How brands can start delivering on the promise of ‘real-time’ communications

Real-time CRM communications are becoming a universal expectation from customers regardless of industry or platform. In fact, 72% of customers expect ‘immediate service’ from the brands they interact with. This can appear daunting for a business that has never considered how to begin serving real-time communications, both in how to enable it, then in how to use it effectively. Before we discuss this, however, we must first dissect the meaning of ‘real-time’.

What are real-time communications and how do they work?

‘Real-time’ refers to the capturing and processing of data. To be able to register a customer behaviour or ‘event’ immediately is a powerful thing – to then use that event to trigger a communication gives customers a sense of responsiveness and targets them when their interest and propensity is likely to be highest.

For this to work, a tracked event must take place, which is then linked to a central customer or user profile. This event will trigger an automated process within your CEP or CRM platform to then deploy a communication to that customer. A couple of examples of this are:

Real-time communications triggered by customer behaviour

There are various customer events that brands will be looking to target through triggered communications. One of the most common examples of these is an abandon basket campaign – if a customer began a purchase journey but fell out of that journey without completing it, brands can target them immediately with a prompt to finish their order while the purchase intent is still there.

Real-time dynamic messaging based on customer attributes

Depending on certain customer attributes, customers can also be served dynamic content based on what we know about them prior to starting a new web or app session. If we imagine a customer that may have purchased from a brand once, but then not returned within a certain number of months, it is possible to welcome them with a communication that recognises that and potentially incentivises them to purchase again upon starting their new session (for example – ‘Welcome back, here’s 5% off!’).

In both examples, a brand would need to tie the app or web session to a particular customer, have an event set up to register ‘basket additions that did not result in a sale’ or ‘return visits over ‘x’ months’, and to pass this information through to a chosen CRM platform to trigger an automated communication. Both are powerful use cases that demonstrate the potential value that can be unlocked through the real-time capturing and processing of data.

How CACI can help

CACI’s experts have extensive experience in helping brands start their journeys into real-time communications, from the initial identification of the right use-cases (as above) to identifying the right enablers across data and technology to make it happen.

In doing so, enabling real-time communication can be an incremental process, where use cases are tested and evaluated for their value and built upon steadily, eventually leading to a fully connected data ecosystem with more complex real-time strategies.

To see how CACI can help you begin planning your real-time strategy, contact us today.

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