Have you ever worked on a jigsaw puzzle? You have hundreds of pieces to painstakingly put together and somehow at the end it all fits to make a beautiful picture. Some people love the challenge and others could think of few things more painful. Either way, a jigsaw puzzle is an apt metaphor for the complexity of marketing to millions of individuals across multiple channels faced by organizations of all sizes.

So imagine putting all the pieces from three jigsaw puzzles together in the same box and then trying to make a beautiful, integrated picture. Sound like a tough challenge? That’s one way to consider what the Dutch media giant Ziggo faced when it was formed as the merger of three leading cable TV, internet and telephony services providers. Faced with several databases, data management systems and data sources, getting a clear view into customer data would require real work.

How have they made it work? At Ziggo, it’s all about getting a complete and integrated customer view. It’s about being relevant by finding the best-fitting inbound enticements with outbound offers. This way the company retains its customers longer and is more effective in its cross-sell and up-sell. Let’s take a closer look at their approach:

Start with the data
Ziggo today is integrating databases from various parts of the company into a single environment. The company is also doing a better job of tying the past and the present together to effect the future. For example, the marketing team can incorporate response data from previous e-mail campaigns to create a more complete customer view. “In the end it comes down to centralizing customer data and making it accessible through the different channels and processes,” says Carola Volman, Director Research & Customer Insights at Ziggo.

“There is still a lot to gain in the areas of data quality and getting the most out of existing and available data,” she adds. “We’ve taken quite a few steps – one is implementing SAS Data Quality Advanced – but there’s still plenty that can be improved on.”

The right enticements for inbound 
Today, viewers can access the Internet, their social media networks and even YouTube and Skype from their televisions. Those are channels media companies didn’t have to compete with before. To retain customers in such a competitive industry, Ziggo has to make sure that it’s offering its customers the right products and services.

“The contact center is a valuable channel for creating cross-sell and up-sell opportunities,” says Volman. “In the past, the relevance of the offer depended largely on the agent’s capabilities, knowledge and experience. When we looked at the metrics, it turned out there was a lot we could improve on. For instance, providing the contact center agent with a complete and up-to-date profile of the customer helps him decide which offer to present.”

SAS Marketing Automation and SAS Real-Time Decision Manager analyze information like the reason the customer is calling, his user profile, and spending and family composition and immediately display a personalized offer on the agent’s screen. The software also provides additional information, like specific advantages of the offer. Ziggo has increased conversion of inbound calls to revenue.

“Because of our success with contact center conversions, we’re applying the same approach to customers who contact us online - they also receive personalized offers,” she says.

The right offers for outbound
And why not apply a little software magic with outbound campaigns? That’s what Ziggo did.

“The information we get about our customers is constantly increasing and improving, and a strategy that optimizes that information will help us target our campaigns more accurately in outbound campaigns. We decided to rethink our entire marketing campaign strategy and include SAS Marketing Optimization,” Volman says. “Optimization can help us do a lot of great things. For instance, we can make sure that customers never get duplicate or competing offers. The software also gives our marketers insight into the effectiveness of their campaigns so that they can maximize their actions further.”

And Ziggo marketers can use predictive analytics to analyze past campaigns to determine the optimal number of touch points. “It is all a matter of finding a balance between optimal customer experience and costs and profitability. On the basis of all this, we determine which campaigns can best be deployed and when,” she explains.

Putting the pieces together
A complete and integrated customer view helps Ziggo engage in relevant communication with its customers and provide them with the best-fitting inbound and outbound offers. The company retains its customers longer and is more effective in its cross-sell and up-sell. For more details about this and other similar successful cases, please visit our customer stories page.

I’m confident that SAS Customer Intelligence software can help your company solve its marketing jigsaw puzzle.

Reach out and give us a call or drop us a line. And as always, thank you for following!