Customer communications in 2024: The onion approach

Most businesses these days, whether B2C or B2B, understand the importance of integrated, consistent and multichannel communications when it comes to connecting with their customers and acquiring new. An effective comms strategy has become a cornerstone for most organisations hoping to remain competitive. 

These types of strategies have undergone significant transformation over the years. The old methods were largely manual, relying upon mass marketing - broadcast emails for example, with no options for responses and little or no capabilities for any kind of personalisation or automation. Today, we have shifted the traditional one-way approach, to two-way, multichannel, interactive and dynamic approaches. This evolution has been driven by several things - the most significant being technological advancements, changes in customer preferences, and the need for businesses to engage with, and build meaningful relationships with audiences who are growing ever more demanding, decisive and digitally savvy.

At Pendula, we understand modern customer communications to have evolved even further, beyond the two-way approach into more of a layered, cyclical continuum. An integrated strategy that still enables two-way conversations and round-the-clock responses - but one that can loop in data and insights from all of the tools and data sources already being used, as well as some not being used, at any point in the flow. We’ve called it the Onion approach, and with the help of the capabilities available in the Pendula product - this can be automated and deployed at scale. Let’s show you how in more detail:

The Onion approach

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The core

As is to be expected, the Customer is the heartbeat sitting at the centre of any good Customer Communication Strategy. Every single customer should be considered individually as part of the Onion approach, and the Pendula platform allows them to be handled both as an individual, as well as part of one or multiple cohorts or segments. The customer and their experience is the core of the Onion. 

Moments of truth 

Sitting close to the customer are the ''Moments of Truth''. These are the meaningful or timely moments at which a customer is likely to require, or be particularly susceptible to some sort of communication. Some examples might be a new product launch, the renewal of a Telco plan or a higher bill than usual. Using this layer proactively, with insight and understanding is key to successfully engaging customers today. 

Business ecosystem

Revolving around the Moments of Truth layer is the living business ecosystem. Working inwards and outwards between the onion layers, moments of truth are derived from the data within the systems in the business ecosystem. 

Pendula natively integrates with the systems already in place within organisations to access their zero and first-party data with accuracy and security. With over 80 native integrations possible, there aren’t many tools we can’t work with. But having access to the full picture, without siloes or having to use disparate tools independently is just the first part of the story. The Onion approach enables enterprises to act on it meaningfully. 

Pendula workflow 

At the top, front and centre of the Onion - Pendula is a powerful workflow engine. We take the moments of truth, consolidate them with enterprise data systems and convert them into simple or complex business processes that can be deployed, tested, reported on and adjusted with speed and ease, by marketing and customer teams themselves. Not just the data scientists or developers.   

To transform these business processes into joyful customer experiences, the Pendula platform can leverage External Data Sources and Generative AI. The 3rd party data gathered from external open data sources like Weather Apps, Location information, Real-estate data etc can be blended with the existing customer data records to get even closer to the core of the onion, and develop hyper-personalised communications with customers. 

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Generative AI

Workflows powered by Pendula can be enriched and enhanced with the power of our inbuilt Gen AI capabilities. Examples might be by helping to create templated messaging scripts or dynamically segmenting customers based on real-time data, understanding intention or customer sentiment to automatically instruct workflows to shift gears in tone or to understand next best offers. 

The next layer = Channel selection

A hallmark of any successful customer communications strategy is meeting the customer where they’re at (or in other words - using the preferred channels). The Pendula platform offers multiple channels to connect and engage with your customers, including: SMS, Email, WhatsApp and more. Pendula offers the ability to optimise customer communications and conversations across the full customer journey. These variables could be based on the content type, length or demographics. AI can enhance the picture further by helping to identify which channels are likely to gain the most engagement from each customer.

Intention layer

For inbound communications - this slice of the onion provides deeper contextual understanding of individual customer enquiries. What campaign is each contact referring to? This information is critical for relevant conversations back and forth with the customer base - another hallmark of any successful communications strategy. Exceptions and non-templated responses will always arise however. Pendula can automate clarifying questions or leverage AI to handle them based on a wider understanding of common customer queries and exceptions. At any point it can provide a notification for a human Customer Service agent to step in. 

Businesses now have access to multiple tools and technologies to engage with their customers deeper than ever before, meaning they are able to foster stronger relationships and provide really memorable customer experiences that keep them coming back. 

But why choose multiple when you can have one, that does it all? Adaptation to market changes and evolving consumer preferences and communication channels is essential. Leveraging a next-generation Customer Engagement Platform that can help them implement an Onion approach is crucial.

Start a conversation with Pendula

When you’re ready to step up your customer engagement strategies, we’re here with the solution. Talk to an expert about how Pendula can make a difference to your customer engagement.