Customer Engagement & MarTech

The customer lifetime value, which for a long time tended to be much more frequent in dissertations than in reality, is finding its way into practical application. The driving force is, in particular, the digital economy. The increasing distribution of the customer lifetime value opens up great opportunities for a targeted acquisition and management of customer relationships. However, it also exposes the fact that certain misunderstandings are widespread. For this blog, we have collected a few of them and contrasted them with the facts.

Starting Point

Price transparency, low barriers to switching and predatory competition – these are the main challenges energy suppliers have to overcome. The retention of new and existing customers and thus preserving the most valuable asset is a critical success factor in competition. Based thereon, the strategic objective of one of the world’s largest private electricity and gas businesses, leading in Germany, thus is: Do not lose more private customers than can be won, i.e. avoid terminations by customers.

In the following article you will get an overview of the different categories of Customer Data Platforms - based on the classification of David Raab from the Customer Data Platform Institute and further developed by the b.telligent experts on the subject of CDP.

German companies must venture a big step toward digital transformation and improvement of customer experience - this insight is evolving increasingly among decision-makers.  The reasons for this are manifold:

• The number of customer touch points is growing, and background data needs to be used correctly here.
• Customers' expectations are rising immensely.
• New technologies have entered the world of marketers.
• Common campaign management systems are very expensive to implement.
• As the tool landscape continues to grow, it is important to retain a overview.

CDP systems, existent in the USA since 2013, appear to be right on cue here. Whereas campaign management systems tending to be based on workflow often automate CRM-based campaign processes in relational data models, CDP systems allow comprehensive treatment ranging from customer-centric data management in big-data technologies to e-mail dispatch in real time, in order to optimize the customer interaction across all digital channels such as the web, e-mail, mobile communications, online shops and social networks.

At last: The starting shot for digitization strategy has been fired, and marketing is meant to be an important component of this strategy. In the course of implementation, a decision was made to use a customer data platform (CDP) to form a 360-degree customer view and automate marketing journeys in a real-time environment. This decision, in addition to an investment which is not small, has significantly influenced marketing processes and areas (online, e-mail, e-commerce and CRM) at an enterprise. In this third and last part of my CDP-series I would like to focus on the appropriate selection and evaluation of the suitable CDP-tool.

Unlike marketing automation solutions, a distinction is made not according to functional scope such as enterprise or best-of-breed, but according to the customer data platform's functional focus. In other words, the right kind of CDP can be selected already in advance, depending on how requirements are defined.

A total of three categories of customer data platform are distinguishable:

• Data CDP
• Analytics
• Engagement CDP

For many businesses, cross- and up-selling are among the most important objectives in customer management.When a customer calls a business, it seems to be the perfect time for cross- or up-selling activities.

• May any incoming call therefore equally be seen as potential for cross- and up-selling?
• And may cross- and up-selling also be successful if the customer has actually called in order to complain?
• Does success depend on how long the customer had to wait in the loop?

The Right Offer for the Right Customer at the Perfect Time

NBA meets NBA

A successful team in the American Basketball League NBA combines four crucial characteristics:

• the ability to work in a team
• scoring
• inspiration
• passing the ball to one another

But what does that have to do with the technical concept next best activity (NBA)? This question was discussed with the participants in the course of a workshop at the Call Center Association (Call Center Verband) Spring Conference 2013. The challenges for the implementation of an NBA concept were specifically identified and ideas for solutions were developed.

In order to successfully implement a campaign, it is important to be able to rely to a closed campaign planning process within the business. In case there is no such defined and uniform process, valuable potential is wasted and there is a risk that there will not be successes in the long term.