EE drives mobile phone deals with CRM software implementation
Mobile phone operator Everything Everywhere claims a 400% increase in phone deals after rolling out customer relationship management software
Mobile phone operator Everything Everywhere has claimed a 400% increase in mobile phone deals after rolling out customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Everything Everywhere is deploying the CRM technology to 11,000 customer agents in telesales and retail stores. The operator said he software helped it triple the value of its customers to the business.
The CRM software helped EE win valuable customers in an increasingly competitive mobile phone market, Suzanne Woolley, head of customer base management at EE, told an industry conference.
“Its great for EE. 90% of offers we sell in our service transactions are from our top three recommendations. We know our decision making is right. We are picking the right offers, picking relevant offers, and offers our customers are interested in,” she said.
The future was Orange
The bottom line
- 400% increase in number of offers to customers accepted;
- 4% less customer churn;
- £4 extra value generated by each new customer;
- 300% increase in retained value of customers;
- Integrated retail and telephone sales channels.
The project originated when Orange – which merged with T Mobile to form EE in 2010 – first began using Pegasystems's technology to help it manage customer phone upgrades in 2009.
But Orange limited its use to deals pushed out to customers, rather than deals offered to customers who phone, or walk into a high street store enquiring about upgrades.
“In the majority of our customer contacts we were not using it to its full advantage,” said Woolley speaking at the PegaWorld 2014 conference in Washington DC.
Automatic recommendations
Over the past 12 months, EE has been extending its use of the technology to help its agents select the best offers for customers no matter how they are approached.
The software takes into account a wide range of factors, including, the customer’s lifestyle, how they use the phone, their history, and their strategic value to EE, to automatically generate three recommended deals.
The project has simplified the recommendation process for the company’s sales agents, said Woolley.
And it has helped EE make finer judgements about the commercial value of its customers, allowing staff to offer special deals to customers it wants to keep.
“We drive consistency across our multiple partners, our multiple geographies and our very varied agents skill-set and specialisms, and we drive consistency across our channel.”
Cutting upgrade risk
Everything Everywhere
- First network to roll out 4G
- Formed in 2010 through merger of Orange and T mobile
- 27 million customers world wide
- 11000 customer agents in telesales and retail talking to customers every day
- 130 million customer interactions a year
One of the most critical times for EE is when customers upgrade their phone and are likely to shop around rival suppliers for better deals.
EE is using the technology to assess the contribution of customer, their risk of leaving, cost to service to create a tailored budget and handset recommendations for each customer.
“As conversations progress and we learn more about customer, and we go through the loop and we talk to the customer about their needs, we refine that personal recommendation,” she said.
Omni-channel approach to customer contact
EE is also using Pegasystems's technology to give its staff a single view of the customer, drawing together information about their transactions, however they contact the company.
“We can connect that conversation across all of those channels. So regardless of which channel you go in, your browsing history is there, the offers you have had presented to you that you are thinking about are there for any other agent to pick up,” she said.
Pegasystems has integrated its telephone and retail channels, and has plans to integrate its digital channels. Some 11% of upgrades now start in one channel and end in another, said Woolley.
“That is making it easy for an agent and easy for a customer - not to have to repeat giving all of their details is really important,” she said.
Business benefits
Over the last year, EE claims to have tripled the retained value of its customers.
“Not only are we retaining the right customers, and we are retaining more of them, we are growing their value. And that is really important, and that is key to success of the system, and its key to the acceptance of the tool we have had internally,” she said.
The technology has led to a 10% reduction in returns rate for phones, 5% reduction in churn for that product just and a 62% more value for EE overall, Woolley revealed.
