Fiscal budgeting is upon us, and it's time to look into 2019 to plan new projects.  For most, customer engagement and experience is top of mind, and a huge player in that space is around communications and specifically targeting clients via the medium they choose.

While there may be some uncertainty on what 2019 holds for regulations and market behavior, one thing remains the same- you still have to communicate with customers,  whether in the form of a statement, letter or marketing campaign. That said, here are some communications trends and predictions to keep in mind while looking for ways to utilize and leverage business-critical data delivery to drive incremental revenue and strengthen customer relationships:

1. Social messaging is taking over
Sixty-two percent of millennials are more loyal to brands that engage them via Over-the-Top (OTT) and SMS messaging. Millennials, as well as other generations, want and expect the personal touch and collaboration that one-on-one communication allows.

​Many businesses are already placing ads on social media networks and other websites, allowing users to click and instantaneously be directed to a chat window with the brand. Using business-critical communications, such as statements, notices and letters, you can implement a few strategies to capitalize on this movement, such as live chat features between customers and your organization, as well as providing direct links to popular social media platforms to enable quick sharing of information.
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2. Mobile functionality is required
Mobile functionality is no longer optional in today’s world as consumers use smartphones for shopping and online research. This means mobile responsive websites and communications are necessary in order to meet consumer expectations.
 
Leading organizations have already implemented location-based offers and sales messaging through mobile devices. Take advantage of this trend by targeting specific offers based on credit, via printed documents or through your ePresentment platform. If your customer communications vendor is up-to-date on the latest technology, they can help you implement these important location-based offers and sales messaging to your customer base.
 
3. Customization and personalization are expected
Seventy-three percent of consumers prefer to do business with brands that use personal information to make their experiences more relevant, according to Digital Trends. When done correctly, using personalized marketing in digital and print business-critical documents can help you effectively reach your customers and yield a high ROI. In addition to revenue opportunities, personalized document marketing can help create a better customer experience by delivering content unique to an individual’s specific needs. The best part? There are no additional costs because your customer documents are already being delivered. 

4. Self-service is necessary
Organizations should ensure that customers are able to find answers to their questions using an assortment of self-service options, as fifty percent of customers think it is important to solve product or service issues themselves and 70% expect a company’s website to include a self-service application. Make the most of your customer communications by adding self-service website links to both print and electronic customer facing documents. This will not remove the need for a call center, but it will reduce call volumes AND help to create a more self-service customer experience. 
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Interested in learning more about how to maximize your business-critical communications in 2019? Click here to contact us.

September is National Preparedness Month, and is a great time to review processes and plans in case of an unforeseen disaster. 

Businesses are temporarily closing on the East Coast in preparation for Hurricane Florence and many expect to be without power for many days. Even in the event of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, business owners are responsible for ensuring their businesses will stay as close to 100 percent as possible. 

Natural disasters can happen anywhere, from tornadoes, to wildfires, and most recently, to hurricanes , disaster planning and recovery is top of mind. Regardless of the natural disaster, it’s crucial for any company to take steps to minimize disruption in services and communications with employees and customers. 

The Disaster Recovery Journal estimates that as many as 80% of all U.S. companies don't have an effective DR plan. This does not bode well for the majority of American business’ systems and data, and ultimately, their future survival. 

Below are three disaster recovery essentials to keep you in business by safeguarding your customer data and communications- and confirming that your business services vendors do the same- during future emergencies:

1. BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT
Business Continuity Management (BCM) is defined as a management process that identifies potential threats to an organization and the impacts to business operations those threats might cause. BCM provides a framework for building organizational resilience with the capability of an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand, and value-creating activities. Although this term is used interchangeably with DR, business continuity addresses more comprehensive planning that focuses on long term or chronic challenges to organizational success. Potential business continuity problems may include the illness or departure of key team members, supply chain breakdowns, catastrophic failures or critical malware infections.

Should a natural disaster or unexpected power outage occur, data must be accessible from a remote backup facility. Data must be comprehensively backed up at a secure location that features total redundancy of all online systems, databases, communications, power, form inventories, and print and mail facilities.

2. DATA SECURITY AND ARCHIVING
Data security, of course, is extremely important at all times. According to the Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council’s Annual Report, 60% of companies that experience mass data loss will shut down within six months of a disaster. 

As business-critical data continues to grow at an exponential rate, and universal regulations such as HIPAA and the Patriot Act compel organizations to store data longer, archiving is an essential element to a DR plan. For customer data and business-critical communications such as statements, letters and notices, it is recommended that ePresentment is utilized.
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3. MULTI-CHANNEL COMMUNICATION
In the event of a natural disaster, alternate forms of communication are crucial. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, USPS mail service was suspended for weeks across several states. It is important for businesses to reach their customers and deliver business-critical communications, no matter the circumstances. It is recommended that businesses not only incorporate messages on their own websites and ePresentment into their DR plan, but also email, SMS and social media.
 
·Email: Sending emails during emergency situations as a valid method of communication. Email servers are located globally, and it’s unlikely they will all be dead at the same time. But where do you get Internet access if cell phone service is dead? Oftentimes, WiFi service will still be up and running, since the cables used for hard wired Internet operate on different networks than cell phones. For most WiFi, you don’t even need to be in the building to access the service.
·Text: Text messages require far less bandwidth than phone calls, and even when the ominous “all circuits are busy” recording comes on, texts will still work as they operate on a parallel network to cell phones.
·Social Media: Social media is similar to email in that it is hosted on a network of global servers, providing redundancy and fault tolerance. Because your customers are all unique in their social media preferences, the more social media outlets you communicate on, the better.
 
When it comes to your business and natural disasters, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Ensuring your business, as well as your vendors, have strong DR plans will give you and your customers peace of mind in knowing you have them covered.

Every organization, no matter the industry, has one common goal:  
Make an impression on the customer.

It’s the only way to maintain profitability, stay in business and stand out from competitors. Businesses that utilize high volumes of customer communications are at a unique advantage and can leverage business critical documents to connect with and make a positive impression on their customers… But it’s not always easy.

To really take advantage of this platform and set your business apart through your communications alone, it’s essential to give your customers the information they want, when they want it, the way they want it. Here are the top 5 things customers really want from their communications:

Omni Channel Document Delivery
Customer communications and document delivery have shifted dramatically towards a digital experience. To remain competitive, financial institutions must present data in multiple ways, including mobile, text, PC and print delivery. 

To make the customer experience truly exceptional, make things as easy as possible.  Your electronic presentment option should be full service, easy and functional, with all documents available through a single platform, easily logged into from any interface. 

Consistency
It’s pretty well known that people in general are typically reluctant to accept change.  This is especially true in the way they receive their financial communications and documents. When they view information, they want it to be the same as it was last time, and the same as it will be next time, so they aren’t constantly searching for the information they’re looking for.

To accomplish this, format your documents using a template that includes designated space for branding, summary tables and transactional information. Documents with consistent formatting not only increase readability, by  placing logos and branding in the same area will increase brand recognition.

Memorable Experiences
Customers want an experience that is unique to him or her as an individual. If your documents are consistently formatted and optimized for readability, easily accessible through any platform or channel and personalized to individuals instead of your customer base as a collective group, you will create the memorable and engaging experience that customers crave.

Solutions greater than sales pitches
What customers want is solutions to their problems. It’s the driving force that has made Google into what it is today: The #1 search engine for people looking for answers to anything and everything. Providing solutions in transactional documents and customer communications is actually much easier than it sounds!

Using transactional data to target customers with specific offers and services similar or compatible with services they already utilize. Sending specific marketing (in the form of cross-selling and upselling) to individuals who, based on previous habits, will have an interest in or need for that particular service provides them with answers to their questions, and solutions to their problems.

More efficiency, Less communication!
The final thing that your customers want from their documents is LESS OF THEM. It’s redundant and unnecessary to receive several pieces of mail every day from one organization: Consolidation is key.

Make the most of your customer communications by consolidating and combining so you can send out fewer documents as a whole. Your customers can be assured that should they need access to their information and documents at any time, it’s always available online. Your documents become more effective and useful, you save money on print and postage, and your customer’s are happier because they aren’t bombarded with document overload.

Dallas, TX, July 2018 - Ser Technology (Ser Tech) and Lanvera announced a strategic partnership that will combine service offerings in a single package for financial institutions. Banks and Credit Unions will now be able to integrate Ser Tech Flitter and Fetch content into any document delivered by Lanvera. This partnership means that more consumers now have easy access to current FICO® scores, financial education and targeted pre-approved loan offers based on analysis of an individual’s credit file.

Flitter is a platform that delivers FICO® Scores and credit education to consumers in multiple delivery channels, such as online banking, mobile banking, and statements.  Ser Tech works closely with the financial institution and FICO to support and certify compliance with the FICO® Score Open Access program. The Fetch Marketing platform analyzes consumer credit history to target pre-approved credit offers to a financial institution’s customers.  Coupled with Lanvera’s delivery of business-critical documents, the partnership will increase visibility and read rates by incorporating FICO® Scores and pre-approved loan offers directly into consumer monthly statements, letters and notices.

“We have a unique opportunity to provide data driven credit tools to clients, driving education and convenience.  Our partnership with Lanvera allows us to reach a broader audience and increase offer views, all while delivering via a brand the consumer knows.” said Shana Richardson, Ser Technology Corporation CEO.

Consumers demand real information to make financial decisions.  By providing the authentic FICO® scores (used in determining loan terms) and pre-approved offers on their bank statements and other documents, financial institutions benefit from increased brand familiarity, loyalty and action.  Consumers benefit from access to critical credit information and immediate access to capital.
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Michael Scheevel, VP of Sales and Marketing at Lanvera was quoted “we feel this partnership is a really positive step in increasing our offering solutions that strengthen our clients’ relationships with their customers.”
 
About Lanvera
Lanvera is a leading national outsource provider specializing in technology that drives customer communications in both electronic and print formats. Focusing on a digital document strategy, Lanvera’s software solutions allow clients to improve customer experiences, drive electronic communications and enable effective targeted marketing.
 
About Ser Technology
Ser Technology Corporation (SerTech) is a financial technology services company that leverages credit data to help clients target consumers to generate new loans, provide actual FICO® Scores and credit education for consumers, and identify, measure and manage portfolio risk and opportunity through comprehensive loan management. Ser Tech is headquartered in Dallas, serving more than 3,000 credit unions since 1994.

Member data security is one of the most important elements of your business. It keeps your business compliant, and it allows your members to trust you with some of their most confidential information. So how can you be sure that your company, or the company you trust to manage your member's documents, provides adequate data security?

Here’s a brief rundown of the 4 primary elements that any business responsible for keeping data secure should provide:

1. SECURE FACILITY

Any Credit Union that houses member information must undergo audits to ensure information is kept secure. These third party audits are necessary to ensure that there are stringent controls in place to guarantee the security of your data and documents. Additionally, you must have facility-wide physical-security measures in place, including employee access cards, door alarms and internal and external security cameras.

2. DOCUMENT INTEGRITY 

Your software and processes must be designed to allow for 100% document integrity. The utilization of intelligent barcodes ensures that each page is matched and envelope contents are correct, and can embed logic for intelligent insertion and special handling.

Output envelope scanning guarantees that every single document that hits the mail stream, provides an archive for audit purposes, and guarantees all envelopes are tracked so that no run is released without 100% verification.  

3. COMPLIANCE

All document privacy laws must continually be met. This includes the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, HIPAA and FACTA. Additionally, it’s important that the document management platform accommodate easy change management so that as regulations and requirements are updated, documents can remain compliant.           

4. BUSINESS CONTINUITY

In the event of a natural disaster or unexpected power outage, data must be accessible from a secure remote back up facility to enable business processes to continue. Data must be comprehensively backed up at a secure location that features total redundancy of all online systems, databases, communications, power, form inventories and print and mail facilities.

The benefits of using personalized marketing in your customer’s print documents are huge. It offsets production costs, increases value in targeted marketing messages, and creates a better customer experience by delivering content unique to an individual’s specific needs… all at no additional cost to you, as your customer documents are already being delivered.

Did you know that electronic documents offer more significant marketing capabilities than print because they provide added interactivity and instant access? You can make the most of your electronic documents by using them to enhance your marketing and yield bigger benefits than print alone.

Supplement your print document marketing by utilizing the following 3 electronic marketing opportunities:

1. PUSH MARKETING TECHNOLOGY -

Present a marketing page to customers as they sign on to access their home banking account. This can include marketing promotions, inserts or any document you want to ensure the account holder views as they sign in, allowing you to ensure your messages are being seen!

2. DIGITAL ONSERTS -

Utilize workflows and business rules to segment your electronic customers and target groups with particular offers that will be most beneficial to the individual. Digital onserts are clickable, which provides instant access to promotions for the customer, and a faster way to drive customer behavior for your business.

3. MULTICHANNEL EXPANDED HYPERLINKS -

Include links to webpages and offers from directly within eDocuments, and route them to any device: desktop, mobile phone or tablet. The interactive links provide your electronic customers easy and instant access to the promotional content in the messages.

The benefits of personalized marketing in electronic documents are enormous to both customers, and your business. Maximize the capabilities of your document marketing on your electronic platform and you’ll start seeing a significantly improved ROI and higher e-Adoption rates.

Download our document marketing guide today for a more comprehensive view of how you can maximize the potential of your customer documents by turning them into free and personalized marketing.

According to “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner, it can cost approximately 6 times more to attract a new member than to keep an existing one. Furthermore, Bain & Company reports that a 5% increase in member retention can increase profits up to 125%. These numbers alone reveal the necessity of a strong member retention program. Focusing on member retention will provide you with the engagement rates you desire, as well as a more favorable bottom line. Here are some tips to help you get started on increasing member engagement through cross-selling and upselling:
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1. Utilize dynamic messaging to align communications with each member’s behaviors, needs and wants.
Dynamic messaging allows you to present strategic, real-time messages to specific target groups within your member base. From there, member-facing marketing space on digital and print statements, letters, notices, etc. is optimized to target account holders with products and services that best fit their needs. There are many ways to incorporate dynamic communications on specific customer criteria, including account balance, zip code, gender, or marital status, to name a few. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel in compiling data because you already have it, so why not not use it to increase member retention rates and your bottom line?

2. Paint a picture that emphasizes benefits rather than features.
Consider this: You are planning a trip to a tropical destination and looking for airline travel. Would you rather see messaging about the seat you will be sitting in, the seatbelt and the fact that you can recline during the flight? Or would you rather see messaging about being transported comfortably and safely to your tropical destination where you will be sitting on the beach and soaking up the sun with a beverage in your hand? I’ll take the latter with the benefits, please!
 
While this is Sales 101, I see credit unions (and other businesses, for that matter) get caught up in the functionality of their products and services rather than painting a picture that communicates the actual benefits to members.  When formulating messaging, keep this quote in mind: “People don’t want to buy a quarter inch drill. They want a quarter inch hole,” -Theodore Levitt. Features do have a place in the sales cycle, but need to only be mentioned as differentiators once a member shows interest in a product or service.
 
For more tips on cross-selling and upselling, call our team at (972) 488-6400 or send an email to lanverainfo@lanvera.com

​Effective customer communication is critical in the success of any organization.  Without it, you can expect to lose business, revenue and wallet share.

Organizations that utilize high volumes of customer communications – like banks and credit unions – are at a unique advantage and can leverage business-critical documents to connect with and drive customers to a specific goal.  In order to effectively reach your customers, it is essential to give them information they want, when they want it, and the way they want it. Here are the top 5 features customers expect from your business-critical communications:

1. Consistency
Zendesk says 87% of customers think brands should put more effort into providing a consistent customer communication experience. This is especially true in the way people receive their financial communications. When customers view information, they want it to be the same as it was last time, and the same as it will be next time, so they aren’t constantly searching for the information they’re looking for.
To accomplish this, format your documents using a template that includes designated space for branding, summary tables and transactional information. Documents with consistent formatting not only increase readability, by placing logos and branding in the same area will increase brand recognition.

2. Accessibility 
To make the customer experience truly exceptional, make things as easy as possible.  Customers know how they want to receive and access information.  Your ePresentment should be mobile responsive, user friendly and functional, with all documents available through a single platform, easily logged into from any interface. Take the guess work out of finding information and your customers will thank you!

3. Unique Engagement
62% of millennials report that brand engagement is more likely to make them a loyal customer, according to USC Dornsife. Customers want an experience that is unique to their individual preferences. To maximize engagement, make sure your your documents are consistently formatted and optimized for readability, easily accessible through any platform or channel, and personalized to each individual. 

4. Solutions to problems
Customers wanting solutions to their problems is the driving force that has made Google into what it is today: The #1 search engine for people looking for answers.

Providing solutions in transactional documents and customer communications is actually much easier than it sounds. You can use customer transactional data to target them with specific offers compatible with services they already utilize. Sending personalized marketing (in the form of affiliate ads or cross-selling and upselling) to individuals who, based on previous habits, will have an interest in or need for that particular service provides them with answers to their questions, and solutions to their problems.

3. Self-service
​Organizations should ensure that customers are able to find answers to their questions using an assortment of self-service options, as 50% of customers think it is important to solve product or service issues themselves and 70% expect a company’s website to include a self-service application. Make the most of your customer communications by adding self-service website links to both print and electronic documents. This will not negate the need for customer service calls, but it will reduce call center volumes AND make your customers happier because they satisfy their need to find answers to their questions on their own.

Contact us today to discover how transactional document solutions can strengthen your customer-base, discover new revenue and cut operating costs.

The electronic marketing world is constantly evolving. Ten to fifteen years ago, electronic marketing could be equated to the wild-west frontier. Opportunities were abundant, and the presence of constant white noise surrounding consumers was nowhere near the volume it is now. According to Statistic Brain, the average human attention span is 8.25 seconds, meaning it has become increasingly difficult to effectively reach customers. It’s safe to say that the game has changed drastically as many businesses have upped their electronic marketing efforts in hopes of cutting through the clutter.
 
This is where personalized marketing comes into play. Seventy-three percent of consumers prefer to do business with brands that use personal information to make their shopping experiences more relevant, according to Digital Trends. When done correctly, using personalized marketing in your digital and print business-critical documents can help you effectively reach your customers and yield a high ROI. In addition to offsetting production costs, personalized document marketing can help create a better customer experience by delivering content unique to an individual’s specific needs. The best part? There are no additional costs because your customer documents are already being delivered. 
 
Before we discuss electronic document marketing applications, let’s talk about print for a minute. We know you have probably seen the Internet argument over whether or not print is dying, and while digital has taken precedence in reaching consumers, it is wise to not underestimate the power of print. Not only are print documents still required for compliance reasons in finance and billing, but many consumers opt to receive all of their documents in both print and electronic formats. According to a recent survey, more than six in 10 consumers say they would not choose a provider that does not offer paper bills and statements, and 88% want to be able to switch between electronic and paper bills without difficulty or cost.
 
With the right capabilities and tools such as inline inserts and dynamic messaging, you can effectively personalize and segment marketing on print documents, and even make changes right before a production run. The one-two punch comes in when you maximize your electronic document marketing to complement the print version.
 
Electronic documents offer more real-time marketing capabilities than print because they provide added interactivity and instant access. Here are three applications to enhance your personalized and segmented electronic document marketing:

1.  Push marketing technology – Present a marketing page to customers as they sign on to access their home banking account. This can include promotions, inserts or any document you want to ensure the account holder views as they sign in.
2. Digital onserts - Utilize workflows and business rules to segment your electronic customers and target groups with particular offers that will be most beneficial to the individual. Digital onserts are clickable, which provides instant access to promotions for the customer, and a faster way to drive customer behavior for your business.
3.   Multichannel expanded hyperlinks - Include links to webpages and offers from directly within eDocuments, and route them to any device: desktop, mobile phone, or tablet. The interactive links provide your electronic customers easy and instant access to the promotional content in the messages.
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The benefits of personalized marketing on electronic documents are enormous to both customers and your business. Maximize the capabilities of your electronic document marketing in tangent to print documents, and you’ll start seeing a significantly improved ROI.

For the past decade, moving to paperless communications has been at the forefront of most organizations’ minds. Not only is electronic delivery a customer expectation, it also benefits your business’ bottom line. In fact, a recent study estimates that moving from paper to electronic delivery of certain documents could reduce costs of producing communications by 36 percent. While it is not a new concept, the challenge still exists in accelerating eAdoption. Here are three secrets to driving paperless customer communications:

1.Provide Consistency in Electronic Document Formatting
Many third party software packages generally provide a rudimentary print layout of a document for use electronic use, thus creating a stale, unfriendly document that does not match the printed, often legal, version.  This creates customer reluctance in moving to electronic delivery because the same document presented in different formats for print and electronic can be confusing.

A successful electronic conversion includes providing an exact replica electronically that is offered in print and mail. A very important reason to offer online statements in the same format as printed is to provide the institution’s customers with a true legal document online rather than a home banking transaction printout. Because most customers require a legal version of their documents in the event of a loan application or tax audit, offering the statement in the same format will encourage eAdoption.

2.Rethink Print Default
Many organizations still have print documents as the default option on new accounts. When customers are not made aware that they can make the switch to paperless, they assume print and mail is what will serve them best. For statements and other documents that aren’t necessarily required to be sent via snail mail, a good option is to set electronic delivery as the default option on new accounts.

“When we switched cores in 2009, we made a big push toward eAdoption on new accounts opened by setting the default statement option to electronic,” said Sandy Gaskamp, Operations Support Manager at University Federal Credit Union. “We now have an 86% eAdoption rate with over 205,000 members, and they all seem to be enjoying the advantages of going paperless.” This not only enhances the customer experience, but also saves on print production and postage costs. In order to meet regulatory stands, be sure to communicate the default option with new account holders so they can verify it as the option they desire.

3.Offer More Outside of Online Banking
Online banking has been widely implemented in financial institutions to provide customers with easier access to accounts in order to alleviate traditional in-person transactions and decrease print and mail costs. However, due to the lack of eAdoption, the ROI on online banking platforms alone has not been as high as originally anticipated. Typically, it is difficult to convert non-transactional customers to electronic documents due to the perception that they do not need to access online banking to manage a daily balance or transfer money. Translation: One cannot live by online banking alone.

Your business’ website coupled with a mobile-responsive ePresentment platform can work wonders for eAdoption rates. If an electronic document can be accessed and viewed securely from your website without going through online banking, the potential audience for eStatements and other electronic documents increases beyond online banking users because customers then do not have to remember a login or sign up for online banking in order to switch to digital document delivery. By providing a direct access point to electronic documents, the overall customer experience is heightened. Additionally, if you are being charged by your provider for each online banking user, the users who opt out of paper documents through ePresentment are less costly.

Customers also desire a central location to access all account documents including notices, loan coupons and tax forms. If your business can support electronic documents, including eStatements, eNotices, eLoan Coupons and eTax Forms, your customer  has the option to receive all communications electronically, which is a win-win scenario.

Conclusion
By giving your customers the opportunity to access more of their documents online, you can begin the conversion toward providing total comprehensive electronic services. It is important to remember that the customer is looking for at least as much value as they receive from a printed document.

To read more strategies on driving paperless communication, access our white paper.