A cellular service was experiencing high churn rates among high-value customers. Highest churn rates were seen from a 3- to 6-month window and then after one year. The client's acquisition costs needed customers to remain with provider for at least nine months for payout.
Solution
Targetbase created and implemented a multifaceted retention/win-back program using three core competencies.
Data Integration: Targetbase designed this program after spending only three weeks collecting key pieces of consumer information about the drivers of defection. During these three weeks of program planning, an analysis was made of the call behavior within a large sample of defectors and non-defectors from the client database. This exercise determined cancellations could be predicted based on call behavior and customer service inquiries.
Two weeks of customer service rep (CSRs) cancellation calls were analyzed by inserting a simple question within their script to understand reason for cancellation. This data was then utilized to validate the data mining work.
We also developed script changes for the CSRs when they were faced with a cancellation call, altering the previous "generic" save offer to an offer relevant to the customer's behavior segment and likely reason for defection.
The results of this work prioritized three primary customer segments where ROI would be highest if defection could be reduced. We also provided the two key drivers of defection by segment, allowing the utilization of the most effective, relevant win-back offers for our client's customers.
Business Intelligence: A defection model flagged potential future defectors based on actual usage versus plan and number of customer service calls. An outbound phone call was placed to these "flagged" potential defectors to measure their satisfaction with their plan and their service.
Consulting: Our Customer Management Consulting group provided the outbound CSRs with the "best available plan" to proactively switch these customers to a better plan, catching them before they became dissatisfied.
Results
- 12-month ROI for win-back program was over 600%.
- "Save" efforts reduced cancellations by over 20%.
