Useful technology — External communication methods

With customers

It wasn’t long ago that the primary means of communicating with customers was through a bill stuffer. Today a growing number of people pay their bills electronically to save time and cut down on the paper they must manage. Customer communication methods have gone electronic as well.

Online publication

Most customers look online for information about a service they desire. Although it may trigger their interest, they don’t wait for the utility to promote services in a newspaper or television ad. An electronic newsletter (especially for those who pay their bills online) could highlight timely topics and provide links to more information on the website.

Some companies are using blogs (short for web logs, an online daily journal) as an informal way of communicating thoughts. CEOs can explain why the utility does things a certain way… or respond to current issues… or give another side to recent news coverage.

Interaction

One-way communication practices are not adequate for many customers. They want interactive websites and timely responses to their e-mail questions. A discussion board on your website can allow for customers and staff to share information in an informal way and lets others with the same questions read the responses.

Instant Messaging (IM) is a popular method to enable immediate discussions via the Internet. Public IM service can bring its own set of troubles into the office.

• Viruses and worms can enter through file transfers because they don’t go through anti-virus screening.
• Spim (instant messaging spam) can be intrusive and is often the kind that can lead to human resource and legal risk.
• Bandwidth can be consumed with “add-on” features.

For these reasons and more, many companies will not allow the installation of a public IM service on their computers. Because of its many advantages however, enterprise IM solutions may soon give a new and safe way to facilitate customer communications.

Given the pros and cons of modern communication technologies, experienced advisors can make the difference between a smooth process and one that causes unexpected problems. We can help. Let us know what challenges you're facing when communicating with your customers. We look forward to hearing from you.