Clicks and Calls = Connections
Fidelity Investments is mining data from its 8 million retail financial services accounts to transform routine inbound calls and visits to its Web site into one-to-one marketing opportunities.
Since the program started three months ago, about 10% of customer inquiries have been converted to sales, notes Stephen A. Cone, president of customer marketing for Boston-based Fidelity.
The company is customizing targeted offers using an automated marketing system. The system captures data and transactional records from customers who visit Fidelity’s Web site (www.fidelity.com) or call and access touch-tone prompts, a live rep or the automated phone tree.
About 500,000 inbound calls are received daily, 80% of which are handled by an automated voice recognition system that can identify 20 billion phrases, notes Cone. The Web site logs between 200,000 and 300,000 customer visits each day.
Customer-Driven Sales
Fidelity, which posted sales of $6.7 billion in 1998, analyzes data almost every week and selects from among 15 offers to automatically target callers or visitors to the site. Pitches for financial products and services – including mutual funds, annuities, securities and life insurance – change every few weeks or immediately once a customer has responded to a selected offer.
Promotions are designed to give customers control over whether they will review an offer, directing customers to call the company’s 800 number or click a button on its Web site if they would like more information.
“It’s totally customer driven,” says Cone, who expects the conversion rates to increase as the company gains more experience.
“It’s a large task. We’re already looking at millions of customers essentially on a weekly basis,” he explains.
By the end of the first quarter of 2000, Fidelity expects to speed up the process and start using data collected every 24 hours – meaning customers can be targeted with new offers every time they initiate contact, instead of every few weeks.
Following Up
A more proactive approach is planned for next year, when the company expects to start sending direct mail and e-mail offers the day after a transaction is completed. Customers will be thanked for the recent transactions and, of course, receive a follow-up offer. The development of one-to-one marketing is viewed as a logical extension of existing technology and databases. “I think in time it may replace some direct mail,” Cone says.
