Why you need multi-channel communications

Many print-centric legacy document generation systems boast of their ability to deliver communications through multiple channels. This is fine, as far as it goes – the trouble is, it doesn't go far enough.

There's an important difference between multiple channels (many ways of delivering information) and a true multi-channel approach.

Multi-channel means being able to tailor a communication to the customer's preferred channel(s) – for example, an SMS directing to a website, or an email prompting a telephone call – all from easily created templates.

Talk to your customers – not at them

Thunderhead's innovative software offers the only solution that enables you to communicate with your customers using the channels they choose, not the channels you choose. That means:

• Personalized, contextually-relevant and timely communications
• The best customer experience at all touch-points
• Treating your customers as individuals
• Optimizing every customer interaction to improve engagement

It's not just good manners – it's good business. By improving customer retention, you can maximise growth and revenue possibilities.

Why is multi-channel becoming so important?

• Increasing competition. In an on-line world, you are competing not only against your direct competitors, but against the standards set by all on-line consumer experiences.
• Consumers are changing – they are increasingly empowered, more demanding, increasingly self-sufficient and more self-directed
• Consumers are fragmenting into very different groups, with different expectations and different technology experiences
• A multi-channel strategy will be critical in reaching Generation-Y/X/M consumers. But it's not just about them - technology use is increasing across all demographics
• Technology continues to rapidly evolve. Mobile internet and Social Networking are having a big impact on customer communications

What channels?

The range of digital channels is increasing in leaps and bounds. At very least, your chosen customer communications management solution should be able to support these:

• Mobile phones using text (SMS) or multi-media messaging (SMS).
• Email - to desktop or mobile devices - delivering content in plain text, HTML or attachments or via links
• Web pages deployed on portals - accessed from desktop or mobile devices.
• Messages delivered to social networking sites, such as Facebook.
• Messages delivered via personalized data feeds (RSS or ATOM).
• Telephony and IVR applications (using VoiceXML).
• For system-to-system communications, XML messaging.
• Print of course remains a very important medium, and the most appropriate channel for certain types of documents. Print comes in two varieties though – hard copy through the mail, or electronic that can be delivered through digital channels for local printing by the recipient, perhaps with a notification message in an alternative channel

What are the challenges?

• Ensuring consistency and context of messaging across all channels for each customer
• Being able to make on-the-fly decisions about which channel to use. This is important with BPM and SOA integration. And often customer preferences will change, depending on their current situation
• Controlling content: brand protection, regulated content, compliance
• Using more than one channel for one communication: for example, a PDF document delivered via an enterprise portal, with customer notification via another (SMS or data feed)

Our Thunderhead NOW platform, built on our 'one-platform for all communications' paradigm, addresses these challenges while providing a full multi-channel capability.