Redefining contact strategy from the customer perspective and winning

The Situation:

The company had never instituted governance over customer messages and marketing programs.  The result was a significant volume of promotional messages (~20-50 per month) sent to customers with little to no measurement plan and creative that was disconnected from the brand.  Every business team was creating campaigns to serve their business objectives, often without consideration of the customer experience.  Analysis showed a correlation between message volume and unsubscribe rate, as well as customer churn.

The Solution:

The first step was to install a governance structure to limit the number of promotional campaigns.  Part of governance included establishing business rules prioritizing campaigns based on the customer’s life stage.  This alleviated the risk of all messages targeting all customers.  The second step was to design a communication plan built around customer focused journeys.  Journeys are created based on moments that matter to the customer.  The third step was automating the campaigns to reduce the operational burden of manual list pulls and creative production.  A planned future enhancement was to use a decisioning engine to arbitrate the various campaigns based on individual customer behavior and attributes to deliver the right message or offer at the right time.

The Result:

• 71% reduction in YoY promotional message volume
• 2 bpts decline in unsubscribe rate
• 3 bpts decline in voluntary deactivation (churn)
• Consistent creative execution aligned with brand voice