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SoundBite Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: SDBT) today introduced SoundBite Insight, a dynamic cloud-based preference management platform that provides organizations with the intelligence needed to optimize communications decisions for personalized one-to-one or segmented customer communications strategies.
SoundBite Insight provides organizations with a full, end-to-end view of consumer communications to help drive more insightful communications and improve business results. The platform tracks, manages and leverages valuable information to enable more intelligent communications, including:
• Stated Preferences: express consent, preferred communications channel, frequency of communications, opt-out;
• Observed Behavior: responses to previous communications, selections made during an interaction, actions a consumer did or did not take; and
• Consumer Profile Data: contact information, program balances, contract expirations, purchase history or any other attribute.
Architected to enable quick implementation and results, the cloud-based SoundBite Insight platform has the flexibility and scalability to be deployed on a departmental or enterprise-wide basis. Importantly, SoundBite’s Web Services API enables integration with many proactive customer communications platforms, including SoundBite Engage, as well as various systems of record, such as marketing automation and CRM systems. A web portal enables agents to access and edit consumer preference data, and reporting is available for any of the stored attributes, such as opt-ins or channel preferences.
Leading Companies Improve Customer Communications through Preference Management
Communicating with today’s consumers has become more challenging due to a more intense regulatory environment, the evolution of mobile technology, the large volume of communications consumers are inundated with, and the control consumers desire to have over the communications they receive. Organizations also tend to have silos and disparate views of their customers as communications are often managed independently by lines of business or functional groups - often resulting in inconsistent messages or over-communication. As a result, organizations are implementing preference management solutions to provide the communications intelligence needed to develop stronger consumer relationships and increase response rates.
According to “Overcoming the Barriers to Preference Management,” a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SoundBite Communications, May 2010, customer preference management is evolving from its regulatory compliance roots into a competitive differentiator for leading firms. Most companies have undertaken preference management in some form and see benefits to customer experience and the bottom line. Many firms are planning initiatives to tie together preference management programs across the enterprise to permit customer self-service and to accommodate new channels, such as mobile. A complimentary copy of the study is available for download here.
Preference Management In Action
SoundBite has made a significant investment in the development of this platform over the past few years and has several deployed clients. One of its hospitality clients uses SoundBite Insight to manage opt-in data for millions of current consumers, as well as for the thousands of new consumers added each week. Creating a centralized repository of opt-ins has been invaluable to helping them honor the communications preferences of its consumers for proactive marketing communications.
Two of the top five wireless providers use SoundBite Insight to capture the observed behavior of their customers to enable more intelligent communications:
• Language Selection: One top wireless provider offers its customers the option of listening to automated voice messages in English or Spanish. All selections are captured and stored in SoundBite Insight, and future communications are automatically delivered in the preferred language, eliminating the need to ask this on each subsequent call. This has resulted in a more positive customer experience and enables the main message to be delivered faster.
• Promise to Pay: Another leading wireless company uses SoundBite to collect overdue payments from its consumers. It offers several options for outgoing payment reminders, including a “promise to pay”. Once a consumer has selected this option it is stored in SoundBite Insight and not presented again if the promise has been broken and a follow-up payment reminder call needs to be made. Stronger messages are delivered in future calls, guiding consumers to an auto-pay or agent-assisted option for payment, ultimately driving more payments.
“Today’s consumers undeniably have varying communications preferences, including an increased interest in using mobile channels. Whether these preferences are explicitly stated or implied, organizations should pay attention and take action,” said Jim Milton, president and CEO of SoundBite Communications. “SoundBite Insight enables companies to stay ahead of shifting customer preferences and deploy personalized, relevant and intelligence-based communications strategies that drive better business results and improve the customer experience.”
About SoundBite Communications
SoundBite Communications (SoundBite.com) is a leading provider of cloud-based, multi-channel, proactive customer communications solutions designed to transform the way organizations communicate throughout the customer lifecycle to build trusted, lifelong and profitable relationships. Clients can leverage SoundBite’s proactive customer communications offering and expertise in designing, executing and optimizing communications strategies to engage in relevant customer interactions that deliver long-term business value.
SoundBite is a registered service mark of SoundBite Communications, Inc
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