Email, text messaging, print and traditional mail give organizations plenty of ways to stay in touch with customers. Deciding which one to use is where things become more complicated.
Demographics can offer some useful clues. People who regularly use smartphones and digital services may be comfortable receiving reminders by text. Other customers may prefer email for information they want to save, while some still value having important documents arrive in the mail.
Those general patterns can help with communication planning, but they don’t tell the whole story.
Communication Habits Vary
People tend to develop preferences based on the technology they use, the type of information they’re receiving and what they need to do with it.
A customer who is comfortable receiving a payment reminder by text may still want a printed copy of an important statement. Someone else may prefer printed mail but rely on email rather than text for account information.
This becomes especially important for organizations serving a broad customer base. Building communications around a single channel can work well for some customers while making things unnecessarily difficult for others.
Where Digital Channels Fit
Text messaging is particularly useful when the message is short and timely. A due-date reminder, account alert, appointment reminder or status update can reach a customer quickly without requiring a lengthy message.
Email provides more room for detail and can be used for communications that require more information than a text message can reasonably provide.
Even customers who are comfortable with digital technology may not want every communication delivered electronically. A channel that works well for a reminder may be less appropriate for a tax document, regulatory notice or detailed statement.
Paper Still Serves a Purpose
Printed communications remain useful when customers need something they can keep, review or reference later. Statements, tax documents, notices and other important correspondence may benefit from a physical format, either because the customer prefers it or because the communication has specific business requirements.
Print can also work alongside email and text messaging. A text or email can provide a timely reminder, notification or update, while print can be used for communications that require a physical document.
The Bigger Picture
Demographics are most useful as one piece of a larger picture.
The type of information being sent matters. So does urgency. A short reminder and a detailed financial statement require different approaches. The action expected from the customer also matters; the delivery method should make that action as clear and convenient as possible.
Most importantly, when customers have told an organization how they prefer to receive information, that preference provides more useful guidance than a demographic assumption.
Business rules, consent and regulatory requirements also must be considered. In some situations, those requirements will determine which delivery methods are available regardless of preference.
Build Flexibility Into the Communication Process
There is no universal channel for any generation or demographic group. Customers make different choices for different kinds of information, and those choices can change over time.
Organizations that can manage email, text, print and mail within a coordinated process have more flexibility to respond to those differences.
At Content Critical Solutions, we help organizations manage business-critical customer communications across email, text, print and mail. That includes connecting customer data, communication preferences and delivery workflows so information can reach customers in ways that make sense for the communication and the people receiving it.
Content Critical Solutions
Where Strategy Meets Service.
