Triggered Communications
Lifecycle-based triggered communications in the form of personalized messages automatically sent to individuals on a special date or event are an important component in achieving effective customer relationship management (CRM).

The full power of triggered communications is based on your ability to build strong  relationships with your customers through constant touch points.

Striata offers a range of locally-developed, tried-and-tested tools and products that support this type of CRM program, including one-way and interactive communications. These tools can also be used to manage and measure customer satisfaction, loyalty levels and perceptions.

Striata’s system tracks a customer’s lifecycle and allows pre-determined emails or SMS messages to be set up in advance, so they can be automatically sent to a customer when a trigger occurs. A trigger may be a date which corresponds to a customer’s birthday, for example. To realize the full benefit of this approach, communications should be customized according to the recipient’s profile, including things like language preference, age and the product or service the customer is using.

The best results by far, however, are achieved when interactive communication is encouraged, as it is important that for every action the marketer takes, there is a reaction from the customer. It is from these reactions that customer satisfaction and loyalty levels can be measured.

Triggered communications are very appropriate in circumstances where the customer will use the product or service for a defined period. One such example is in car dealerships, where messages can be sent welcoming the customer after they take delivery of their new car, and then service reminders are sent at the right intervals and even a prompt to consider a new car purchase after three years.

Furthermore, since triggered communications can be customized accordingly, the car dealership could customize the email templates it sends, so that each one reflects the appropriate car make and model that each individual customer drives - making an instant connection.

A typical triggered communications cycle could be:
  • A 'welcome on board' email immediately after the product has been purchased, contract signed or loyalty club joined;
  • An 'are you happy?' email a few months later;
  • A happy birthday email on the customer’s birthday (repeated every year);
  • A ‘why have you been inactive’ email, to try change behavior;
  • A 'You have earned bonus points'- type email each year; and
  • A digital gift voucher and 'are you still happy' survey email after two years.
  • Should emails bounce, an SMS can be dispatched to obtain new email addresses and so the communication link with the customer is not lost.
Properly planned and implemented, such a cycle will maintain effective communications with customers. It demonstrates that their business is valued and helps to establish a customer-supplier environment, which encourages repeat purchases.