How to Choose the Right CCM Vendor

Today, you’re competing with Amazon, with Netflix, with Uber. Not because these companies are direct competitors, but because these digital natives are changing consumer expectations for every industry.

Now more than ever, customers are demanding timely, relevant, responsive, and highly customized communications across digital and print channels for every touchpoint.

Partnering with the right technology vendor on this journey is key. Your best chance for success is finding a partner who is capable of meeting you where you are and who can help you reach your goals.

In this post, we’ll cover four factors to consider when comparing different CCM vendors. These factors will ultimately help you make a more confident and informed decision about the future of your tech stack.

Ongoing Innovation

From a customer communications perspective, most carriers started the digital journey but struggle with legacy technology that hasn’t kept pace with modern innovation and functionality.

When searching for a CCM partner, look for a company who continuously invests in their technology, adding new and emerging components. This will future-proof your communications solution and help you stay ahead of changes in digital and consumer behavior.

When choosing a CCM partner, always think beyond the project completion as you are investing a lot of time, money and effort in finding the right partner. Make sure your vendor is not selling you the one-time solution but is prepared to solve your problems in the long-term.

Services

Throughout the life of your business, you’ll need a partner who’s committed to helping you along your journey. A good partner is the one who considers your communications as their own rather than installing the software and leaving.

Find a partner who offers flexible services packages to meet your unique needs. Services packages can include a range of installation and content development.

If you have legacy technology, look for a CCM partner who can integrate and leverage those platforms in new and exciting ways to allow you to focus on what you do best – growing your business.

Customer Support

Like customer communications, CCM software is always changing. Having a partner that offers excellent customer support is essential. Good customer support ensures your system runs efficiently and small bugs are fixed to maintain a good user experience.

Look for a partner who provides online educational resources including a Knowledge Base and self-paced courses. Training is also important to consider when choosing a CCM vendor. Flexible onsite and online training options ensure that your team is prepared to become self-sufficient.

Experts in Your Industry

Finding a CCM vendor with insurance expertise is far more important than having CCM expertise. You expect a vendor to have in-depth knowledge of their solution. But if they don’t know your market or the challenges you face regularly, you could add considerable time, effort and money to your implementation.

Lacking insurance industry expertise limits the CCM vendor’s ability to help you use your solution to address critical business issues that are specific to your organization. Putting you at risk of ending up with a solution that can’t integrate with your existing core applications or takes a lot of custom code to make it work.

You and the CCM vendor can learn from each other. You are an invaluable resource for solution development. To gauge insurance industry expertise, consider the available ways you can interact with them. Is there a formal process to engage with the CCM vendor? Do they have a user group? Do they have a customer conference? Are they members of insurance associations? Do they participate in insurance industry events?

Finally, assess how well the vendor keeps up with trends in insurance? The right solution for your organization combines knowledge of what you want to accomplish with what’s happening in the insurance space.

Start Comparing Vendors

To make life easier for you, download the What to Look for When Buying CCM Checklist. While research can be tedious, this checklist will make it easier for you to digest and compare multiple platforms at once. The more you know before choosing a platform, the easier it will be to select the right CCM system for your company’s needs.