KSBR’s Customer Comms Programme

Improve KPIs and CTA rates, and reduce call centre volume

The problem

Why great comms are harder than ever

Customers are avoiding unwelcome news, trust in organisations has eroded, and AI is flooding every inbox. A comm that’s merely ‘good enough’ risks being ignored or misread, adding calls and damaging your brand.

Our answer

Comms tested with the customers who’ll receive them

We don’t rely on best practice alone. We mock up your emails, letters and texts, send different versions to carefully matched customers, and see how they really react: whether they’d even open it, what they take away, and how they’d feel. Then we give you a clear framework for optimising every comm, plus a tone of voice guide for the future.

What’s changed

Four forces working against your comms

Cost of living

The cost-of-living crisis has become an embedded new normal. Customers go to real lengths to avoid unwelcome comms like bills and overdue notices, and it’s easier than ever for the wrong word or phrase to trigger anxiety.

Eroded trust

Trust in many organisations, from utility companies to banks, has eroded. That means less patience with jargon, and more scepticism and cynicism, especially around price rises and unwelcome news.

AI-driven volume

AI is letting companies of every kind bombard consumers, raising the bar for what it takes to earn attention, and making people more alert to anything that reads like corporate boilerplate or a scam.

Scarce attention

Attention is the twenty-first century’s most valuable resource; no organisation can take it for granted.

Put together, this means more chance of comms misfiring, adding cost and damaging brand reputation. Great (not just ‘good enough’) comms are essential.

The benefits

What our Customer Comms Research Programme delivers

  • Preserve and improve KPIs
  • Reduce call centre contacts
  • Improve CTA rates
  • Better communicate brand values and character
  • A tone of voice and language guide for future comms
  • How it works

    Theory will only get you halfway to great comms. Testing guarantees it.

    We use research to ensure your customer comms abide by our seven key rules.

    1. 01Never take customers’ attention for granted
    2. 02Use the right frame, so crucial updates aren’t read as a sales pitch
    3. 03Start from where the customer is, not from where the organisation is
    4. 04Stay relentlessly focused on one CTA or takeaway
    5. 05Recognise there’s no average reader and optimise for this
    6. 06Account for when, where and how people really read your comms
    7. 07Reassure vulnerable customers, so they engage rather than avoid

    We can help on a one-off basis, or across a whole programme of comms

    This can be done for a single, one-off project, but we’ve also worked very successfully with clients and their agencies on whole programmes, after which we provide a comms bible summarising all the key findings and guidelines.

    Facing a big decision?

    Tell us what you’re working on and we’ll suggest the right approach.