CRM Benefits for Communications Sector
Customers in the Communications Industry Number in the Millions
Apr 22, 2009
Every industry sector has a corporate culture related to the the products or services it offers, and to the manner in which customer relationships evolve and are sustained.
Here are several specific benefits of CRM solutions in the communications sector:
- Identify Customers at Risk
- Identify New Revenue Opportunities
- Reduce Marketing Expenses
- Increasing Network Utilization and Profitability
- Analyze Effects of Competitive Offerings
- Improve Operating Results
Based on usage trends, customers who may be moving to other services, or who have already defected, can be identified by analyzing the profile and call patterns and determining which call detail variables have a high correlation to attrition. Companies that incorporate call detail into analytical models of propensity to customer churn, can then target those high risk customers with loyalty programs and marketing campaigns.
For example, by identifying which customers have a certain number of blocked incoming calls in a month, which customers placed calls to two different numbers within 30 seconds, and which customer placed multiple calls to the same number within 60 seconds, etc., companies can build marketing campaigns and product packages. These packages enable the company to upgrade selling based on usage patterns for features such as conferencing, messaging, automatic callback, and other communication services.
Increasing Profits and Enhancing Customer Loyalty
This analysis can assist in increasing profits and loyalty through customer profiling. One major long distance carrier analyzed usage levels and communication habits to divide its customer base into several “customer segments.” This analysis revealed that the customer base included millions of unprofitable customers.
The elimination of unprofitable customers from targeting programs saved over $100 million in marketing and advertising costs in the second half of the year. At the same time, marketing to the high-value segments intensified. Customers with high usage were proactively moved to the most favorable rate plan, and selling of bundled offers accelerated. The plan was to support highly profitable customers with good rates- which further stimulates usage- and packages of services that change the way they communicate.
Cross-Functional Data
By combining marketing network data an organization can analyze cross-functional data from marketing and network areas. This allows marketing programs to be established that specifically target products and services to those areas where capacity already exists. A pilot program at one firm compared the results of a typical mass marketing campaign to a campaign based upon targeted marketing through the using data-warehoused, cross-functional data and modeling technique.
By marketing only to those customers identified with a high propensity to purchase this product, and only in areas where existing network capacity existed, the company realized a positive impact to the company of $10.8M dollars on a single campaign in a single city, as compared to the traditional marketing approach!
Relevant Source Data
In today’s environment, the time and effort required to perform many analysis and reporting functions is costly. A data warehouse can make all the relevant source data available in a single integrated platform and database, enabling more efficient use of the data leading to lower operating costs.
Communications service providers have, in a number of cases, deployed many function-oriented analysis and reporting systems. The high cost of maintaining these systems can be displaced through the implementation of a single network-oriented warehouse. With this approach, decision-makers have direct access to the information they need to efficiently support decision-making processes. They can undertake analyses which are not practical from a time or cost perspective in existing non-data warehouse environments, consequently capturing the value in the enterprise’s data
In the competitive communications environment, companies deal with new and innovative offerings by their competitors on a regular basis. By having a data warehouse with detailed customer data, these companies can quickly analyze the impact to their business on matching, beating, or ignoring the latest competitive offer.
