Welcoming the Customer with Communication Done Right
In Part I, I described the challenges large corporations face in communicating effectively with customers throughout the customer lifecycle.  I also showed an example of addressing these challenges through content management only, not communication, in customer support. Well in Part Deux, I’m happy to present an example of meeting these challenges well at the critical “welcome” stage.   

Enter the Cingular Service Summary (CSS).  This document (generic version shown) reaches the hands of every new customer and every customer who upgrades/renews a contract—well over 50 million customers since its release in 2005, about 750,000 customers a day.  This highly personalized, dynamically generated document is printed on the fly in the stores, e-mailed to customers, and posted on the website.  It has two purposes:

• Summarize what the customer bought
• Educate the customer about specific issues and questions (bill amount, voicemail set up, etc.) in an easy-to-understand way.

I toiled to redesign this document during a past life with an excellent team at Cingular Wireless (now AT&T).  I’d like to give it a final salute before it evolves into its AT&T form.  Here are a few reasons why I think the CSS is an example of communication mostly done right:

• Concision – Largely because of the reasons listed below, we reduced the original CSS from 2 pages (front and back) to 1 page (front and back).
• Personalized, relevant information – Thanks to sophisticated technology and complex user scenarios, the content of the document changes depending on the user’s account and transaction type.  Also, we deleted information that didn’t summarize the transaction or educate the customer.
• Clearly organized and prioritized – Like information is consolidated in clearly labeled sections. 
• Polished visual design that clarifies the document’s organization – Clear headers, shading, icons, and more make the document easy to scan, and they clearly convey priority.
• Legalese and technical jargon minimized; plain language maximized - At least as best we could with a service as complex as wireless. 
• A start toward consistent, cross-channel communication – This document appears in e-mail and on the web.  It also served as the basis for redesigning materials sent to customers who order online, over the phone, and through other channels.  

Results? Increased customer satisfaction on industry-wide measures and cost savings from reduced calls to the call center.  Also, in surveys customers reported remembering and keeping the CSS, whereas before they reported not realizing they received one.  The document was such a success that Cingular’s Chief Technology Officer (now the CIO for AT&T) mentioned it in his editorial about customer-driven innovation.  

Doing communication right isn’t always easy, but it pays for everyone.