Can you really make 1 + 1 = 3? With Integrated Customer Communication, Yes!

Last month, I made the case that paper suppression has a number of drawbacks. Sure, you do reduce the postage and printing costs associated with some of the bills and statements you owe to your customers, but there is a cost. You lose a tangible piece of communication with your customer. You risk that your only communication with your customer will result in a focused interaction with the payment screen and no other facet of your web portal. You could miss the most important opportunity to have a conversation with your customer every month.

The upshot of my case was that print should be in the mix (with apologies to the fabulous RIT print portal - http://printinthemix.cias.rit.edu ) because it allows your customer to choose when and how often they will interact with your communication during a cycle. They may only look at it once, but they may come back to it several times – and each look gives you a chance to communicate informational, educational and promotional messages. It’s the power of print. It’s portable. It doesn’t require an internet connection or a smart phone to read it.

But paper alone isn’t a communication strategy. It’s a great customer communication tactic, but to be most effective it needs to be bolstered by guiding principles. So, what do you really gain when you move to an integrated customer communication strategy?

Let’s start with a definition so we are all on the same page. An integrated customer communication strategy includes a roadmap and style guide for every customer touch point (channel). It includes guidelines for how to express messaging to the customer through each communication channel, and identifies corporate intent for message variances. In the real world, each channel has its strengths and there is no reason you can’t play to them. The goal, however, must be to provide consistent messages to the customer across all channels.

So, what is to be gained from an integrated customer communication strategy? In the best implementations, it identifies the best practices for each channel and for combinations of channels: the web, email, mass media, direct mail marketing and transaction communication. It positions the types of messages appropriate to each channel, and how they can work in synchronicity.

Integrated customer communication also forces the marketing teams to work together to ensure that a consistent message map is developed and that those messages are presented in a consistent manner across all of the channels. This can be the toughest of the challenges behind the execution of this type of strategy because everyone will be asked to make some changes in how they manage their marketing. But, if you can get the teams in sync, this is how 1+1 can equal 3.

So, is there an integrated customer communication strategy in your future?

Pat McGrew, EDP, is the Data-driven Communication Evangelist at Kodak. Her email address is Pat.McGrew@kodak.com, Twitter is PatMcGrew, and blog athttp://patmcgrew.growyourbiz.kodak.com.