to encourage customers to take advantage of e-engagement.
Ready, set…
Sound appealing? There’s no time like a downturn to get started. E-engagement isn’t free. But compared to traditional printing and mailing costs, an e-engagement investment now can pay real dividends in cost savings and increased customer satisfaction.
Contact us for more information
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you already know that the financial services industry has been experiencing severe turbulence. And you don’t need to be told how this affects the U.S. and world economies – we’re seeing it in the rising costs of energy and almost everything else.
With markets volatile and consumer confidence wavering, what can your business do – what must it do – to survive and even thrive in uncertain times? Consider these topics and tactics.
Customer Communications
When it comes to customer communications, your first impulse may be to slash costs. Good idea, but only if you do it right. If your business is like most, various internal groups have been producing printed materials for years, often without coordination. This can cause redundancy and significant amounts of waste.
Tactic: Conduct a top-to-bottom communications audit to determine what’s being produced, what’s effective and what’s not. Based on the results, you can create new, consolidated materials to fill gaps while eliminating any communications that don’t continue to add value.
Customer Experience
How is your customer experience? That is, how positively do your customers experience your business, your products or services? How do they interact with you? Is it working, or could it stand improvement? In good times, satisfying customers is important; when times get tougher, it becomes that much more critical.
Tactic: Assess how you interact with your customers and how they prefer to interact with you. You may find ways to improve your customer interactions and improve your bottom line.
E-engagement
What about e-engagement? “E-engagement” is shorthand for a whole range of electronic interactions that touch your customers and connect them with you. If you have a customer-facing website or use e-mail, you’re already e-engaged to an extent. But chances are that you’re not as e-engaged with customers as you should be.
Tactic: Develop and implement an e-engagement strategy. If you’re not already, start using interactive technologies to deliver statements, invoices and required regulatory documents such as prospectuses, online and on demand.
An effective e-engagement strategy starts with a communications audit. Look at all the ways you currently communicate, and see which communications can be delivered electronically instead. Next, determine how to integrate your e-engagement and offline communications, and how to encourage customers to take advantage of e-engagement.
Ready, set…
Sound appealing? There’s no time like a downturn to get started. E-engagement isn’t free. But compared to traditional printing and mailing costs, an e-engagement investment now can pay real dividends in cost savings and increased customer satisfaction.
Contact us for more information
