Keeping customers front and center isn't as easy as it sounds, especially when dealing with millions of personalization and preference elements.
A Fortune 100 MSO was looking for ways to improve their margins by better understanding their customer base. A large acquisition they’d recently completed only made the process more challenging. Systems had to merge. Processes needed to be streamlined. Profits needed to be protected. And, perhaps most importantly, they didn’t want to negatively impact customers in the process—a particular challenge when nearly 3 million customers from one company needed to be aligned with the other company’s highly personalized customer segmentation and data segmentation practices.
Because of Celerity’s experience in customer segmentation and personalization, as well as the relationships we had forged at the companies prior to the merger, we were called in to improve retention and align operational processes involving customer data so the two companies—and customer bases—could act as one.
Aligning the two customer data approaches under a single customer strategy
Celerity’s solution began with a gap analysis to ensure organizational alignment. It was crucial to understand the differences between the two companies’ customer data and the desired state of the combined company first. Only then could we define the new customer segmentation strategy.
Rather than just merge all the segmentation efforts from the two companies — an effort the company had tried unsuccessfully before on similar projects without Celerity — we determined the outcomes the new company wanted to achieve and defined segments that supported those outcomes. This approach helped identify which systems and processes needed to change, altering some initial assumptions and providing a clearer roadmap to success.
From development through training, our services spanned the breadth of people, process, and technology, including:
System changes
Celerity updated systems so they were able to store and retrieve operational segments at the point of customer interaction.
Process and training
We optimized operational processes and provided training materials to support alignment of workloads with the new customer data and segmentation strategy.
Data integrity
Celerity created a customized rules engine based upon business requirements to determine the segment for a given customer.
Audit and control
We established an automated audit process to detect anomalies and correct discrepancies so that data remains accurate over time.
Product development and deployment
To serve the new segmented customer base, we helped the company strategize and deploy new products, increasing revenue year over year.
Improving the customer experience, reducing call times and enabling future revenue growth
Data segmentation has enabled the tight organizational alignment the new entity needs to unite business operations with major customer segments so they can provide better customer service. Doing this also improves operating margins and efficiencies that benefit employees and customers alike. Customer experience is improved through the creation of an orchestrated, cross-channel customer strategy and customized customer support program. Other areas where Celerity helped improve the company’s business operations were:
- Enabling targeted product strategy and marketing to improve customer retention and upsell, including consideration of niche products for unique customer personas
- Monitoring customer and business performance with additional granularity
- Establishing data management principles and data governance standards to improve data integrity, including establishing KPIs by customer segment
- Bringing strategic focus to a misalignment of revenue and expense of over $250M by conducting a thorough review of internal business accounting and analysis of cost drivers
- Enabling a strategic business change projected to drive over $20M in incremental annual revenue
Thanks to the organizational alignment work Celerity performed, the combined entity is poised for accelerated growth with improved margins, a deep understanding of their customer base, and segments they can use to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction well into the future.
Before Celerity
One set of managing operations for millions of customers
Inefficient call routing led to high transfer volumes, overwhelming initial triage teams
No consistent process for auditing and correcting key revenue and service impacts on customer account information to perform billing assurance activities
Inconsistent training and operation across geographic areas, with as many as 10 variations of training materials
With Celerity
Different customer operations based on line of business and customer segmentation
Precise, automated call routing leads to faster resolution of customer issues
Dashboard views with emphasis on revenue assurance made possible through segment-specific differentiation
Consistency and standardization in key transactional system components, enabling easier training and operations from order processing and customer ops teams
Broadcast Media Company
User centered design
NOT-FOR-PROFIT LEADER IN DATA SOLUTIONS