It all started when the cable programming marketer, which was acquired by AT&T in June, realized that it had to better manage its 200 million customer contacts per year.
Like many firms, MediaOne’s marketing data warehouse was not integrated with its sales and service centers. Its inbound touch points relied on the firm’s billing system. In addition, the firm segmented customers almost totally by geography. Finally, there was a “strategy gap” between promotions done by the firm and what its salespeople said directly to customers.
But it had to improve. For one thing, it had new products to sell — high-speed Internet access introduced in 1997 and digital phone service in 1998. For another, it felt pressure from Wall Street to “grab land share,” said Mark Voboril, vice president for CRM and e-marketing at AT&T Broadband, Englewood, CO.
One important feature of the multi-stage CRM program is segment identification. MediaOne realized that 70% of its revenue eventually will come from segments not represented in its current base.
“We spent time understanding the database,” said Voboril, speaking yesterday during the National Center for Database Marketing conference.
Another big element was conversion to Rightpoint call center software, and to intelligent scripting. MediaOne’s call centers handle inbound sales and service calls, and outbound telemarketing.
Telephone agents are now able to call a customer’s record, and log in the reason for the call. They can also ask marketing related questions, which may determine which cross-sell products will be offered, said Larry Goldberg, senior director, Broadband Software, Natick, MA. Information is served up from an Oracle database.
This has vastly improved MediaOne’s segmentation capabilities. Normally, the firm performs three times better than random in predicting segment membership, according to Voboril. The addition of a few questions improve the rate to four to five times better than random. The call center improvements have also led to a 10 to 15% increase in cross selling.
MediaOne also deployed Market Switch, a channel optimization tool. It enabled the firm to instantly determine what the minimum and maximum offers should be, the cost per sale, and other factors.
This improvement produced an 11% up in telephone products, and the addition of several hundred incremental high-speed data customers. This is due, in large part, to the fact that the firm can now target by propensities.
But it’s a work in progress. Next year, MediaOne hopes to increase integration with its field sales force.
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