What is customer communications management (CCM)?

What is customer communications management? It’s the software big organizations use to turn customer data into finished, regulated documents. Think insurance policy packs, card statements, utility bills, claims letters and Medicare plan notices.

A CCM platform drops your data into approved templates, produces print and digital versions, sends them, and keeps an exact copy of what each customer got.

Landed here from an article about help desks or live chat? That’s a different category. CCM has four common meanings, and this page covers the first.

CCM in one sentence

CCM is how a large organization sends millions of personalized, legally correct documents without writing each one, and proves later what it sent.

Analysts agree on the core. Aragon Research calls it document generation “tied to communications targeted at customers or prospects” that “uses rules to auto-generate documents.” Omdia notes it started with monthly and quarterly bills and statements and now stretches into marketing material, too.

How a CCM platform works

Whatever a vendor calls its modules, every communication moves through the same five stages. The diagram shows each one, plus the test that exposes its weak spots in a proof of concept.

• Data. CCM doesn’t own customer data. It reads it from your policy, billing, core banking, CRM and claims systems. Mapping that data is where many projects lose time, because every system formats names, addresses and transactions differently.
• Templates and content. Templates set the layout. Reusable blocks hold the wording, like a disclosure or a payment table, and rules decide who gets which block. This is also where you control who can edit what, and keep the version history auditors ask for.
• Composition. The engine merges data and templates and outputs a print file or a digital format like PDF or HTML.
• Delivery. Print goes to your print and mail operation. Digital goes by email, SMS, portal or app. Tagged PDFs and accessible HTML are increasingly required here; see accessible customer communications.
• Archive. An exact copy is stored so staff, auditors and customers can pull it up later. Some vendors build this in. Others sell it separately.

Batch, on-demand and interactive

CCM produces documents in three ways, and most enterprises need all three. It started as a batch job for things like credit card statements. Today, analysts say the focus has shifted to real-time documents that a person starts.

A health plan might run annual notices as a batch, issue ID cards on demand after enrollment, and let staff write appeal letters interactively. A platform that’s strong in one mode can be weaker in another, so test each one.

What CCM is not

Vendors from nearby categories often pitch themselves as CCM. Here’s how to keep your shortlist clean.

• Help desk and messaging. Zendesk and Freshdesk handle inbound tickets and chat. They can’t build a regulated statement from your billing data or produce a print file, even though G2 lists them under CCM.
• CRM and marketing automation. CRM records the relationship and marketing tools send campaigns. CCM handles documents whose content is often set by law, like a credit card statement that must show the “Minimum Payment Warning.”
• Document generation. These tools create documents from CRM data, usually at lower volumes and without print or archive. See SmartCOMM vs Experlogix for where the line falls.
• Digital forms. Forms collect data coming in. CCM sends communications out. See SmartIQ vs Adobe AEM Forms.

Why regulated industries rely on it

Regulators set the content, format and timing of many customer documents. CCM is how big organizations hit those rules at volume.

Take Medicare Advantage. Plans must print required materials in 12-point Times New Roman or equivalent and translate them when a non-English language is the main language of at least 5% of the service area. They also have to get the Annual Notice of Change to members by September 30. Banks face statement rules under Regulations E and Z, and insurers file policy forms with state regulators.

Our industry guides cover the details: insurance, healthcare payers, banking, utilities and government.

Where CCM is heading

Two big shifts are under way. First, the cloud. An Aspire analyst reported that over half of new CCM projects in 2022 chose SaaS, though many enterprises still run CCM themselves. Compare the options in our cloud CCM platform guide.

Second, AI. IDC’s Amy Machado said “AI is now touching nearly every part of the CCM platform,” as quoted in a Messagepoint press release. QKS says the category has “reached an inflection point.” See how analysts rate vendors in CCM analyst reports.

Where to go next

Gartner Peer Insights lists 53 products in this market, so start narrow. The CCM software guide compares the main platforms. The best CCM software picks one for each situation. The CCM benchmark shows every rating with its review count, and CCM software pricing explains how platforms are licensed.