CASE STUDY TELSTRA EMERGE. What Customers Really Want.

Transcription

1 CASE STUDY TELSTRA EMERGE What Customers Really Want

2 CASE STUDY TELSTRA EMERGE 2 TEST MARKETING CENTER If ever a business has based itself around living, sleeping and breathing Customer Relationship Management (CRM), day in, day out, then Telstra emerge is that company. ABOUT TELSTRA EMERGE A core business unit of Australia s number-one telecommunications provider, Telstra, the emerge Center is an innovative and highly cost effective unit charged with testing Telstra s marketing campaigns, product innovations, service offerings and various price points. Working with precisely selected customer samples, this unit significantly saves Telstra marketing resource and investment costs up-front by advising early in a development process whether a particular offering meets market approval or not. Working with the customer feedback received, Telstra makes swift decisions regarding whether to modify an offering, go to market, or place it on the back burner. With a staff of 40 consultants, campaign managers, IT specialists and data analysts working around the clock to communicate with its customer-base, Telstra emerge relies heavily on having a wholly flexible, responsive, reliable CRM system in place to provide an intimate and immediate view of these customers. It believes it has found the answer with the Pivotal CRM solution. We work under intense time pressures during testing cycles and need to be able to act fast, turning around projects intelligently. Therefore, it has been critical we have a solid technology base supporting us to achieve these goals. Being able to precisely select samples of customers and to communicate with them in numerous ways is all part of the process. Pivotal CRM has certainly delivered for us in those respects, says Magdy Messiha, IT manager, Telstra emerge Center of Excellence. THE EARLY DAYS Before switching to Pivotal CRM, Telstra emerge s team used an incumbent system which proved inflexible, hampering its ability to perform at the level it desired. This solution was difficult to use it required us to have a multitude of native systems running concurrently. We had to alternate from screen to screen as we did not have customer information housed in one area. For each campaign we had to switch between a variety of databases, said Messiha. On reflection, it was a slow, difficult, immensely frustrating piece of technology. The team s stress levels were heightened as a result and it felt like a pressure-cooker environment. It sometimes felt as if it was working against us rather than with us, which was not ideal. SELECTING PIVOTAL CRM A TEAM DECISION Consequently, a decision was made to look elsewhere for a supportive alternative CRM solution and after researching alternatives on the market, Telstra emerge s team chose Pivotal CRM. We were impressed by the flexibility, efficiency and responsiveness it offered and the fact it could obviously handle our reporting requirements working with up to twenty million transactions per month. Pivotal CRM promised a fast, nimble CRM solution that would provide an intimate and single view of our customers, their purchase decisions, history with Telstra and opinions. There was also an increased comfort level for the team in that Pivotal was delivering results to many major corporations internationally, said Messiha. He stresses the importance of involving the entire team in the process of selecting and customizing a solution of this nature to derive optimal benefit.

3 CASE STUDY TELSTRA EMERGE 3 CRM is all about people and it is vital that the people who are going to use the solution are key players in the selection and implementation process. They need to understand its scope and how the technology will effectively change in a positive sense the way they approach their work and their customers. It s about mindset more than anything, explained Messiha. WORKING WITH PIVOTAL CRM As it tests different telecommunications offerings, the Center extracts customer information from a variety of native databases housed within Telstra s business units. Once it has transported customer information Telstra emerge ensures the data s future accuracy and currency by extracting updates from the native databases on a monthly basis. Working in this way for the past two years the unit has built up its database to include nearly 5.5 million customer records, with each record offering general customer details, summary billing, the products and services being currently used, as well as their usage history and any comments or feedback received from customers. Using Pivotal CRM s Contact Center technology, Telstra emerge communicates with customers on a multi-channel bases. It easily manages inbound and outbound calls for each campaign tested, as well as being able to , direct mail and contact customers via the web. Predominantly, the unit focuses on proactive communication, reaching out to customers however it also manages reactive communication responding to customer queries and requests about a particular campaign. The solution offers the flexibility to alter this communications mix at a whim and the Center can upscale resource to manage increased customer volume as required. Currently the Center makes around 4,000 outbound calls a week and achieves a contact rate of 50% on these calls. Pivotal CRM promised a fast, nimble CRM solution that would provide an intimate and single view of our customers, their purchase decisions, history with Telstra and opinions. There was also an increased comfort level for the team in that Pivotal CRM was delivering results to many major corporations internationally. Magdy Messiha IT Manager Telstra emerge Center of Excellence

4 CASE STUDY TELSTRA EMERGE 4 SEEING RESULTS IN REAL TIME Undoubtedly, Pivotal CRM has delivered on its promises in terms of its integration abilities, reporting requests, adaptability and customization, said Messiha. We have continued to raise the pole on our achievements since going with Pivotal CRM. From the outset, Pivotal CRM has impressed the team, from promising a swift implementation phase to meet Telstra emerge s pressing requirements, to locking into a fixed price contract, meaning there were no hidden surprises in that respect. In terms of realizing key benefits and efficiencies in the testing cycle, Pivotal CRM allows the team complete responsiveness during testing cycles. Campaign managers and coordinators are able to make telemarketing script changes on the fly, based on initial campaign trends and customer feedback. An additional benefit to the company as a whole is that when the team has down time between campaign cycles, it is able easily manage overflow in-bound calls from other business units, using Pivotal CRM to communicate with customers easily and effectively. Resource costs and downtime have been dramatically reduced now that in-house IT specialists are able to create customizations to suit each campaign s requirements. No longer do they need to bring in external consultants at all hours to customize the system. Furthermore, since Pivotal CRM s implementation, Telstra emerge has increased the number of campaigns it has been able to test by 100%, averaging 13 campaigns per year. Messiha attributes this to the fact that the team is now operating far more efficiently across a number of key areas. For instance, whereas previously campaigns took around 2-3 weeks to set up, with Pivotal CRM s streamlined approach the unit now only takes 2-3 days to set up. Costs associated with training team members have also been dramatically reduced. Much of this is to do with only needing to be proficient in the one system, not the range of native systems that were used historically to view and analyze data We have also found the Pivotal CRM scripting has reduced training time, as all our telemarketers are familiar with the script flow and navigation tools, which means training is focused on the product offering rather than internal processes. It is far more efficient and a far more streamlined approach, said Messiha. As a result of the efficiencies gained and the ease of using Pivotal CRM, the atmosphere within the team has altered accordingly. Team members are far more relaxed, knowing they have a complete sensible system supporting them in their day-to-day activity. ESTABLISHING THE UNIT S CRM CENTER In recent months, Telstra emerge has developed its own CRM Center, where it can demonstrate to other business units just how it uses Pivotal CRM to go about its work and what it does with the data it extracts from the various databases. This has helped achieved further buy-in and support from across Telstra in terms of solidifying the agreement of senior managers to share customer data with the unit. This has been an important project for us as we often need to gain consensus from a range of business unit managers to integrate data into our system and to use it in the way we wish to, said Messiha. Being able to show them exactly what we do has made great in-roads to building relationships across the company and we have excited these managers for the possibility of what we can do in the future. There are lots of plans in the pipeline for adding functionality and complexity to our solution. That s a major feature of Pivotal CRM as you use the technology, you realize what could be, and because of the way it is designed and implemented, it allows you to put that vision into action.

5 CASE STUDY TELSTRA EMERGE 5 RETURN ON INVESTMENT FOR TELSTRA EMERGE Pivotal CRM has: Increased efficiency within the business unit a smaller sized team is working far smarter, able to test more campaigns on an annual basis. Increased the number of campaigns being tested by 100% since its implementation. Enabled them to set up campaigns in a matter of days (2-3) as opposed to weeks (2-3), as it traditionally took them. Reduced time spent training team members they only have to be proficient in one system as opposed to a variety of native databases. This means they can focus on developing their expertise and proficiency rather than gaining generalist knowledge across a number of systems. The organizational culture is far more positive, energized, and satisfied. Levels of stress and frustration have been dissipated with levels of confidence in the technology and in their ability to perform under pressure rising dramatically. Less resource spent on external consultants to provide support and customize the technology. They are doing all of this in-house using internal IT specialists. More than 9,000 customers around the world rely on us to give them a competitive edge. By providing innovative, industry-driven enterprise application software, Aptean helps businesses to satisfy their customers, operate most efficiently, and stay at the forefront of their industry. For more information, visit. Copyright Aptean All rights reserved.