Cross Channel Winners
- Article 1 of 1
- Customer Solutions, December 2003
UK companies are now heavily involved in multi-channel contact centre implementations. Robert Buckley talks to three of them.
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Data integration projects ultimately belong where the most expertise and the best results lie – for the lowest cost. An organisation that understands both its own data and the resources necessary to unite all its data stores will often experience as many benefits, if not more, than those who outsource the entire process. But organisations that do not appreciate the problems involved in integration or the resources they will need to successfully achieve a single customer view are likely to spend more and achieve less than if they let the bureaux handle the job.
((BOX))Cresta Holidays
In many ways, tour operator Cresta Holidays is typical of most companies in its need for a data integration project. It had a database in constant use for mailing existing customers and prospects with information about new destinations and accommodation, and details about special offers. But it also had separate data feeds from its various touch-points, including phone, email and web site, that were not coming back into its marketing database, but remained in separate silos. As a result, there was a mass of incorrect data in the database that was resulting in duplication and wastage. Cresta was also unable to profile its data correctly, making its campaigns harder to target.
”It was vital that we identified trends and look-a-like customers, and have the ability to translate that knowledge into our direct marketing campaigns,“ explains Sally Whyte, direct marketing executive at Cresta.
The company decided it needed a single customer view, that would take in these separate data feeds to ensure that information was a current and correct as possible. But before it could deploy any such system, it needed to integrate the existing datasets together. After considering its in-house skillsets and the magnitude of the project, it decided that internal resources would be unable to complete the task. So Cresta decided to out-source the project.
It picked Identex, part of the WWAV Rapp Collins Group Europe, which had also helped develop its creative marketing campaigns. Identex had to create a single customer database and then populate it with cleansed and deduplicated data.
Identex was able to successfully develop a centralised 600,000-record database hosted at its headquarters for Cresta. The data feeds from Cresta’s touch-points now all feed into this database, which the marketing department is able to access using Indetex’s campaign management tool, Identex Campaigner, to get detailed management information, full return on investment feedback and campaign progress information.
Whyte says the benefits of the project have been great. ”We are now able to select specific segments depending on the type of holiday and profile a previous customer or prospect. But he immediate knock-on effect has been a considerable cost-saving, as we have been able to virtually eliminate wastage. This level of refinement is a major benefit for us.“
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