[June 2, 2004]

Customer Profile Management:

Learning From the Customer Builds a Smarter Business

BY STEVEN RODIN

The number of voice and data services available to customers who seek to �stay connected� is increasing dramatically and becoming more complex.  Telecommunications customers are using services such as text messaging, multimedia messaging, and personalized content delivery to make sure they never miss a beat. These services are being delivered to more types of mobile devices than ever before: Mobile phones, Blackberries, pagers,  PDAs, (define - news - alert) laptops, and mini PCs. Is it any wonder that the relationship between the customer and their service provider is becoming more complex?  

When customers receive multiple services on multiple devices, maintaining a high level of customer care becomes more challenging. To achieve a holistic view of the customer and the various ways they are using services, providers must tap into a wider variety of data sources than ever before, encompassing marketing, CRM, (define - news - alert) billing and data from other applications throughout the enterprise.

Linking disparate data sources and applications can become a costly endeavor, so how can the service provider raise the level of customer care to support these more complex relationships while keeping costs under control?  The answer lies in enabling customers to build a unique profile that allows the service provider to not only become smarter about how customers use their services, but drive more revenue and build customer loyalty in the process.

Customer Profile Management

Customer profile management empowers the customer by aggregating his or her various preferences and attributes, presenting it in a single profile for administration. The customer profile should not be viewed simply as the customer record in a CRM database. Rather, the profile is the aggregate of customer, billing, service and device characteristics that define the subscriber and the sessions that they initiate.

Considering all the potential variables for an account, it is clear why compiling one complete profile is so compelling to the customer. For example, a typical 3G (define - news - alert) profile may include the following parameters and many others:

• Account Information (name, address)

• Payment Information (credit card, postpaid, prepaid)

• Demographics (single, married)

• Basic Services (voice, internet)

• Enhanced Services (premium content, voicemail)

• Content Preference (sports, news, business)

• Handset Settings (GSM (define - news - alert) band, alarm, ring volume)

• WAP, (define - news - alert) GPRS, (define - news - alert) Internet Settings

For service providers to keep up with the increasing amount of available services and delivery options and still understand how customers use voice and data services, the customer must begin to organize and manage their own account and to buy and configure these complex services independently.  Thus, service providers must make it easy to do business online or through mobile devices, providing customer care on the customer�s terms.  Customers get more control over their interaction with their service provider but it also opens up many more options for promotions, content, and services for the service provider. 

One method of allowing customers to organize and manage their accounts is through account hierarchies.  An account hierarchy can be set up in a variety of ways � including parent and child accounts, personal and business accounts, prepaid and postpaid accounts or to manage different types of devices and content delivery services. 

For example, a customer may have a business account tied to a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) device where he receives email and expenses the charges on a monthly postpaid basis to his company.  In this example, the customer would likely activate his business profile during the day, which would ensure the correct device settings and content pushed to the device over the course of the working day.  

During evenings and weekends, the customer could make the business profile inactive by switching to his personal profile, where he has elected to receive personalized sports scores on his mobile phone and has set up a prepaid sub-account for his daughter�s mobile phone service.  In an account hierarchy, this customer can set up recurring or prepaid payments, check his daughter�s usage and add new personalized services for delivery to his mobile device. 

In the past, service providers turned to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications to manage this kind of data.  However, CRM applications manage customer information that the Customer Service Representative (CSR) needs, not the information that the customer needs.  By allowing customers to build dynamic profiles with flexible hierarchies, information is available to both the CSR and the customer.  In addition, customer profiles can act as the �single source of truth� for customer data for other applications and users. For example, multiple billing platforms and back-office applications can draw on and update customer information.

The result: the service provider knows down to the individual customer level how and when their customers use their services, while customers can still store and update information in the way that makes the most sense for them.

Taking Action on the Data

With new knowledge based on customer profiles, service providers can refine or launch new services and applications based on customer interest.  Providers can also cross-sell and up-sell services using personalized one-to-one marketing for the individual customer and delivered through the customer�s preferred device.

Using customer profile management, a carrier can use the knowledge gained about its subscribers (either preferences entered by the customer or observations made about what services the customer uses) to build special promotions aimed at increasing loyalty.

For example, a particular subscriber may sign up to receive stock updates and college basketball scores on his mobile handset. He may have also used his mobile phone to vote for the MVP of the Super Bowl or for an American Idol contestant. The carrier can use this information about this subscriber to predict the likelihood that this subscriber would participate in a promotion to pick the teams participating in the NCAA Final Four.

Service providers can offer promotions on new services or recommend rate plans to a customer, based on their typical usage or preferences.  They can also offer personalized and high value content, such as sports highlights in a multi-media message, Java games, or breaking news that are in line with the customer�s interests.  These types of intelligent messages can be delivered on demand, on a scheduled basis, or based on an event, such as adding a new account.

Impact to the Bottom Line

When a service provider can gain new information about its customers and the way that they use services, the benefits are clear.  Customer profile management allows service providers to improve their level of customer care by putting power in the hands of the customer and making it easier for customers to do business with their provider.  By allowing customers to manage their own services and preferences, it reduces the number of calls coming into the call center and in turn, reduces the cost of customer care.  Customer profile management also enables new channels for communication, interactive marketing, cross-selling and up-selling and delivers a new way for the provider to learn about their customers.

Taking action on a holistic customer profile as part of a comprehensive self care solution can enable the service provider to truly know the customer, provide higher levels of service, decrease costs, improve revenues and increase overall customer satisfaction, all by allowing the customer to manage their own account.

Steven Rodin serves as CSG Systems� executive director of product management.  As part of this role, Mr. Rodin combines solid business management principles with an intimate knowledge of technology, business development, systems integration, and the market for wireless and communications solutions.  Prior to joining CSG Systems, Mr. Rodin served as president and co-founder of Toronto-based Davinci Technologies Inc., which was acquired by CSG in January 2003.  While president of Davinci, Mr. Rodin assembled an exceptional team, began a successful expansion strategy to Europe, and succeeded by applying innovative technologies to solve business problems for many world-class customers.